The Pro Ethnologia issues of the Estonian National Museum are dedicated to short topic-based research papers by ethnologists in Estonia and elsewhere. This 2nd volume of Arctic Studies is based on Ob-Ugrians and Samoyeds - Khanty, Mansi, Nenets and Selkup peoples.

In his article "The Yamal Nenets in a Changing World" Liivo Niglas discusses the current cultural situation of the Nenets living in the Yamal peninsula. His thorough and exciting approach to the subject is mostly based on the material of fieldwork by L. Niglas collected from 1991 through 1997.

Art Leete's article "Ethnopolitical Comments About the Sacrificial Ceremony At Lake Num-To" is considering again the sacrifice of reindeer in April 1996 at Lake Num-To (as was his subject in the previous volume "Arctic Studies"). This article highlights the social and political aspects of the sacrificial ceremony, while the previous paper touched on, first of all, the traditional and sacred details of the ritual.

The fieldwork diary by Heno Sarv is compiled in his fieldwork trip among the Khanty people living in an area around the river Kazym in 1975. The author provides an exciting survey of Siberian native peoples' village lifestyle during the Soviet period.

Eva Toulouze examines in her article "The Development of a Written Culture by the Indigenous Peoples of Western Siberia" the development of writing of Ob-Ugric and Samoyed peoples in the 19th and 20th century. The article gives a historical survey of the development of writing in small ethnic groups inhabiting in Western Siberia and European part of Northern Russia in the context of intensive social-political changes.

At the conclusion there is an overview of the grant project "Cultural Identity of Arctic Peoples" of the Estonian Science Foundation, carried out at the Estonian National Museum during 1998-2001.

The editorial board thanks all the authors who have contributed to this issue and the Estonian Science Foundation whose help has been used in carrying out fieldwork that acted as a base for the two articles of this issue. In addition, grateful thanks to the Open Estonia Foundation, whose help has been essential in preparing the articles for this issue and its publication.

January 1999
Art Leete