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Tuvan reindeer husbandry in the early 20th century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Ian Whitaker
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Extract

Among students of the history of reindeer domestication the Tuva occupy a special position. Their homeland, the Sayan mountains and the basin of the upper Yenisey, to the south-west of lake Baykal and to the north of the present-day frontier between the USSR and Mongolia, has frequently been suggested as the region where reindeer were first domesticated. This attribution rests on two types of evidence: the first archaeological, and largely consisting of rock carvings depicting reindeer; and the second ethnographic, comprising observations of the techniques of reindeer management employed by the Tuva, chiefly made by two western travellers, the Englishman Douglas Carruthers in 1910, and the Norwegian Ørjan Olsen in 1914. The fieldwork of Olsen has only been published in Norwegian (Olsen, 1915a; 1915b), and therefore has not been widely used by scientists. Yet of the two travellers he was perhaps better equipped to make technical ethnographic observations. In this article I shall analyse the descriptions of reindeer husbandry made by both men, but with especial attention to Olsen. I shall then assess the contribution that observations of the Tuva might make to the debate between ethnologists on where reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L) were first domesticated.

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Polar Record , Volume 20 , Issue 127 , January 1981 , pp. 337 - 352
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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