welcome to arctic domus david g. anderson, pi gro ween, pdf konstantin klokov, regional fieldworker...

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