WRITING WITHOUT LETTERS: INSCRIPTIVE PRACTICES IN TRANS-INDIGENOUS ARCTIC LITERACY HISTORY.

Did Arctic/Siberian Indigenous literacy history truly begin with the "introduction" of alphabetic writing by Russian missionaries and Soviet modernizers? This paper challenges that assumption by analyzing the cultures of non-alphabetic writing--specifically, the ideographic and pictographic signs and texts historically and contemporarily prevalent among Indigenous communities across Siberia and the Arctic. We focus particularly on the writing practices of Nenets, an Indigenous Samoyedic group in northern Eurasia, examining their use of signs, drawings, and various text forms. Reflecting on this history, we demonstrate how these practices are "trans-indigenous," in Chadwick Allen's terms, and how they have resisted various forms of colonial dominance while continuing to manifest in Indigenous everyday life. The paper is based on the authors' analysis of Indigenous novels, archival, and field materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]