Traditional Reindeer Husbandry and Hunting

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Traditional Reindeer Husbandry and Hunting
Topic Started: Sep 20 2006, 08:54 PM (192 Views)
black man	Sep 20 2006, 08:54 PM Post #1
Liaison Posts: 2,463 Group: supermod Member #48 Joined: July 11, 2005	Reindeer ("caribou" in America) is important for some cultures in NE Europe, North Asia and North America. Links: Piers Vitebsky: REINDEER PEOPLE living with animals and spirits in siberia http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Resources/e...ebskypdf_hb.pdf (also about possible origins of reindeer domestication) Quote: All the evidence for the first domestication of reindeer comes from further south, in the form of numerous drawings on rocks and cliffs* in the Sayan Mountains on the border of Siberia and Mongolia. This is very near the region of the carved reindeer stones and tattooed mummies. The dating of these pictures is extremely difficult, but archaeologists believe that they are more than 2,000 years old. (...) An alternative theory* credits the independent domestication of reindeer to the Tungus peoples who at that time lived east of Lake Baikal. (...) ---- http://www.rangifer.net/rangifer/conf/abst...s/husbandry.cfm http://www.rangifer.net/rangifer/people/pu...ublications.cfm (a site with more links on reindeer keepers/hunters in the past and today)



Jhangora	Sep 21 2006, 01:53 PM Post #2
What's This Posts: 978 Group: Members Member #97 Joined: March 30, 2006	I found something interesting. Quote: And as you read just remember that reindeer are not as worthless as some people think, for they were the first mammal to be used in a domesticated way. Is this true? and Neanderthals were familiar with them, Quote: Reindeers & Neanderthals Despite some differences in size and appearance, caribou and reindeer throughout the world are members of the same species, Rangifer tarandus. Their history goes back to the period before evolution brought humans to the Homo sapiens stage, with fossil remains from 40,000 years ago showing that Neanderthal man in northern Europe was dependent on caribou for survival. By 15,000 years B.P., they were appearing as images on cavern walls, and some of the earliest pieces of Inuit art honoured them. It is thought that the first domestication of reindeer was accomplished about 5,000 years ago by the people of the Altai Mountain region of the Russian/Mongolian border, possibly as an aid to hunting wild animals. Since that time, reindeer have served a wide variety of purposes for people in Europe, from supplying milk, food and clothing, to pulling sleds. And although no scientific proof has yet appeared, at least one team is widely reported to be able to fly! (we can't always be serious here [size=14]). [/size]
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black man	Sep 21 2006, 07:26 PM Post #3
Liaison Posts: 2,463 Group: supermod Member #48 Joined: July 11, 2005	Pasota Sep 21 2006, 01:53 PM I found something interesting. Quote: And as you read just remember that reindeer are not as worthless as some people think, for they were the first mammal to be used in a domesticated way. Is this true? Probably a wrong quote by the author on that site. Quote: and Neanderthals were familiar with them, Reindeers & Neanderthals Despite some differences in size and appearance, caribou and reindeer throughout the world are members of the same species, Rangifer tarandus. Their history goes back to the period before evolution brought humans to the Homo sapiens stage, with fossil remains from 40,000 years ago showing that Neanderthal man in northern Europe was dependent on caribou for survival. By 15,000 years B.P., they were appearing as images on cavern walls, and some of the earliest pieces of Inuit art honoured them. The author means that the neanderthals hunted reindeer. I don't know whether that's true. Maybe Maju knows better.



Maju	Sep 21 2006, 10:26 PM Post #4
sorgina Posts: 1,468 Group: Members Member #85 Joined: January 1, 2006	I don't know much better. I know that some have at times speculated with early European H. Sapiens being very dependent on rheindeer. There was a pre-genetic theory (now obsolete) that postulated that Cro-Magnons (H. Sapiens) were so dependent on them that they migrated northwards when the Ice Age came to its end. As far as I know Atapuerca H. Antecessors and later Neanderthals too hunted mammouths (among other stuff). Atapuerca is not Northern Europe but rather the South - but I'm never sure what they mean when they say "Northern Europe" in the context of the Ice Age, when most of it was covered with a thick sheet of permanent ice. Still there were some climatic swings and in the warmer periods some areas of Northern Europe were populated too, Neanderthals included - but no idea what they ate. I'm quite sure they managed with whatever was at hand, as long it wasn't something too complex to obtain: mammouths, wooly rhinos, bisons, rheindeer, normal deer, goats, horses... whatever. Also I'm pretty sure they eat vegetables too, else they would have fallen sick (but they leave no remains). ... In the Basque Country (that is in Southern Europe anyhow, though the main inhabited area of it has an Oceanic climate) I find that they ate wild goats (Rupicapra rupicapra), which mean 60% of ungulate individuals hunted and eaten by "Basque" Neanders. They also hunted deer, bison and rhinoceros, using traps and team-work. Also a few mollusks have been found but it seems they were used for ornamental purposes mainly - true seafood and snail gathering didn't start until the Epi-Paleolithic (H. Sapiens), that is: after the end of the Ice Age.
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ren	Nov 6 2009, 04:49 AM Post #5
Yoda Posts: 2,711 Group: Custodian Member #1 Joined: January 2, 2005	I now suspect that reindeer domestication has something to do with the spread of N.
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