Sacrifice as the Ideal Hunt: A Cosmological Explanation for the Origin of Reindeer Domestication

This article originally appeared in English as "Sacrifice as the Ideal Hunt: A Cosmological Explanation for the Origin of Reindeer Domestication" in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2015) 21:1–23 doi: 10. 1111/1467-9655.12142. Reprinted in Russian by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1467–9655.12142). Перевод публикуется с разрешения Издательства John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)На северо-востоке Сибири обнаруживаются удивительные параллели между космологическими представлениями охотников и оленеводов. Что это может дать нам для понимания перехода от охоты к пасторализму? В данной статье выдвигаются положения о структурной идентичности охоты и жертвоприношения и о доместикации северного оленя как следствии стремления охотников посредством жертвоприношения контролировать непредсказуемые вариации в процессе охоты. Охотник может практиковать свой этос "доверия" в отношениях с добычей только с помощью очень четко контролируемых ритуальных действ. Мы описываем два таких действа: знаменитый «медвежий праздник» в регионе Амурского Залива и праздник Священного Огня у эвенов. Оба являются отражением общей логики, в рамках которой жертвоприношение функционирует как идеальная охота. Животное при этом вовлекается в отношения не доминирования, но доверия, и в то же время подвергается процессу приручения. Поэтому мы высказываем предположение о том, что корни доместикации оленя могут быть обнаружены в первую очередь не в моделях экологической или экономической адаптации, а скорее в космологии

Sacrifice and the ideal hunt: A cosmological explanation for the origin of reindeer domestication

The Siberian Northeast shows striking parallels between the cosmologies of hunters and reindeer herders. What may this tell us about the transformation from hunting to pastoralism? This article argues for a structural identity between hunting and sacrifice, and for the domestication of the reindeer as the result of hunters’ efforts to use sacrifice to control the accidental variables of the hunt. Hunters can practise their ethos of ‘trust’ with prey only through highly controlled ritual enactments. We describe two: the famous bear festival of the Amur Gulf region and the consecrated reindeer of the Eveny. Both express the same overall logic by which sacrifice functions as an ideal hunt. The animal is involved in a relation not of domination but of trust, while also undergoing a process of taming. We therefore suggest that the origin of the reindeer’s domestication may be found not primarily in patterns of ecological or economic adaptations, but rather in cosmology

Remote Sensing of Environment Volume 85, Issue 4, 15 June 2003, Pages 441–452 Mapping land cover change in a reindeer herding area of the Russian Arctic using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery and indigenous knowledge

Much of Russia north of the treeline is grazed by reindeer, and this grazing has materially altered the vegetation cover in many places. Monitoring vegetation change in these remote but ecologically sensitive regions is an important task for which satellite remote sensing is well suited. Further difficulties are imposed by the highly dynamic nature of arctic phenology, and by the difficulty of obtaining accurate official data on land cover in arctic Russia even where such data exist. We have approached the problem in a novel fashion by combining a conventional multispectral analysis of satellite imagery with data on current and historical land use gathered by the techniques of social anthropology, using a study site in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO). A Landsat-7 ETM+ image from the year 2000 was used to generate a current land cover classification. A Landsat-5 TM image was used to generate a land-cover classification for 1988, taking due account of phenological differences and between the two dates. A cautious comparison of these two classifications, again taking account of possible effects of phenological differences, shows that much of the study area has already undergone a notable transformation to grass-dominated tundra, almost certainly as a result of heavy grazing by reindeer. The grazing pattern is quite heterogeneous, and may have reached unsustainable levels in some areas. Finally, we suggest that this situation is unlikely to be unique to our study area and may well be widespread throughout the Eurasian tundra zone, particularly in the west