Vladimir Davydov
The research of human-reindeer relations in southern Yakutiia and Northern Zabaikal’e
In 2013 I made 2 field trips: I worked in reindeer herders’ camps in Olekminskii region in
southern Yakutiia and visited a reindeer-herders camp near the Amudisy Lakes in the northern
Zabaikal’e. Additionally I made short trip to Northern Sakhalin Island. I visited these places in
mid-spring and in summer. The purpose of this research was to document socio-ecological
relationships and to investigate emplaced human-reindeer relations.
My primary interest is how people employ particular parts of landscape and various
constructions in reindeer domestication process and which strategies they use to get reindeer
back to the same places. An important signal of that animals became ‘closer’ to people is their
constant returns to a camp. I collected data how people try to facilitate these returns by feeding
reindeer with salt, making smudges and binding calves to stakes and poles. Reindeer herders
stressed the importance of binding calves to stakes, fences, structures and trees. People believe
that binding young reindeer to the stakes can make them ‘closer’ to people.
I argue that animal architecture cannot be studied separately from the landscape. The
ethnographic examples from the recent fieldwork show that reindeer herders may employ parts
of the landscape instead of stationary constructions. I intend to analyse the use of animal
architectures within the wide socio-political and ecological context. People intensively cross
borders of 3 regions, have relatives in neighboring regions and intensively exchange reindeer and
their experience. Evenki reindeer herders often adapted models which were imposed by the state
and started perceive them as traditional. Even though Soviet administrators introduced new
constructions, such as, for instance, long fences (Rus. gorod’ba), and perceived reindeer herding
as a certain and concrete strategy of human-animal patronage, the ethnographic examples show
that these structures serve not as the borders between ‘wild’ and ‘tame’ but rather people
pragmatically incorporated these structures into their way of life and these constructions help
people to build ‘trust’ and ‘companionship’
with animals. Buildings do not always separate
people from animals. My purpose is to see
how they help to build close relationships
between human and non-human agents. I am
interested in how a certain architecture-in-thelandscape becomes a part of relations between
people, wild and domestic reindeer and
predators where all these agents influence each other and the degree of remoteness or closeness
of animals to people is constantly changing.
Human-reindeer relations are never the relations attributed to one certain place, but to a
number of places such as summer and winter pastures, calving and rat territories. Furthermore,
these were always the relations on the move from place to place. Reindeer herding is based on
constant relocations of the herd from place to place, imply everyday short-term movements of in
order to bring animals to the camp and needs continuous reflection of reindeer and predators’
movements. On the one hand, animals periodically come back to a camp. On the other hand,
reindeer herders know the places of constant animals’ returns outside a camp that helps them to
find reindeer at certain places. Reindeer herding involves intensive walking: people walk many
kilometers per day in order to see the herd and bring reindeer to the camp. Reindeer herders are
very skillful in reflecting animals’ movements. They constantly try to kip in their mind the
direction where they can find reindeer. I plan to analyse domestication in dynamics in the
context of constant movements of people and animals from place to place. I approach it in
present tense as domestication-in-practice and domestication-on-the move which involves
constant returns to the same places.
During my fieldwork I paid particular attention to the local categories of ‘wild’ and
‘domestic’ and how people distinguish reindeer depending on their sex, age, character, color and
role they play in a herd. In Yakutiia and Zabaikal’e I documented the fact that people use
interbreeding of wild and domestic reindeer. People emphasised that a reindeer which has a
‘domestic’ mother and a ‘wild’ father may be ‘fully domesticated’ and his behavior would not be
different from others. At the same time I have observed that people paid a special attention to
these ‘half-wild’ reindeer. Reindeer herders consider some animals to be ‘wilder’ than others and
people call them ‘wild reindeer’. According to the informants, contemporary reindeer became
‘wilder’ because their diet is different now. They say that previously people used combined feed
which attracted reindeer to return to the same place. People have to invest a lot of efforts in order
a reindeer get used to return to the same places. Reindeer herders believe that if people will stop
looking after reindeer, they can become ‘wild’ again.
In March-April 2014 I plan to continue fieldwork in the northern Zabaikal’e to document
the calving period to collect data about the early stages of reindeer socialization. According to
informants, some reindeer herders in Zabaikal’e bond calves to structures during the first month
of their life. Then in summer I plan to do fieldwork among reindeer herders in the Taymyr
Peninsula in Krasnoiarskii krai (region). My purpose is to visit and document a number of places
such as summer and winter pastures, calving and hunting territories where people employ
particular architectures.