NORTH ASIAN PEOPLE

inhabitants of Siberia, the region of northern Russia. All of northern Asiafrom the Ural Mountains on the west to the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean on the east, and from the steppes of Kazakstan and Mongolia on the south to the Arctic Ocean on the northis encompassed in the region of Russia known as Siberia. This immense area presents a variety of climates and natural habitats but falls into three major zones: a fringe of arid or semiarid steppe on the south, a wide forested belt in the middle, and, along the northern edge, a band of tundra subject to permafrost and with numerous tidal rivers and lakes. The following material treats the peoples and cultures of Siberia. A further discussion of the circumpolar culture area that includes northern Siberia and the Arctic regions of Europe and North America appears in the article Arctic. Additional reading The culture and ethnology of peoples in Siberia are discussed and illustrated in Robin Milner-Gulland and Nikolai Dejevsky, Cultural Atlas of Russia and the Soviet Union (1989); Ronald Wixman, The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook (1984); Archie Brown, et al., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (1982); Zev Katz (ed.), Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (1975); M.G. Levin and L.P. Potapov (eds.), The Peoples of Siberia (1964; originally published in Russian, 1956), detailed information on traditional Siberian culture and economy, with sections on modern conditions; and Vilmos Diszegi and Mihly Hoppl (eds.), Shamanism in Siberia (1978). Stephen Porter Dunn Ethel Deikman Dunn The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica