THE NORTH-SAMOYEDIC EPIC (SIBERIAN ARCTIC). HOW CAN A NEWLY AFFLUENT SOCIETY SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF ALLIANCE?

The north-samoyed epic describes an affluent pastoral society. The main problem of this imagined society is its perpetuation because the men have no need of material goods and therefore refuse to give their daughters for reindeers or furs. So, murderous conflicts systematically appear. A solution gradually emerges with an avenger son who reinvents a very simple shape of alliance: the direct exchange which avoids the problem of the "price of the woman." These epics are closely associated with the fast development of reindeer husbrandy in North Samoyed groups and imagine what would be a pastoral society having pushed to its limit a logic of accumulation.