“Human – animals – landscape” links in reindeer herding and hunting
Konstantin Klokov
The research aim is to compare several reindeer herding and hunting communities in tundra
and mountain taiga from the point of view of links between:

herders and domesticated reindeer

herders/hunters and wild reindeer

herders/hunters and dogs (when dogs are used for herding and hunting)

wild and domesticated reindeer

reindeer and landscape

herders/hunters communities and their environment (in general context)
The additional aim is to compare local knowledge (using interview texts) with texts on
“human-animals-landscape” relationship in herder/hunter communities written by specialists
(ethnologists, veterinarians, etc.).
The methodology includes interviews with herders and hunters in several Siberian
communities, field mapping of herding hunting sites using GPS navigators, and content analyses
of written texts and interviews.
In 2013 I made two short case studies and done interview with:
a)
9 Tofalars hunters and herders in Alygsher village in Central Saiany
Mountain Ridge (Southern part of Irkutsk oblast’) in May 2013;
b)
15 Nenets reindeer herders and specialists related with reindeer herding in
Iar-Sale and Siunai-Sale villages in Southern of Iamal Peninsula in July 2013.
Interviews with Tofalars and Nenets were focused mostly on following topics:
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land-use places and seasonal migration ways of reindeer herds,
reindeer training for transport use,
dog training for reindeer herd managing and hunting,
milking of reindeer (in Tofalaria),
individual features and names (bynames) of reindeer,
ways to distinguish reindeer from different geographical areas,
reindeer breeds, local reindeer groups, and reindeer stock breeding.
Interviews gave the possibility to reveal specific features of human altitude toward reindeer
and dogs during the training as well as during the reindeer herd management and transport use of
reindeer.
I tried to make several preliminary hypothetic conclusions:
Although reindeer herding of Nenets in tundra and Tofalars in mountain taiga strongly
differ it is possible to reveal several common features of human-animal relations in both
communities.
First, there are similar approaches to indentify and to distinguish individual animals. Only
the most experienced herders can indentify all animals in their herd by sight. Majority of herders
know by sight only some of reindeer, especially animals used for sledges, adult males, and
females. Both Nenets and Tofalars use bynames describing the most characteristic features of
reindeer exterior or its behavior. The same approach Nenets use to name theirs dogs.
Second, Nenets and Tofalars have similar approach to reindeer and dogs training.
According their point of view to train reindeer or dog does not mean to teach the animal to do
something new, but only to make it quiet and to let it to do what it is able to do from its birth.
Another possibility is to let the older and more experienced animal to teach the younger one. So,
to train a young reindeer to work as a transport animal herder put it between two more
experienced reindeer: either in a team pulling a sledge (in Iamal), either in a row of pack bearing
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reindeer (in Tofalaria). Usually a herdsman let a young dog manage a reindeer herd only in
tandem with another old and more experienced dog. Sometimes, he even tied the young and old
dogs with a rope.
Appendix
Contents of two field reports (in Russian):
Report 1 on field work in Iar-Sale and Siunai-Sale villages (Southern Iamal) in July 2013
(by Konstantin Klokov)
Background
Main institutional types of reindeer husbandry
Geographical distribution of reindeer husbandry in Iamal Peninsula
Herders’ migrations
Herd management
Seasonal treatment of herd (calving period, cutting of velvet antlers, ear marking,
veterinarian assistance)
Geographic variation and individual features of reindeer, sings of good reindeer, bynames
Training of reindeer for sledge
Reindeer stock breeding (in Soviet time and today)
Some additional remarks on today herders’ life (food, using of snowmobiles and satellite
mobile phones)
Dogs
Reindeer dogs training
How herder work with his dogs
How herder mandate his dog
How herder kill an old dog
Selection of dogs for breeding
Sled dogs
Dog bynames
List of informants
Report 2 on field work in Alygzher village (Southern part of Irkutsk area) in May 2013
(by Konstantin Klokov)
Background
Brief historical background
Tofalar reindeer herding today
seasonal works,
calving and milking,
traditional using of reindeer milk,
using of reindeer as transport,
training of reindeer for pack bearing and riding
reindeer individual features and bynames
List of Tofalar words used by herders today
Local knowledge on wild reindeer
Training of hunting dog
List of informants
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