Reindeer herder's thinking

Reindeer herder's thinking
Author: Kirill Istomin
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2021-11-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3942883732

This book is based on more than a decade of anthropological fieldwork and scholarship among Komi and Nenets nomadic reindeer herders of North-eastern Europe and North-western Siberia. Focused on herding techniques and the way of life of arctic nomads, the authors cogitate the unique attributes of reindeer herding and how they influence the herder's cognitive skills. Two central cognitive abilities are explored: the ability to "find their way" in expansive and homogenous arctic tundra terrain, often in extreme weather conditions and navigating with neither maps nor navigation equipment, and the ability to "decipher and predict" reindeer behaviour. This book acknowledges and reviews current theories and models of human cognition developed in cognitive science. The authors build bridges between cognitive science and anthropology by presenting further case studies that reveal and "demystify" cognitive mechanisms. Axiomatically, they challenge the field of anthropology by demonstrating fundamental weaknesses and debunking anthropological theories that ignore cognitive facts. The authors advocate that the field of anthropology should no longer isolate itself from other scientific disciplines, since, in doing so, its marginalisation will amplify and its relevance diminish. This book exemplifies the contribution of anthropology to building greater understanding of human cognition. However, this can only be achieved through embracing advancements made in other disciplines rather than ignoring their existence.

In a Far Country

In a Far Country
Author: John Taliaferro
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2007-11-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786741236

In the fall of 1897, eight whaling ships became trapped in the ice on Alaska's northern coast. Without relief, two hundred whalers would starve to death by winter's end. Mercifully, an extraordinary missionary, Tom Lopp, and seven Eskimo herders embarked on a harrowing journey to save the whalers, driving four hundred reindeer more than seven hundred untracked miles. At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp -- their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous events: the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic winter: the twentieth century.

The Reindeer People

The Reindeer People
Author: Piers Vitebsky
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780618773572

Cambridge anthropologist Piers Vitebsky, the first westerner to live with the Eveny of Siberia since the Russian revolution, brings readers an extraordinary case of survival in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. of photos.

Reindeer

Reindeer
Author: Tilly Smith
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2018-10-10
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0750990228

In this enchanting book, self-confessed reindeer geek Tilly Smith leads the reader through the extraordinary natural history of the reindeer with charming anecdotes about her own Scottish herd. From their flat 'clown-like' hooves to their warm furry noses and majestic antlers, fall in love with nature's most adaptable arctic mammal.

The Reindeer Chronicles

The Reindeer Chronicles
Author: Judith D. Schwartz
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020-08-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1603588655

In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

Young People, Wellbeing and Sustainable Arctic Communities

Young People, Wellbeing and Sustainable Arctic Communities
Author: Florian Stammler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-10-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000464709

Youth are usually not (yet) decision makers in politics or in business corporations, but the sustainability of Arctic settlements depends on whether or not youth envision such places as offering opportunities for a good future. This is the first multidisciplinary volume presenting original research on Arctic youth. This edited book presents the results of two research projects on youth wellbeing and senses of place in the Arctic region. The contributions are united by their focus on agency. Rather than seeing youth as vulnerable and possible victims of decisions by others, they illustrate the diverse avenues that youth pursue to achieve a good life in the Arctic. The contributions also show which social, economic, political and legal conditions provide the best frame for youth agency in Arctic settlements. Rather than portraying the Arctic as a resource frontier, a hotspot for climate change and a place where biodiversity and traditional Indigenous cultures are under threat, the book introduces the Arctic as a place for opportunities, the realization of life trajectories and young people’s images of home. Rooted in anthropology, the chapters also feature contributions from the fields of sociology, geography, sustainability science, legal studies and political science. This book is intended for an audience interested in anthropology, political science, Arctic urban studies, youth studies, Arctic social sciences and humanities in general. It would attract those working on Arctic sustainability, wellbeing in the Arctic, Arctic demography and overall wellbeing of youth.

The Nature of Magic

The Nature of Magic
Author: Susan Greenwood
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2020-06-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000189821

This book examines how and why practitioners of nature religion - Western witches, druids, shamans - seek to relate spiritually with nature through 'magical consciousness'. 'Magic' and 'consciousness' are concepts that are often fraught with prejudice and ambiguity respectively. Greenwood develops a new theory of magical consciousness by arguing that magic ultimately has more to do with the workings of the human mind in terms of an expanded awareness than with socio-cultural explanations. She combines her own subjective insights gained from magical practice with practitioners' in-depth accounts and sustained academic theory on the process of magic. She also tracks magical consciousness in philosophy, myth, folklore, story-telling, and the hi-tech discourse of postmodernity, and asks important questions concerning nature religion's environmental credentials, such as whether it as inherently ecological as many of its practitioners claim.

Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies

Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies
Author: Garry Marvin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2014-04-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136237887

Human-animal studies is an academic field that has grown exponentially over the past decade. It explores the whys, hows, and whats of human-animal relations: why animals are represented and configured in different ways in human cultures and societies around the world; how they are imagined, experienced, and given significance; what these relationships might signify about being human; and what about these relationships might be improved for the sake of the individuals as well as the communities concerned. The Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies presents a collection of original essays from artists and scholars who have established themselves internationally on the basis of specific and significant new contributions to human-animal studies. This international, interdisciplinary handbook will be of interest to students and scholars of human-animal studies, sociology, anthropology, biology, environmental studies, geography, cultural studies, history, philosophy, media studies, gender studies, literature, psychology, ethology, and visual studies.