Abstract
This article explores human-animal relationships in the North by calling for a fresh examination of the infrastructures and architectures which inscribe them. We draw attention to the self-limiting quality of Arctic architectures which are designed to emphasize mutual autonomy. This approach challenges models that would create a crisp, clear separation between domestication as constituting a form of domination or a type of mutualism. By describing several key infrastructures of domestication – of tethers, enclosures, and traps – we hope to draw attention to the silencing of these domestic inventories. Revisiting the metaphor of the domus, we focus on the lands where these relationships are elaborated, re-linking Arctic architectures to places of encounter. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork mainly from Northern North America and various sites in Northern Eurasia, we present an ethnographically informed account that stresses the nuanced way in which strategies of control are blended with those of care and comfort, creating unbounded homes that are good to live in.
Highlights
This article explores human-animal relationships in the North by calling for a fresh examination of the infrastructures and architectures which inscribe them
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Royal Anthropological Institute
We would like to suggest that this perceived lack of commitment is a marker of a strongly resilient style of human-animal relationship, which respects the autonomy of the domestic form
Summary
This article explores human-animal relationships in the North by calling for a fresh examination of the infrastructures and architectures which inscribe them. In a setting where human persons and reindeer persons understand each other well, the material artefact of the tether – be it lasso, head-harness, or necktether – can be used to indicate direction or to focus attention on a mutual task.
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