Circumpolarity Human-Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North David G. Anderson arcticdomus.org

Arctic Domestication: an old theme, with special relevance to anthropology domestication classically defined as a sudden relationship of domination, which divides the world into ‘wild’ and ‘cultivated’ types in the history of the sciences, linked to colonialism and projects of improvement recent research calls into question older models o Human-Animal relations in the Arctic traditionally are an awkward fit o Among the ‘cradles’ and ‘hearths’ are new types of domestic animals, as well as puzzling ‘hybrids’ o These relations are often ‘emplaced’ in mindful landscapes.

Field ‘laboratories’ and interdisciplinarity: o ethnography o science studies o environmental archaeology o genetic sampling the idea of a field laboratory complicates the idea of ‘person’ and ‘place’ by researching locales where domestication arises we therefore treat tundra encampments and university laboratory as sites of equal status, not to mention enskillment that flows from animals to people or from animals to other animals. in terms of ‘data’ we will work with four traditions:

Three Arctic Species: o Fish although a ‘newly’ domesticated laboratory species have long supported complex relationships in Northern lands o Dogs, said to the be the ‘first’ species to be domesticated, often participate in complex social networks both with people and other animals o Reindeer/caribou, a classic ‘Arctic species’, have proven to come in and out of various forms of domestication with such intensity as to question the definition of the term itself. Across the circumpolar North one often finds a ‘triad’ of dogs, reindeer/caribou and fish

Writing Animal Biographies: from pedigrees to a history of work

An ethnographic ground to genetic models:

Hybrids and Pure-Breeds: