1st Edition

The Benefits of the Cold and Domestication A New Understanding of Human–Animal Partnerships for Thriving in Extreme Environments

Edited By Florian Stammler, Hiroki Takakura Copyright 2025
328 Pages 52 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

328 Pages 52 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores cooperation between humans and animals in extreme environments and contends that understanding domestication is crucial to explaining how life is possible in such conditions. The chapters draw on work from anthropology, genetics, law, and geography, with a range of ethnographic case studies from cold environments. The contributors offer new evidence for rethinking the... Read more

1. Introduction: The Benefits of the Cold and Domestication Florian Stammler and Hiroki Takakura

Section I: Cross-Cutting Perspective on Northern Domestication

2. The North as a Space for Innovation in Human–Animal–Environment Adaptation Hiroki Takakura

3. Domestication and Adaptation of Pastoral Animals and Human Livelihoods to the Arctic: An Integrated Genetic-Anthropological Approach Juha Kantanen and Florian Stammler

Section II: Domestication among Hunters

4. Domus-Sharing in the Vicinity of Domestication: An Ethnography of Human–Wildlife–Land Interactions in Interior Alaska Shiaki Kondo

5. From Relatives to Enemies: Emplaced Evenki Relationships with Wolves in the Changing Environment of East Siberia and the Russian Far East Donatas Brandišauskas

Section III: Convivial Ecology Embracing Animal Autonomy

6. On Encountering and Holding Reindeer in a Convivial North David G. Anderson

7. Reindeer Riding and Driving: A Preliminary Essay on the Use of Domesticated Reindeer for Transportation Shiro Sasaki

8. Between Foot Rot and Wolves: The Internal and External Threats of Tozhu Reindeer Herding Charles Stépanoff

9. Fish Sharing between Humans and Reindeer in the Western Siberian Forest and the Mode of Herding Yuka Oishi

Section IV: Cold Domestication beyond the Arctic

10. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Steppe Land for Dzud Disaster Reduction in the Mongolian Nomadic Community Takuya Soma

11. Revisiting the Distinction between Wild and Domestic: The Relationship between Herders and Camelids in the Central Andean Highlands of Peru Asami Tsukuda

Section V: Domestication beyond Animals: Of Culture, Nature, and the Law

12. Laws of Domestication and Domesticating the Law in Yakutian Human-Animal Relations Aytalina Ivanova and Florian Stammler

13. Domesticating Wolves while Colonizing Their Hunters: Related Patterns of Categorization to Promote Supposed Sustainability in Northern Sweden Hugh Beach

Biography

Florian Stammler is Research Professor in Anthropology and coordinates the Anthropology Research Team at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland, Finland. He has lived with people and led research in Arctic Russia, Finland, and Greenland, and published extensively on human–animal relations, Arctic extractive industries, oral history, and youth well-being.

Hiroki Takakura is a social anthropologist and Director and Professor at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Japan. His research interests cover human–animal relations, climate change, disaster resilience, ethnicity, and arctic human history including the ethnohistory of Siberia and Northeast Asia.