Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Domestication as Enskilment: Harnessing Reindeer in Arctic Siberia

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study of reindeer domestication provides a unique opportunity to examine how domestication involves more than bodily changes in animals produced through selection. Domestication requires enskilment among humans and animals, and this process of pragmatic learning is dependent on specific forms of material culture. Particularly with the domestication of working animals, the use of such material culture may predate phenotypic and genetic changes produced through selective breeding. The Iamal region of Arctic Siberia is generating an increasingly diverse set of archeological data for reindeer domestication that evidences such processes. Three early sites, Ust’-Polui, Tiutei-Sale I, and Iarte VI, contain artifacts proposed to be parts of headgear worn by transport reindeer, the earliest dating to just over 2000 years ago. Contemporary Nenets reindeer herders scrutinized replicas of these archeological objects, and comparisons with historic reindeer harness parts from Arctic Russia were also made. Nenets consistently interpreted barbed L-shaped antler pieces from Iamal as parts of headgear for training young reindeer in pulling sleds. Some types of swivels were also interpreted as transport reindeer headgear. Based on these consultations with Nenets and observations of their ongoing reindeer domestication practices, we argue that material things such as headgear, harnesses, and sleds are not merely technological means of using or controlling reindeer in transportation but instead were part of the meshwork within which some reindeer became enskilled to being domestic. Domestication of reindeer and other animals involves ongoing efforts, landscapes, and made things, all of which form the environment within which domestic relationships emerge.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abondolo, D. (Ed.). (1997). The Uralic languages. Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adrianov, A. V. (1888). Puteshestvie v Altai i za Saiany, sovershennoe v 1881. Zapiski IRGO po Otdeleniiu Geografii, 149–422.

  • Adrianov, V. S. (1936a). Raskopki u Sale-Kharda v 1935. Sovetskaia Arkheologiia, 1, 278.

  • Adrianov, V. S. (1936b). Resiume doklada “Razvedochnaia raskopka v ust’e reki Poluia u g. Sale-Kharda”. Otchetnaia Arkheologicheskaia sessiia Instituta Antropologii, Arkheologii i Etnografii Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1–4.

  • Adrianov, V. S. (1936c). Pamiatniki drevnego poseleniia. Sovetskaia Arktika, 8, 111–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aleksashenko, N. A. (2004). Kostianye izdeliia gorodishcha Iarte-VI. In I. F. Kiriushin & A. A. Tishkin (Eds.), Kompleksnye issledovaniia drevnikh i traditsionnykh obshchestv Evrazii (pp. 346–351). Barnaul: AGU.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aleksashenko, N. A. (2006). Kostianye izdeliia Ust’-Poluia iz sobraniia MAE RAN (resul’taty trasologicheskogo izucheniia). In G. A. Khlopachev (Ed.), Svod Arkheologicheskikh Istochnikov Kunstkamery (Vol. 1, pp. 265–301). Sankt-Petersburg: MAE RAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexashenko, N. A. (Ed). (2003). Ust-Polui: 1st Century BC. St. Petersburg: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, RAS.

  • Allentuck, A. (2015). Temporalities of human-livestock relationships in the late prehistory of the southern Levant. Journal of Social Archaeology, 15(1), 94–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, D. G. (2006). Is Siberian reindeer herding in crisis? Living with reindeer fifteen years after the end of state socialism. Nomadic Peoples, 10(2), 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, D. G., Ineshin, E. M., Kulagina, N. V., Lavento, M., & Vinkovskaya, O. P. (2014). Landscape agency and Evenki-Iakut reindeer husbandry along the Zhuia River, Eastern Siberia. Human Ecology, 42(2), 249–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, D., Loovers, J. P. L., Schroer, S. A., & Wishart, R. P. (2017a). Architectures of domestication: on emplacing human-animal relations in the north. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 23(2), 398–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, D. G., Kvie, K. S., Davydov, V. N., & Røed, K. H. (2017b). Maintaining genetic integrity of coexisting wild and domestic populations: Genetic differentiation between wild and domestic Rangifer with long traditions of intentional interbreeding. Ecology and Evolution, 7(17), 6790–6802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, D. G., Harrault, L., Milek, K. B., Forbes, B. C, Kuoppamaa, M., & Plekhanov, A. V. (2019). Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the IA͡mal peninsula, Northwest Siberia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 55, 101079.

  • Anderson, O. (2011). Reindeer-herding cultures in northern Nordland, Norway: methods for documenting traces of reindeer herders in the landscape and for dating reindeer-herding activities. Quaternary International, 238(1-2), 63–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. (Ed.). (1986). The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appelgren-Kivalo, H. (Ed.). (1931). Alt-Altaische Kunstdenkmliler. Briefe und Bildermaterial von J. R. Aspelins Reisen in Sibirien und der Mongolei, 1887–1889. Helsingfors: Finnische Altertumsgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronsson, K. -Å. (1991). Forest reindeer herding A.D. 1-1800. An archaeological and palaeoecological study in Northern Sweden. Vol. 10. Umeå: University of Umeå.

  • Bachura, O. P., Kosintsev, P. A., Gimranov, D. O., Korona, O. M., Nekrasov, A. E., & Panteleev, A. P. (2017). Ust’-Polui: khoziaistvennaia deiatel’nost’ naseleniia i prirodnoe okruzhenie. In A. V. Gusev & N. V. Fedorova (Eds.), Ust’-Polui: materialy i issledovaniia. Arkheologiia Arktiki, Vol. 4, Part 1 (pp. 81–99). Ekaterinburg: Deloviaia Pressa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baskin, L. M. (2000). Reindeer husbandry/hunting in Russia. Polar Research, 19(1), 23–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergerud, A. T. (1996). Evolving perspectives on caribou population dynamics, have we got it right yet? Rangifer, 16(9), 95–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogoraz, V. G. (1901). Ocherk material’nogo byta olennykh Chukchei. Sbornik muzeia po antropologii i etnografii (Vol. II). Imperatorskaia Akademiia Nauk: Sankt-Peterburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boivin, N. (2008). Material cultures. Material minds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bökönyi, S. (1969). Archaeological problems and methods of recognizing animal domestication. In P. J. Ucko & G. Dimbley (Eds.), The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals (pp. 219–229). London: Duckworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briffa, K. R., Melvin, T. M., Osborn, T. J., Hantemirov, R. M., Kirdyanov, A. V., Mazepa, V. S., Shiyatov, S. G., & Esper, J. (2013). Reassessing the evidence for tree-growth and inferred temperature change during the Common Era in Yamalia, northwest Siberia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 72, 83–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brusnitsina, A. G., & Oshchepkov, K. A. (2000). Pamiatniki arkheologii srednego Iamala (levoberezh’e nizhnego techeniia r. Iuribei). In A. V. Golovnev (Ed.), Drevnosti Iamala, Vol. 1 (pp. 79–111). UrO RAN: Ekaterinburg-Salekhard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chernetsov, V. N. (1935). Drevniaia primorskaia kul’tura na poluostrove Iamal. Sovetskaia Etnografiia, 4-5, 109–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chernetsov, V. N. (1957). Nizhnee Priob’e v I tysiacheletii nashei ery. In Materialy i Issledovania po arkheologii SSSR (pp. 136–352). Moskva: AN SSSR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chernetsov, V. N., & Moszyńska, W. (1974). Prehistory of Western Siberia. Anthropology of the north: Translations from Russian sources. Number 9. Montreal: Arctic Institute of North America. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, J. (1989). The walking larder: Patterns of domestication, pastoralism, and predation. In London. Boston: Unwin Hyman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colson, K. E., Mager, K. H., & Hundertmark, K. J. (2014). Reindeer introgression and the population genetics of Caribou in southwestern Alaska. Journal of Heredity, 105(5), 585–596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davydov, V., & Klokov, K. (2018). Dogs, reindeer and humans in Siberia: threefold synergetic in the northern landscape. In R. J. Losey, R. P. Wishart, & J. P. L. Loovers (Eds.), Dogs in the north: Stories of cooperation and co-domestication (pp. 45–60). London: Routledge Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Devlet, M. A. (1965). Bol’shaia Boiarskaya pisanitsa. Sovetskaia Arkheologiia, 3, 124–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devlet, M. A. (1976). Bol’shaia Boiarskaia pisanitsa. Moskva: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’iachenko, V. I. (2005). Okhotniki vysokikh shirot: Dolgany i severnye Iakuty. Saint-Petersburg: Evropeiskii Dom.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedorova, N. V. (2000). Olen’, sobaka, kulaiskii fenomen i legenda o Sikhirtia. In A. V. Golovnev (Ed.), Drevnisti Iamala (Vol. 1, pp. 54–66). Ekaterinburg-Salekhard: UrO RAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedorova, N. V. (2006). Kaslanie dlinoi v dve tysiachi let: chelovek i olen' na severe Zapadnoi Sibiri. Ural’skii Istoricheskii Vestnik, 14, 149–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedorova, N. V., & Gusev, A. V. (2008). Drevnee sviatilishche Ust’-Polui: resul’taty issledovanii 2006-2008. Ust’-Polui – drevnee sviatilishche na poliarnom kruge. Nauchnyi Vestnik IaNAO, 9(61), 3–36.

  • Fedorova, N. V., Kosintsev, P. A., & Fitzhugh, W. W. (1998). “Ushedshie v kholmy”: kul’tura naselenii poberezhii severo-zapadnogo Iamala v zheleznom veke. Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo Ekaterinburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzhugh, W. W. (1992). Yamal to Greenland: Global connections in circumpolar archaeology. In B. Cunliffe, W. Davies, & C. Renfrew (Eds.), Archaeology: The widening debate (pp. 91–142). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, B. C., Stammler, F., Kumpula, T., Meschtyb, N., Pajunen, A., & Kaarlejärvi, E. (2009). High resilience in the Yamal-Nenets social–ecological system, West Siberian Arctic, Russia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 106(52), 22041–22048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friesen, M., & Mason, O. K. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golovnev, A. V. (1998). Drevnii Iamal v kontekste mifologii i arkheologii. Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie, 2, 101–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golovnev, A. V. (2004). Kochevniki tundry: Nentsy i ikh fol'klor. Ekaterinburg: UrO RAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golovnev, A. V., Garin, N. P., & Kukanov, D. A. (2016). Reindeer herders of Iamal (research materials for the Atlas of Nomadic Technology). Ekaterinburg: UrO RAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gosselain, O. P. (2016). To hell with ethnoarchaeology! Archaeological Dialogues, 23(2), 215–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gusev, A. V. (2014). Kompleks predmetov, sviazannykh s olenevodstvom, po materialam sviatilishcha Ust’-Polui (Nizhnee Priob’e). Ural’skii Istoricheskii Vestnik, 2(43), 53–62.

  • Gusev, A. V., & Fedorova, N. V. (2012). Drevnee sviatilishche Ust’-Polui: konstruktsii, deistviia, artefakty. Itogi issledovanii planigrafii i stratigrafii pamiatnika: 1935–2012 gg. Salekhard: Severnoe Izdatel’stvo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gusev, A. V., & Fedorova, N. V. (Eds.). (2017). Ust’-Polui: Materialy i issledovaniia. Arkheologiia Arktiki, Vol. 4, Parts 12. Ekaterinburg: Deloviaia Pressa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gusev, A. V., Plekhanov, A. V., & Fedorova, N. V. (2016). Olenevodstvo na Severe Zapadnoĭ Sibiri: rannii zheleznyi vek – srednevekov'e. Arkheologiia Arktiki, 3, 228–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haakanson, S. D. (2000). Ethnoarchaeology of the Yamal Nenets: utilizing emic and etic evidence in the interpretation of archaeological residues. Ph.D. dissertation: Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennessy, K., Lyons, N., Loring, S., Arnold, C., Joe, M., Elias, A., & Poliak, J. (2013). The Inuvialuit Living History Project: digital return as the forging relationships between institution, people, and data. Museum Anthropology Review, 7(1–2), 44–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodder, I. (2012). Entangled: an archaeology of the relationships between humans and things. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Honkola, T., Vesakoski, O., Korhonen, K., Lehtinen, J., Syrjänen, K., & Wahlberg, N. (2013). Cultural and climate changes shape the evolutionary history of the Uralic languages. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 26(6), 1244–1253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iakovlev, I. A. (Ed.). (2014). Niaksimvol. Tomsk-Khanty-Mansiinsk: TGU i Tsentr Okhrany Kul’turnogo Nasledia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, T. (2013). Making: anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ingold, T. (2018). Five questions of skill. Cultural Geographies, 25(1), 159–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kardash, O. V. (2011). Gorodok Sikhirtia v bukhte Nakhodka. Pervye resul’taty i issledovania. Ekaterinburg-Neftiugansk: Instititut Arkheologii Severa i AMB.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kardash, O. V. (2013a). Nadymskii Gorodok kniazei Bol’shoi Karachei. Ekaterinburg-Salekhard: Magellan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kardash, O. V. (2013b). Poluiskii Mysovoi Gorodok kniazei Taishinykh. Ekaterinburg-Salekhard: Magellan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kardash, O. V., & Vizgalov, G. P. (2015). Gorodok Monkys’ Urii: K istorii naseleniia Bol’shogo Iugana v XVI-XVII vekhak (po resul’tatam kompleksnogo issledovaniia) (Vol. 1). Ekaterinburg: Gruppa Karavan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson, N. (2004). Soil studies and historical archaeology: a discussion on Forest Saami settlements. Current Swedish Archaeology, 12, 105–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khomich, L. V. (1966). Nentsy. Istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki. Moskva-Leningrad: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khlobystin, L. P., & Pitul'ko, V. V. (1996). Mnogosloinoe poselenie Mys Vkhodnoi. In Drevnosti Russkogo Severa (pp. 123–133). Vologda: Ardvisura.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kintigh, K. W., Altschul, J., Beaudry, M., Drennan, R., Kinzig, A., Kohler, T., et al. (2014). Grand challenges for archaeology. American Antiquity, 79(1), 5–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klokov, K. B. (2011). National fluctuations and regional variation in domesticated reindeer numbers in the Russian North: possible explanations. Sibirica, 10(1), 23–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Korolev, I. G., & Khlobystin, L. P. (1969). Iorkutinskaia stoianka na poluostrove Iamal. KSIA, 115, 79–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krupnik, I. (1993). Arctic adaptations: Native whalers and reindeer herders of Northern Eurasia. Hanover: University of Press of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuruptev, A. (1927). Okhota na dikogo olenia. Priroda i Liudi Severa, 1, 34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyzlasov, L. R. (1952). Drevneishee svidetel’stvo ob olenevodstve. Sovetskaia Etnografiia, 2, 39–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, G., & Burger, J. (2013). A population genetics view of animal domestication. Trends in Genetics, 29(4), 197–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J. (1990). The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding. In J. W. Stigler, R. A. Shweder, & G. Herdt (Eds.), Cultural psychology: essays on comparative human development (pp. 309–327). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Laufer, B. (1917). The reindeer and its domestication. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, 4(2), 91–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, M. G., & Potapov, L. P. (1961). Istoriko-etnograficheskii atlas Sibiri. Moskva-Leningrad: Izd-vo Akademii Nauk SSSR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lien, M. E. (2015). Becoming salmon. Aquaculture and the domestication of a fish. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loovers, J. P. L. (2015). Dog-craft. Hunter Gatherer Research, 1(4), 387–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losey, R. J., Fleming, L. S., Nomokonova, T., Gusev, A. V., Fedorova, N. V., Garvie-Lok, S., et al. (2017). Human and dog consumption of fish on the Lower Ob River of Siberia: Evidence for a major freshwater reservoir effect at the Ust’-Polui site. Radiocarbon, 60, 239–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losey, R. J., Nomokonova, T., Gusev, A. V., Bachura, O. P., Fedorova, N. V., Kosintsev, P. A., & Sablin, M. V. (2018). Dogs were domesticated in the Arctic: culling practices and dog sledding at Ust’-Polui. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 15, 113–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lukina, N. V. (1985). Formirovanie material’noi kul’turnoi kul’tury Khantov. Tomsk: TGU.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mager, K. H., Colson, K. E., & Hundertmark, K. J. (2013). High genetic connectivity and introgression from domestic reindeer characterize northern Alaska caribou herds. Conservation Genetics, 14(6), 1111–1123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maksimov, A. N. (1928). Proiskhozhdeniia olenevodstva. Ucheniie Zapiski, 6, 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClure, S. B. (2015). The pastoral effect. Current Anthropology, 56(6), 901–910.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNiven, I. J. (2016). Theoretical challenges of indigenous archaeology: setting an agenda. American Antiquity, 81(1), 27–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moshinskaia, V. I. (1953). Material’naia kul’tura i khoziastvo Ust’-Poluia. Moskva-Leningrad: MIA # 35.

  • Moshinskaia, V. I. (1965). Arkheologicheskie pamiatniki severa Zapadnoi Sibiri. Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov. Moskva: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moszyńska, W. (1974). The material culture and economy of Ust-Poluy. In V. N. Chernetsov & W. Moszyńska (Eds.), Prehistory of Western Siberia (pp. 75–112). Arctic Institute of North America: Montreal.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Murygin, A. M. (1992). Pechorskoe Priural’e: epokha srednevekov’ia. Moskva: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nieminen, M., & Helle, T. (1980). Variation in body measurements of wild and semi-domestic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in Fennoscandia. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 17, 275–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niinimäki, S., & Salmi, A.-K. (2016). Entheseal changes in free-ranging versus zoo reindeer—observing activity status of reindeer. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26(2), 314–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nomokonova, T., Losey, R. J., Plekhanov, A. V., & McIntyre, H. J. (2018). Iarte VI and Late Holocene remains from the Iamal peninsula of Arctic Siberia. Arctic Anthropology, 55(2), 56–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, B. (2010). In defense of things. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pálsson, G. (1994). Enskilment at sea. Man, New Series, 29(4), 901–927.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plekhanov, A. V. (2014). Iarte VI – srednevekovoe “gorodishche” na r. Iuribei (p-ov Iamal). Katalog kollektsii. Ekaterinburg: Delovaia Pressa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podkorytov, F. M. (1995). Olenevodstvo Iamala. Leningrad: Tipografiia Lenigradskoi Atomnoi Elektrostantsii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pomishin, S. B. (1990). Proiskhozhdenie olenevodstva i domestikatsiia severnogo olenia. Moscow: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popov, A. V. (1935). Olenevodstvo u Dolgan. Sovetskaia Etnografiia, 4-5, 184–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popov, A. A. (1948). Nganasany: material’naia kul’tura. Moskva-Leningrad: Akademiia Nauk SSSR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puputti, A.-K., & Niskanen, M. (2008). The estimation of body weight of the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) from skeletal measurements: preliminary analyses and application to archaeological material from 17th- and 18th-century northern Finland. Environmental Archaeology, 13(2), 153–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Røed, K. H., Flagstad, Ø., Nieminen, M., Holand, Ø., Dwyer, M. J., Røv, N., & Vilà, C. (2008). Genetic analyses reveal independent domestication origins of Eurasian reindeer. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 275, 1849–1855.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Røed, K. H., Bjørnstad, G., Flagstad, Ø., Haanes, H., Hufthammer, A. K., Jordhøy, P., & Rosvold, J. (2014). Ancient DNA reveals prehistoric habitat fragmentation and recent domestic introgression into native wild reindeer. Conservation Genetics, 15(5), 1137–1149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Røed, K. H., Kvie, K. S., Losey, R. J., Kosintsev, P. A., Hufthammer, A. K., Dwyer, M. J., et al. (in press). Temporal and structural genetic variation in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) associated with the pastoral transition in Northwestern Siberia. Ecology and Evolution.

  • Russell, N. (2011). Social zooarchaeology: Humans and animals in prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Salmi, A. K., & Niinimäki, S. (2016). Entheseal changes and pathological lesions in draught reindeer skeletons – four case studies from present-day Siberia. International Journal of Paleopathology, 14, 91–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shackelford, L., Marshall, F., & Peters, J. (2013). Identifying donkey domestication through changes in cross-sectional geometry of long bones. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(12), 4170–4179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shiiatov, S. G., & Khantemirov, R. M. (2000). Dendrokhronologicheskaia datirovka drevesiny kustarnikov iz arkheologicheskogo poselenia Iarte VI na poluostrove Iamal. In A. V. Golovnev (Ed.), Drevnisti Iamala (Vol. 1, pp. 112–122). Ekaterinburg-Salekhard: UrO RAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shramko, B. A. (1988). Detali olen’ei upriazhi v Skiffii. Sovetskaia Arkheologiia, 2, 233–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siazi, A. M. (2005). Uzory severnogo siianiia. Samodiiskie narody. Vol. II. Salekhard-St. Petersburg: Artvid, Russkaia Kollektsiia.

  • Smith, B. D. (2006). Niche construction and the behavioral context of plant and animal domestication. Evolutionary Anthropology, 16, 118–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokolova, Z. P. (1987). K proiskhozhdeniiu Obskikh Ugrov i ikh fraktorii (po dannym fol’klora). In I. N. Gemuev & A. M. Sagalaev (Eds.), Traditsionnye verovaniia i byt narodov sibiri XIX - nachalo XX veka (pp. 118–133). Novosibirsk: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stammler, F. (2005). Reindeer nomads meet the market: culture, property and globalisation at the “end of the land”. Halle studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia (Vol. 6). Münster: LIT Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stépanoff, C. (2017). The rise of reindeer pastoralism in Northern Eurasia: human and animal motivations entangled. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 23(2), 376–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Storli, I. (1996). On the historiography of Sami reindeer pastoralism. Acta Borealia, 13(1), 81–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sukhanovskii, A. (2009). Olennye liudi. St. Peresburg: SK-Rossiia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swanson, H. A., Lien, M. E., & Ween, G. B. (2018). Domestication gone wild: Politics and practices of multispecies relations. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Takakura, H. (2010). Arctic pastoralism in a subsistence continuum: a strategy for differentiating familiarity with animals. In F. Stammler & H. Takakura (Eds.), Good to eat, good to live with: Nomads and animals in northern Eurasia and Africa (pp. 21–42). Sendai: Center for Northeast Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tallgren, A. M. (1933). Inner Asiatic and Siberian rock pictures. Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua, 8, 174–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, W. T. T., Bayarsaikhan, J., & Tuvshinjragal, T. (2015). Equine cranial morphology and the identification of riding and chariotry in late bronze age Mongolia. Antiquity, 89(346), 854–871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, W. T. T., Tumurbaatar, T., & Bayarsaikhan, J. (2016). Reconstructing equine bridles in the Mongolian Bronze Age. Journal of Ethnobiology, 36(3), 554–570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tkačenko, I. D. (2010). Riding horse tack among the cattle-breeders of Central Asia and Southern Siberia in the first and second millennia CE. Études mogoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines, 41, 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vainshtein, S. I. (1980). Nomads of South Siberia: the pastoral economies of Tuva. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasilevich, G. M., & Levin, M. G. (1951). Tipy olenevodstva i ikh proiskhozhdeniia. Sovetskaia Ethnografiia, 1, 63–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasil’ev, V. I. (1979). Problemy formirovaniia severosamoediiskikh narodnostei. Moskva: Nauka.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasil’ev, V. I. (1988). Nenetsko-ugorskie vzaimosviazi na severe Sibiri: istoriia i sovremennost’. In Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie problemy drevnei istorii Zapadnoi Sibili, (pp. 101-106). Tobol’sk: TGPI.

  • Verhoeven, M. (2014). Beyond boundaries: nature, culture and a holistic approach to domestication in the Levant. Journal of World Prehistory, 18(3), 179–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vigne, J.-D. (2011). The origins of animal domestication and husbandry: a major change in the history of humanity and the biosphere. Comptes Rendus Biologies, 334(3), 171–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vigne, J.-D., Guilaine, J., Debue, K., Haye, L., & Gérard, P. (2004). Early taming of the cat in Cyprus. Science, 304(5668), 259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vizgalov, G. P., Kardash, O. V., Kosintsev, P. V., & Lobanova, T. V. (2013). Istoricheskaia ekologiia naseleniia Zapadnoi Sibiri. Ekaterinburg: Izd-vo AMB.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuojala-Magga, T. (2010). Knowing, training, learning: the importance of reindeer character and temperament for individuals and communities of humans and animals.” In F. Stammler & H. Takakura (Eds.), Good to eat, good to live with: nomads and animals in Northern Eurasia and Africa (pp. 43–61). Sendai: Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University.

  • Wobst, H. M. (1978). The archaeo-ethnology of hunter-gatherers or the tyranny of the ethnographic record. American Antiquity, 43(2), 303–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeder, M. A. (2006a). Central questions in the domestication of plants and animals, Central questions in the domestication of plants and animals. Evolutionary Anthropology, 15, 105–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeder, M. A. (2006b). Archaeological approaches to documenting animal domestication. In M. A. Zeder, D. G. Bradley, E. Emshwiller, & B. D. Smith (Eds.), Documenting domestication: new genetic and archaeological paradigms (pp. 171–180). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zeder, M. A. (2015). Core question in domestication research. Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 112(11), 3191–3198.

  • Zeder, M. A., & Hesse, B. (2000). The initial domestication of goats (Capra hircus) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000 years ago. Science, 287(5461), 2254–2257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zen’ko-Nemchinova, M. A. (2006). Sibiriskie lesnye Nentsy: istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki. Ekaterinburg: “Basko”.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Nenets families, the Okotettos and Yaungads, who hosted us during our stay in Iamal, which is greatly appreciated. Special thanks are also offered to the staff of Iamal-Nenets Autonomous District, and the staff of the Iamal-Nenets Regional Museum and Exhibition Complex of I.S. Shemanovskii, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, and British Museum for providing access to their collections.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation (SFR1725) to R. Losey, the JPI HUMANOR project (ESRC ES/M011054/1) to D. Anderson, ERC GRETPOL to D. Arzyutov, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research to N. Fedorova (18-09-40011).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Tory Building 13-15 HM, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H4, Canada

    Robert J. Losey

  2. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan, 55 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5B1, Canada

    Tatiana Nomokonova

  3. Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute for Technology, Teknikringen 74D, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Dmitry V. Arzyutov

  4. Scientific Center of Arctic Studies, Respublika St. 20, Salekhard, Iamal-Nenets Autonomous District, Russian Federation

    Andrei V. Gusev, Andrei V. Plekhanov & Natalia V. Fedorova

  5. Department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 4QY, UK

    David G. Anderson

Authors
  1. Robert J. Losey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tatiana Nomokonova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dmitry V. Arzyutov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrei V. Gusev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andrei V. Plekhanov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Natalia V. Fedorova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. David G. Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert J. Losey.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(XLSX 25 kb)

ESM 2

(XLSX 56 kb)

ESM 3

(XLSX 41 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Losey, R.J., Nomokonova, T., Arzyutov, D.V. et al. Domestication as Enskilment: Harnessing Reindeer in Arctic Siberia. J Archaeol Method Theory 28, 197–231 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09455-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09455-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation