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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