Nastassja Martin Explained

Nastassja Martin (born 1986) is a French anthropologist and essayist. She specialises in the populations of the Far North.

Martin is known for her story Croire aux fauves (In the Eye of the Wild) in which she describes her attack by a bear.

Life

Martin was born in Grenoble. She studied anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales.^[1]

Martin joined the Gwich'in,^[2] a hunter-gatherer society, in Alaska, to complete a thesis under the supervision of Philippe Descola.^[3]

In 2016, she published Wild Souls, the story of her experience in Alaska with this population.^[4]

In August 2015, while she was in the mountains of Kamchatka, on the borders of Siberia, to carry out an anthropological study among the Evenes, Nastassja Martin was attacked by a bear. The animal disfigured her; she lost a piece of her jaw. Months of hospitalization followed in Russia, then in Paris. From this experience, she wrote a story which was released in October 2019. Croire aux fauves recounts her encounter with the bear, her rebirth and her animist vision of the world.^{[5] [6] [7]}

In 2020, she took part in a committee against a project to extend the ski area to La Grave and the Massif des Écrins.^[8]

Her book À l'est des rêves was published in 2022, sharing her anthropological approach.^[9]

Works

• Les Âmes sauvages : face à l'Occident, la résistance d’un peuple d’Alaska, Paris, La Découverte, 2016.
• Croire aux fauves, Paris, Verticales, 2019,
  • In the Eye of the Wild translator Sophie R. Lewis. New York Review Books, 2021. ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]}
• À l'Est des rêves, La Découverte, 2022.

References

1. Web site: Nastassja Martin . 2022-10-18 . las.ehess.fr . fr.
2. Web site: Calvet . Catherine . Nastassja Martin : "Je ne présentais pas une menace" . 2022-10-18 . Libération . fr.
3. News: 2019-11-07 . " Croire aux fauves ", de Nastassja Martin : l’étreinte de l’ours . fr . Le Monde.fr . 2022-10-18.
4. Web site: Descamps . Philippe . 2016-08-01 . Les âmes sauvages. Face à l'Occident, la résistance d'un peuple d'Alaska . 2022-10-18 . Le Monde diplomatique . fr.
5. Web site: 2019-11-18 . Nastassja Martin: "Il faut repenser le vivant qui est lui-même en train de se repenser" . 2022-10-18 . France Culture . fr.
6. Web site: 2019-12-17 . Nastassja Martin, la femme qui a failli se faire dévorer par un ours . 2022-10-18 . L'Obs . fr.
7. Web site: 2021-11-30 . In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin review – life after being ‘kissed’ by a bear . 2022-10-18 . the Guardian . en.
8. News: 2020-08-02 . Le tournant écopolitique de la pensée française . fr . Le Monde.fr . 2022-10-18.
9. News: 2022-10-16 . Nastassja Martin : " Faire sortir l’anthropologie des cénacles fermés " . fr . Le Monde.fr . 2022-10-18.
10. News: 2021-11-24 . ‘In the Eye of the Wild,’ a Haunting Memoir About Life After a Bear Attack . en . 2022-10-18.
11. Web site: 2021-12-03 . Learning to Love the Bear That Attacked You . 2022-10-18 . The New Yorker . en-US.
12. Web site: In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin . 2022-10-18 . www.publishersweekly.com.
13. Web site: Anthropologist encounters bear — but this is not your usual bear story . 2022-10-18 . Anchorage Daily News . en.