Is the Reindeer Run Endless?

Abstract

This article presents an anthropological analysis of the relationship between landscape, culture, and identity of Indigenous Peoples of the North of Yakutia. The topic of the study is focused on an important marker and resource of identity that encompasses the landscapes of the North, its physical, geographical, natural, and climatic features, the integrated system of northern occupations and traditional practices—the domestic reindeer. This research also considers various cultural texts and personal and collective narratives of the “imagination” and “experience” of the cold space associated with reindeer in the construction and modern representations of the ethnicity of Indigenous Peoples of the North.