Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect
Abstract Official reindeer herding statistics are an invaluable source of data for both social and natural scientists wishing to understand and model ecological systems in the Arctic. However, as with all official statistics, reindeer herding statistics are subject to certain distortions emerging fr...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0173ad83e155420994e78e22a9fdae5e 2023-05-15T15:07:08+02:00 Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect Kirill V. Istomin Roza I. Laptander Joachim Otto Habeck 2022-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 https://doaj.org/article/0173ad83e155420994e78e22a9fdae5e EN eng SpringerOpen https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 https://doaj.org/toc/2041-7136 doi:10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 2041-7136 https://doaj.org/article/0173ad83e155420994e78e22a9fdae5e Pastoralism, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2022) Magical numbers Reindeer Russia Statistics Soviet Union Animal culture SF1-1100 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 2022-12-31T03:27:44Z Abstract Official reindeer herding statistics are an invaluable source of data for both social and natural scientists wishing to understand and model ecological systems in the Arctic. However, as with all official statistics, reindeer herding statistics are subject to certain distortions emerging from the way they are collected and processed as well as from a priori assumptions. In this article, we analyse Soviet/Russian reindeer herding statistics in order to reveal these distortions and assumptions and show how these statistics should be interpreted. Particularly, we analyse reindeer ownership categories and reindeer age/sex categories, spatial organization of the data, so-called magical numbers (statistical parameters used by the state to assess the quality of reindeer herding management), and the manner of collecting statistics. We show that official Soviet/Russian statistics reflected the world as the state wanted to see it, even if it obviously did not completely correspond to the world ‘out there’. In Soviet times, the state even made systematic attempts to change this world to better correspond to the statistics, which, however, was never fully achieved. On the basis of this analysis, we offer some recommendations for how an interested researcher should read and understand Russian reindeer herding statistics. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Pastoralism 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Magical numbers Reindeer Russia Statistics Soviet Union Animal culture SF1-1100 |
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Magical numbers Reindeer Russia Statistics Soviet Union Animal culture SF1-1100 Kirill V. Istomin Roza I. Laptander Joachim Otto Habeck Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
topic_facet |
Magical numbers Reindeer Russia Statistics Soviet Union Animal culture SF1-1100 |
description |
Abstract Official reindeer herding statistics are an invaluable source of data for both social and natural scientists wishing to understand and model ecological systems in the Arctic. However, as with all official statistics, reindeer herding statistics are subject to certain distortions emerging from the way they are collected and processed as well as from a priori assumptions. In this article, we analyse Soviet/Russian reindeer herding statistics in order to reveal these distortions and assumptions and show how these statistics should be interpreted. Particularly, we analyse reindeer ownership categories and reindeer age/sex categories, spatial organization of the data, so-called magical numbers (statistical parameters used by the state to assess the quality of reindeer herding management), and the manner of collecting statistics. We show that official Soviet/Russian statistics reflected the world as the state wanted to see it, even if it obviously did not completely correspond to the world ‘out there’. In Soviet times, the state even made systematic attempts to change this world to better correspond to the statistics, which, however, was never fully achieved. On the basis of this analysis, we offer some recommendations for how an interested researcher should read and understand Russian reindeer herding statistics. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kirill V. Istomin Roza I. Laptander Joachim Otto Habeck |
author_facet |
Kirill V. Istomin Roza I. Laptander Joachim Otto Habeck |
author_sort |
Kirill V. Istomin |
title |
Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
title_short |
Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
title_full |
Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
title_fullStr |
Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reindeer herding statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
title_sort |
reindeer herding statistics in russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect |
publisher |
SpringerOpen |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 https://doaj.org/article/0173ad83e155420994e78e22a9fdae5e |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Pastoralism, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 https://doaj.org/toc/2041-7136 doi:10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 2041-7136 https://doaj.org/article/0173ad83e155420994e78e22a9fdae5e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9 |
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Pastoralism |
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12 |
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1 |
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1766338701835632640 |