Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism
In the Arctic, indigenous reindeer herding peoples rely on a pastoralist food and knowledge system that supplies them with protein, vitamins, and minerals. Reindeer pastoralism is a product of the interaction between animals’ physical needs, their behaviour, and the skills of the herders. The food s...
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ftoslouniv:oai:www.duo.uio.no:10852/93559 2023-05-15T15:12:02+02:00 Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism Sara, Ravdna B. M. E. Syse, Karen L. Mathiesen, Svein D. 2022 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/93559 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-96119 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 eng eng http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-96119 Pastoralism. 2022 Apr 15;12(1):20 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/93559 2017394 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 URN:NBN:no-96119 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/93559/1/13570_2021_Article_224.pdf The Author(s); licensee SpringerOpen Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed PublishedVersion 2022 ftoslouniv https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 2023-02-22T23:36:41Z In the Arctic, indigenous reindeer herding peoples rely on a pastoralist food and knowledge system that supplies them with protein, vitamins, and minerals. Reindeer pastoralism is a product of the interaction between animals’ physical needs, their behaviour, and the skills of the herders. The food systems of Sámi reindeer pastoralists depend on indigenous knowledge about mountain slaughtering. When the first stationary reindeer slaughterhouse opened in Guovdageaidnu (Northern Norway) in 1957, rationalisation of reindeer husbandry and methods of reindeer slaughter took place. Animal welfare and reindeer slaughter within slaughterhouses are well-documented in Norway; the historical knowledge about slaughtering reindeer in the mountains, however, is barely documented and is in danger of being lost. A qualitative study entailing interviews with five Sámi reindeer herders (50–80 years old) from Guovdageaidnu and Varanger explains indigenous, nomadic methods of killing and slaughtering reindeer. The traditional Sámi way of killing reindeer (Sámi: giehtadit) was to pierce the heart with a large knife through the chest (Sámi: mielga), particularly in the pastures close to where the herd grazed to avoid distressing the reindeer before taking their lives. This allowed reindeer herders to use the whole reindeer for food, unlike the practice in stationary slaughterhouses, which merely utilises select muscles for human consumption. Although the Supreme Court of Norway in 2008 ruled that traditional slaughter practice without stunning was illegal, this historical account provides evidence that the giehtadit method was a rational way to kill a reindeer, as bleeding (haemorrhage) in the thorax offers both high-quality blood, offal, and meat for human consumption. We conclude that the traditional Sámi method is based on systematic, complex, and holistic indigenous knowledge and determines the foods reindeer herders eat. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Northern Norway reindeer husbandry Varanger Mielga Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) Arctic Norway Slaughter ENVELOPE(-85.633,-85.633,-78.617,-78.617) Pastoralism 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) |
op_collection_id |
ftoslouniv |
language |
English |
description |
In the Arctic, indigenous reindeer herding peoples rely on a pastoralist food and knowledge system that supplies them with protein, vitamins, and minerals. Reindeer pastoralism is a product of the interaction between animals’ physical needs, their behaviour, and the skills of the herders. The food systems of Sámi reindeer pastoralists depend on indigenous knowledge about mountain slaughtering. When the first stationary reindeer slaughterhouse opened in Guovdageaidnu (Northern Norway) in 1957, rationalisation of reindeer husbandry and methods of reindeer slaughter took place. Animal welfare and reindeer slaughter within slaughterhouses are well-documented in Norway; the historical knowledge about slaughtering reindeer in the mountains, however, is barely documented and is in danger of being lost. A qualitative study entailing interviews with five Sámi reindeer herders (50–80 years old) from Guovdageaidnu and Varanger explains indigenous, nomadic methods of killing and slaughtering reindeer. The traditional Sámi way of killing reindeer (Sámi: giehtadit) was to pierce the heart with a large knife through the chest (Sámi: mielga), particularly in the pastures close to where the herd grazed to avoid distressing the reindeer before taking their lives. This allowed reindeer herders to use the whole reindeer for food, unlike the practice in stationary slaughterhouses, which merely utilises select muscles for human consumption. Although the Supreme Court of Norway in 2008 ruled that traditional slaughter practice without stunning was illegal, this historical account provides evidence that the giehtadit method was a rational way to kill a reindeer, as bleeding (haemorrhage) in the thorax offers both high-quality blood, offal, and meat for human consumption. We conclude that the traditional Sámi method is based on systematic, complex, and holistic indigenous knowledge and determines the foods reindeer herders eat. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sara, Ravdna B. M. E. Syse, Karen L. Mathiesen, Svein D. |
spellingShingle |
Sara, Ravdna B. M. E. Syse, Karen L. Mathiesen, Svein D. Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
author_facet |
Sara, Ravdna B. M. E. Syse, Karen L. Mathiesen, Svein D. |
author_sort |
Sara, Ravdna B. M. E. |
title |
Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
title_short |
Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
title_full |
Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
title_fullStr |
Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
title_full_unstemmed |
Precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in Sámi reindeer pastoralism |
title_sort |
precious blood and nourishing offal: past and present slaughtering perspectives in sámi reindeer pastoralism |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10852/93559 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-96119 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-85.633,-85.633,-78.617,-78.617) |
geographic |
Arctic Norway Slaughter |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway Slaughter |
genre |
Arctic Northern Norway reindeer husbandry Varanger Mielga |
genre_facet |
Arctic Northern Norway reindeer husbandry Varanger Mielga |
op_relation |
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-96119 Pastoralism. 2022 Apr 15;12(1):20 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/93559 2017394 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 URN:NBN:no-96119 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/93559/1/13570_2021_Article_224.pdf |
op_rights |
The Author(s); licensee SpringerOpen Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-021-00224-2 |
container_title |
Pastoralism |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766342785874526208 |