Working Reindeer in Past and Present Reindeer Herding

• Main Authors: Salmi, Anna-Kaisa, Niinimäki, Sirpa, Soppela, Päivi, Kynkäänniemi, Sanna-Mari, Wallen, Henri
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Palgrave Macmillan 2022
• Subjects: daught animals; paleopathology; physical activity; reconstruction; traditional knowledge; /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/1/18/4; name=Genetics; developmental biology; physiology; Sámi
• Online Access: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/749c337b-82f6-44b7-aee4-1cabcf5a590b; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98643-8_4; https://lacris.ulapland.fi/ws/files/37806578/Working-Reindeer-in-Past-and-Present-Reindeer-Herding.pdf

It has been suggested that draught reindeer have been used for pulling and carrying people and their things ever since reindeer were domesticated. This chapter explores past and present working reindeer use through archaeological, historical, and ethnographic evidence and reindeer herders’ traditional and practical knowledge. As the identification of working reindeer in the archaeological record is possible using multiple methodologies such as palaeopathological analysis, the analysis of entheseal changes at muscle attachment sites, and the analysis of bone cross-sections, we present the archaeological evidence of working reindeer use gathered from Sámi sites dating to at least 700 years ago. The relationships between draught reindeer and the people training and working with them are also discussed, based on reindeer herders’ know-how of training reindeer for tourism and racing today. To explore the transforming practices and meanings of working with reindeer over time, we used these interdisciplinary strands of evidence of training and working with reindeer, as well as the relationships involved in such interspecies learning and cooperation in past and present reindeer herding.