Exploring (In)Visible Impacts of Multispecies Living among Hunter-Fisher-Herders in Boreal North Asia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rangifer tarandus (reindeer and caribou) are a keystone species that have shaped the complex fabric of mobile hunter-fisher societies in North Asia, not only as herded animals and wild game but as animate persons. In western Siberia and northern Mongolia, descendant hunter-fisher-herders co-create entwined multispecies cultures through symbiotic relationships with their fellow nonhuman inhabitants of the taiga biome. Recent archaeological research among Sel’kup and Dukkha communities provided a unique opportunity to witness firsthand the, often paradoxical, capacity for nonhumans to shape lifeways. Enduring traditional practices in these regions provide insight into the observable impacts of animate multispecies communities and their visibility (or lack thereof) in the archaeological record. Using pathology, stable isotope analysis, and ethnography from these modern descendant communities, this paper will analyze and compare the dynamic and enmeshed constellation of livelihoods observed in boreal northwest Siberia and northern Mongolia. Initial dietary and activity reconstructions of traditionally herded reindeer indicate potential avenues for insight into how the more-than-human world can impact hunter-fisher lifeways and trigger unique niche construction activities. In doing so, the traceability of these phenomena will be tested and parameters for identifying herded reindeer in the archaeological record of North Asia are explored.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37156.0