Welcome to Arctic Domus

David G. Anderson, PIGro Ween, PDF

Konstantin Klokov, Regional FieldworkerRob Losey, Regional Fieldworker

arcticdomus.org

Arctic Domestication: Emplacing Human-Animal Relationships in the Circumpolar North

• a five-year international research project financed by the ERC

• based in the Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences

• involving a team of 18 researchers, including 5 post-doctoral fellows and three PhD students

• field research in five countries across the circumpolar Arctic

Arctic Domestication: • an old theme, with special relevance to anthropology at the University of Aberdeen

• 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 modelso Human-Animal relations in the Arctic traditionally are an awkward fito 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.

Seven ‘laboratories’, Four disciplines:

o ethnography

o science studies

o environmental archaeology

o genetic sampling

• the heart of the project is to complicate the idea of ‘person’ and ‘place’ to treat specific regions as 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

Primary Research, some examples: • Writing animal biographies

• Creating an ethnographic ground to the study of genetics

• Documenting the history of ‘pure-bred’ veterinarian stations

• Re-writing the history of the ‘fur-trade’ through the eyes of the fishing industry

Timetable and Research Environment:

• Years 1 and 2 exploratory field research at seven sites

• 6 project workshops (of which this is the first)

• an open seminar series on animal sentience

• collaboration with University of Aberdeen thematic programmes esp ‘The North’

• Applied work with local Arctic communities

• participation in international conferences, publications, and other forms of dissemination