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Full text of "The reindeer and its domestication"
sr
H-Oi
B 3
r OL. IV, No. 2 April-June, 1917
MEMOIRS OF THE
MERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION
THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
BY
BERTHOLD LAUFER
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY FOR THE
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
AT 41 NORTH QUEEN ST., LANCASTER, PA., U, S, A.
Application made for entry at the Post Office at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as second-class matter,
Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
American Anthropologist
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THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
BY
BERTHOLD LAUFER
THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
BY BERTHOLD LAUFER
THE domestication of the reindeer has not yet been satis-
factorily expounded. Some interesting though brief essays
on the subject have been contributed by scholars engaged
in the research of animal domestication, first of all, by E. Hahn, 1
in his admirable work Die Haustiere, whose chapter on the rein-
deer is the best hitherto written; then follow C. Keller, 2 R. Miiller, 3
L. Reinhardt, 4 and M. Hilzheimer. 5 These various contributions
are useful as far as they go; but what we miss in them, above all,
are the historical and ethnographical points of view, and the
exploitation of the abundant material accumulated by ethnog-
raphers who have had occasion to study reindeer-breeding tribes
at close quarters. The Russian explorers of Siberia occupy here
the first place; and it was one of the writer's chief aims to avail
himself of their data, as far as this literature is accessible to him.
While the observations of ethnographers working in the field are
of prime importance, the interpretations of their data must oc-
casionally be subjected to certain modifications, not all ethnog-
raphers being sufficiently schooled in the problems of domestica-
tion, or familiar with the methods and results of that science.
The novel feature of the present investigation lies in the fact that
here for the first time early Chinese sources relative to the domesti-
1 Die Haustiere und ihre Beziehungen zur Wirtschaft des Menschen, eine geogr aphis che
Studie (Leipzig, 1896), pp. 262-267. Compare the same author's " Die Transport-
tiere in ihrer Verbreitung und in ihrer Abhangigkeit von geographischen Beding-
ungen," Verhandlungen des XII. Deutschen Geographentages in Jena (1897), pp. 186-
187.
2 Naturgeschichte der Haustiere (Berlin, 1905), pp. 198-202; Stammesgeschichte
unserer Haustiere (Leipzig, 1909), p. 93; also in Kraemer's Der Menken und die Erde t
vol. i, p. 257.
3 Die geographische Verbreitung der Wirtschaflstiere (Leipzig, 1903), pp. 137-148.
4 Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere (Miinchen, 1912), pp. 228-237.
5 Die Haustiere in Abstammung und Entwicklung, pp. 72-73.
91
369363
92 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
cated reindeer are laid under contribution, and that an effort has
been made to determine the origin of the domestication more
precisely as to time and space. The writer attempts to answer three
questions, as far as this is possible in the present state of science:
When did the primeval domestication originate? Where was the
center of it, and how did it propagate from this center to other
culture areas? What was the process that brought the primeval
domestication about?
At the outset two current popular notions connected with the
Old-World reindeer should be banished, that the reindeer isT"t
exclusively an inhabitant of the tundra of northern Europe and I
Asia, and that it is employed exclusively by the peoples inhabiting 1
the northern littorals of Europe and Asia. The reindeer haurffs
the woods of high mountainous districts as well, and thrives in the
forests of the Ural and Baikal regions. The records referring to
the woodland reindeer are much older than those pertaining to the
tundra reindeer of the maritime coasts. It will be seen that in all
likelihood we have to assume an historical relation between the
two varieties; that is to say, the woodland reindeer is the first in
point of time that was domesticated, and spread from southern
into northern regions, gradually developing into the tundra rein-
deer through infusion with the blood of wild forms of the tundra.
The wild reindeer has the same southern expansion: it abounds in
the extensive woods of the governments Vyatka and Perm and in
the adjoining northern portion of Kazan, in Russia. Entire herds
formerly migrated from the Ural into the afforested region between
the Kama and Ufa (56 N. lat.), even as far as the southern wood-
land boundary line, almost as far as 52 N. lat. 1 The Bashkir hunt
the animal along the Ufa under 55 N. lat.
1 J. F. Brandt, Zoogeographische und palaeontol. Beitrdge (St. Petersburg, 1867),
p. 65. See also A. Nehring, Ueber Tundren und Steppen der Jetzt- und Vorzeit (Berlin,
1890), pp. 31, 108. P. S. Pallas (Reise dutch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen
Reichs, vol. in, p. 470) reported in 1773, " In the fir-tree woods on the Ufa and through-
out the woodlands as far as the Kama, there are, aside from other deer, still many
wild reindeer (in Bashkir yusa), frequently wandering in large herds, and, judging
from the antlers I saw, somewhat smaller than the northern ones."
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 93
HISTORICAL NOTES
The first and most prominent fact about the domesticated
reindeer is that it is entirely lacking in aboriginal America (the
artificial introduction into Alaska is of very recent date), and
represents an exclusive cultural property of the Old World. North
America abounds in wild reindeer (known as caribou) and elk or
moose; but the native population only hunted these animals, and
never made any endeavor to domesticate them. Consequently
the Old-World domestication cannot be a priori of very ancient
date, but was accomplished only at a late time, when the population
of America was settled. This consideration will be amply con-
firmed by the history of the domestication.
Certain it is that the classical authors have left us no account
whatever of the domesticated reindeer. The Danish archaeologist
G. F. L. Sarauw 1 has made a very interesting study of the informa-
tion contained in the writings of the ancients in regard to elk and
wild reindeer, but there is complete silence as to tamed forms.
Hahn 2 is quite right in maintaining that the Greeks were not so
unfamiliar with the north of eastern Europe that such a striking
phenomenon as the tamed harts should not have been known
among them in one form or another, had they existed at the time;
but all observations of the ancients strictly refer to wild forms.
This state of affairs meets its parallel among the Chinese. They
were well acquainted with the host of tribes living in the north
and northwest of their country, but in no Chinese author of the
pre-Christian era do we meet with a single notice of the reindeer.
Only at the end of the fifth century A.D. did tidings of a tame stag,
used for drawing sledges and for milking, reach the ears of the
Chinese. It is well known that the wild reindeer was among the
game hunted by paleolithic man of western Europe. There is no
evidence that he ever attempted to domesticate this animal. Its
domestication manifestly falls within historical times; and, if so,
there must be some way of calculating by historical methods more
1 "Das Rentier in Europa zu den Zeiten Alexanders und Caesars," published in
Mindeskrift for Japetus Steenstrup (K0benhavn, 1913), 34 p., 4.
2 Haustiete, p. 263.
94 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
exactly the terminus a quo. The students of domestication have
usually regarded that of the reindeer as a comparatively recent
event, and as the most recent of all domestications; but their
impressions naturally have remained of a somewhat vague char-
acter. C. Keller 1 remarks:
The passage into the state of domesticity cannot have taken place at an
early date, since neither specific races have as yet been formed, nor is the sub-
missiveness to man much developed. The herds graze wherever it suits them;
and the business of milking is very complex, as the cows behave stubbornly.
L. Reinhardt 2 has expressed the following opinion :
The reindeer wa's elevated by man into a domesticated animal at a very
late period, and generally is still domesticated very deficiently. The time when
this happened can no longer be determined; however, it cannot have taken place
much earlier than five hundred years ago.
This figure is far too low, and must be multiplied at least by three,
as we have Chinese allusions to the domestic reindeer dating in the
\/ fifth century A.D. Even without such historical data, Reinhardt's
calculation would hardly be acceptable, as the wide geographical
distribution of the reindeer would argue in favor of a much earlier
domestication. M. Wilcken's assertion 3 that the domestication
of the reindeer took place in prehistoric times misses the mark
entirely.
The earliest reference to tame reindeer in western sources is
contained in the famous narrative of the Norseman Ohthere, who
" said to his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt farthest north of all
Northmen." Ohthere, of whom we unfortunately know very
little, was born in Haloga (Helge)-land in Norway, and undertook
in A.D. 890 several voyages, one of which was from Norway toward
the extreme northern coasts. In the course of his travelings he
rounded the North Cape, discovered the White Sea, where he
reached the south coast of the Kola Peninsula, and became ac-
quainted with the Finn and Biarmians (Beormas) or Permians in
the northeast of European Russia. The memorable account of
1 H. Kraemer, Der Mensch und die Erde, vol. I, p. 257.
2 Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere, p. 232.
3 Grundziige der Naturgeschichte der Haustiere (2d ed. by J. U. Duerst), (Leipzig,
1905), p. 172.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 95
his expeditions was included by Alfred the Great in his Anglo-
Saxon translation of the Hormista of Paulus Orosius. 1 Here we
read as follows:
He [Ohthere] was a very rich man in those possessions in which their wealth
consists, that is, in wild animals. He still had when he came to the king six
hundred tame deer unsold. These deer they call 'reindeer;' six of them were
decoy-deer; these are much prized among the Finn, because they capture the
wild deer with them. He ranked with the foremost men in the land, though he
had not more than twenty cattle, twenty sheep, and twenty swine; and the
little that he ploughed he ploughed with horses. 2
Schlozer 3 and I. A. Sjogren, 4 taking the term " Finn " in Oh-
there 's narrative in the sense of " Lapp," have advanced the
theory that he lived among Lapp and spoke their language, 5 and
that it was Lapplanders, who cared for his reindeer purchased from
them. This theory is baseless, and we gain nothing from it.
Whether Ohthere had obtained his reindeer from Lapp or Finn or
Scandinavians, or had captured them himself, his story can prove
little or nothing along the line of domestication; at best, it shows
the very first stage necessary in reaching this object. All members
of the family Cervidae may easily be driven into enclosures and
kept there indefinitely, for which many examples will be cited
hereafter. Ohthere does not state that he made any practical
1 The original manuscript of Alfred's work, beautifully written, is preserved in
the Cottonian collection of manuscripts in the British Museum. It was first published
by Daines Harrington under the title, The Anglo-Saxon Version from the Historian
Orosius, by Alfred the Great. Together with an English translation from the Anglo-
Saxon (London, 1773).
2 J. McCubbin and D. T. Holmes, Orosian Geography, p. 8. J. Bosworth, De-
scription of Europe and the Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, written in Anglo-Saxon
by King Alfred the Great, p. 12, translates: "He had, moreover, when he came to the
King, six hundred tame deer of his own breeding." The Anglo-Saxon text of the
above passage runs as follows: "J>a deor hi hata'S ' hranas; ' }>ara waeron syx stael-
hranas; fta beoS swytSe dyre mid Finnum, for ftaem hjTfoft ba wildan hranas mid."
3 Allgemeine nordische Geschichte, p. 445.
*Gesammelte Schriften, vol. I, p. 314.
6 This point is rather doubtful. All that Ohthere himself tells us in point of
language amounts to this: " The Permians told him many stories both of their own
land and of the lands which were around them, but he did not know how much was
truth as he did not see it himself. It seemed to him that the Finn and the Permians
spoke nearly the same language." This observation does not lend itself to far-reaching
conclusions.
96 AMERICAN ATNHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
use of his deer. In 'all probability, it was merely the venture of a
sportsman, who had an aesthetic pleasure in the animals, like a
park-owner in fallow deer. Ohthere's account stands perfectly
isolated: we read no more about tame reindeer during or after his
time. Only as late as the fifteenth century do we hear for the first
time about domesticated reindeer from Russian sources. If at
Ohthere's time the Finn or the Lapp had really possessed the rein-
deer, we should justly expect to find it mentioned in the Kalewala;
but this is not the case. The songs of the Kalewala know only of
the elk and the wild Tarandus.
It is stated by Hahn 1 that, according to Lehrberg, in 1499 the
Samoyed, besides dog-sleighs, had reindeer on the backs of which
they used to ride. C. Keller 2 has adopted this from him, and the
" fact " has finally been popularized in H. Kraemer's Der Mensch
und die Erde.* It is striking, of course, that the Sajnoyed should
have mounted reindeer in 1499, while they never did so at any
later time, nor do so at present. In fact, the reindeer is ridden
only by the Soyot and Tungus, not, however, by any western
tribes. 4 Thus suspicion is ripe that there may be some misunder-
standing of the original Russian source on which this deduction
is based. Lehrberg's work in the original German is not within
my reach, 5 but I have access to a Russian translation of it and to
the Russian document on which his data are based. This is re-
printed in Shcseglov's Chronological Review of Important Data from
the History of Siberia* and relates to the year 1499. In order to
1 H austier e, p. 265.
2 Naturgeschichle der Haustiere, p. 201.
3 Vol. i, p. 257. Here we even read the absurdity that "the oldest accounts of
tame reindeer come from Lehrberg, who in 1499 observes that the Samoyed ride on
them," a complete misunderstanding.
4 Hahn himself was struck by this anomaly, stating farther on (p. 266) that "this
exception would seem doubtful to him until further confirmation were received."
6 The work of A. C. Lehrberg bears the title Untersuchungen zur Erlauterung der
aelteren Geschichte Russlands (St. Petersburg, 1816). An interesting analysis of his
researches has been given by Klaproth, Memoir es relatifs a I'Asie, vol. I (Paris, 1824),
pp. 116-146.
6 1. V. Shcseglov, Xronologiceski perezen' vazn'aisix dannyx iz istorii Sibiri 1032-
1882 (Irkutsk, 1883), p. 12, published by the East-Siberian Section of the Imperial
Russian Geographical Society.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 97
understand these events, it is necessary to premise that Ivan the
Great (1462-1505), after destroying the liberty of Novgorod, began
the conquest of northern Russia, and in that year the Russians
completed the subjugation of what was called by. them Yugra;
that is, the territory of the Ural Mountains, inhabited by Wogul
and other Ugrian tribes, and formerly under the jurisdiction of
the Republic of Novgorod, in the documents of which Yugra is
mentioned as early as 1264. The expedition of 1499 was conducted
under the command of the Prince Semyon Fedorovic Kurbski,
Prince Pyotr (Peter) Fedorovic Usati and Vasili Ivanovic Zabolot-
ski-Braznik. This enterprise is described in detail in the synchron-
ous Russian documents, the result being given thus:
The military chiefs (voyevody} slew fifty men of the Samoyed l on the rock, 2
and captured two hundred reindeer. From this Rock they marched for a week
as far as the first town, L'apino, 3 covering altogether 465 verst over this territory.
Proceeding from L'apino, they met the Yugor princes who came on reindeer
from Obdor; 4 but from L'apino the [Russian] military chiefs (voyevody} traveled
on reindeer; the army, however, on dogs.
This is a literal translation, and in the spirit of the Russian language
means that they traveled on sledges drawn by reindeer and dogs
respectively. The same verb, sl'i (" they went "), is used with
the reindeer and with the dogs (na olen'ax, a rat na sobakax) ; and,
1 The land cf the Samoyed, under the name Samoyad', is mentioned as early as
1096 in the chronicle of Nestor as being situated north of Yugra. In 1246 their name
is mentioned by Piano Carpini, who styles them "Samogedes," and ascribes to them
dog-heads, as the ancient legend of the KvvoKktpoiKoL was alive in his day. The name
may be related to Sameyadna, which the Lapp (in Russian Lop', Lopari) confer on
their country.
2 The Rock (Kamen'), also Rocky Girdle (Kamennyi Poyas), is a designation of
the Ural, in accordance with the Ostyak term keu, kev (" stone, mountain, Ural ").
See B. Munkacsi, Keleti Szemle, vol. in (1902), p. 276.
3 Small place (also L'apina) on the banks of the Sygwa in the district (okrug)
Berezov, now called Vorulsk. The Sygwa is a side-river of the northern Soswa,
which falls into the Ob not far from Berezov.
4 The original document has the misprint Odor. The question is of Obdor prov-
ince (Obdorskaya oblast') on the lower Ob. The settlement Obdor is situated not far
from the mouth of the Ob. According to A. Castren, Reiseerinnerungen aus den
Jahren 1838-1844, p. 279, who has given a very interesting description of the place,
this name should be of Syryan origin, meaning "mouth of the Ob." - An account of
Berezov and Obdorsk is found also in P. S. Pallas, Reii>e durch verschiedene Provinzen
des russischen Reichs, vol. in, pp. 17-24. Reindeer are still kept in this region.
9 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
since it cannot be supposed that the soldiers rode astride dogs,
it is equally out of the question that riding on reindeer is under-
stood. 1 The Samoyed have nothing whatever to do with this
affair; the Russian documents of that period clearly distinguish
between Yugra and Samoyed, and the situation is perfectly clear.
It was the Yugor (Yugrian, Ugrian) princes (Yugorskie kn'azi)
who were in possession of reindeer-sledges, in the same manner as
their Wogul descendants are at the present time. These were
duly captured by their Russian conquerors and placed at the
disposal of the commanders on their further inroads into the
Ugrian territory, while the soldiers were transported on dog-
1 The Russian text is by no means ambiguous. If the Russian writer meant to
express "riding," he would have used the verb yaxat' verxom. The usual question
addressed to the winter traveler in Siberia on his arrival is, "In what way did you
come? " which is answered by such phrases as, " On horses " (na losad'ax or kon'ax),
" On dogs " (na sobakax), " On reindeer " (na olen'ax}] and it is perfectly understood
that he traveled on a sledge drawn by horses, dogs, or reindeer. In the same manner
Avril, Travels into Divers Parts of Europe and Asia (London, 1693), p. 161, says in
regard to the Samoyed that "they travel upon harts and dogs." The text of Lehr-
berg (in the Russian translation, p. 14) is quite clear. "Iz L'apina na vstr'acu Russk'im
v'axali Yugorskiye kn'az'ya na olen'ax. L'apino zavoyevano, i ot s'uda voisko
poslo dal'aye, voyevody na olen'ax, a procie na san'ax, zapr'azennyx sobakam'i."
Lehrberg comments in a note that traveling with dogs was in full swing on the Irtysh
as early as 1580, and is still practised in northwestern Siberia, horses not being kept
under 62 N. lat.; that formerly also west of the Ural in Perm dogs were employed
for transportation, in more ancient times even farther west along the Baltic Sea,
as shown by the Esthonian and Finnish phrase for "mile," penni koorm, penicuorma
(literally, " dog-load "). Karamzin (Istoriya gosudarstva rossiskago, St. Petersburg,
1819, vol. vi, p. 286), the eminent Russian historian, has interpreted the document in
the same manner by saying, "Each of these princes sat in a long sledge drawn by rein-
deer. The voyevody of John likewise drove on reindeer (ydxali na olen'ax), but the
soldiers on dogs (na sobakax), holding in their hands fire and sword for the annihilation
of the poor inhabitants." Regarding the Russian expedition of 1499 see also Sjogren,
Gesammelte Schriften, vol. l, p. 309; and Aleksandra Dmitrieva, "Pokorenie ugorskix
zemel'i Sibiri," pp; 87 el teq., Permskaya Starina (Perm, 1894), no. v. In A. Rambaud's
Histo/y of Russia (Boston, 1886), vol. i, p. 221, this event is thus narrated: "In 1499
the voyevodi of Ustiug, of the Dwina, and of Viatka advanced as far as the Petchora,
and built a fortress on the banks of the river. In the depth of winter, in sledges
drawn by dogs, they passed the defiles of the Urals, in the teeth of the wind and snow,
slew fifty of the Samoyedi, and captured two hundred reindeer; invaded the territory
of the Voguli and Ugrians, the Finnish brethren of the Magyars; took forty enclosures
of palisades, made fifty princes prisoners, and returned to Moscow, after having re-
duced this unknown country." Here the transportation on reindeer-sleighs as too un-
important or troublesome to the historian has been passed over in silence, a curious
example of history-writing.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 99
sleighs. Let us hope that " the reindeer-riding Samoyed of 1499 "
will thus remain buried never to rise again. The document quoted
is of importance, for it shows us that the Uralic Ugrians were
acquainted with the domesticated reindeer as a draught animal
toward the end of the fifteenth century. In regard to the Samoyed,
we can assert on the basis of this account only that reindeer were
kept by them.
When Baron Sigismund von Herberstein was ambassador from
the Emperor Maximilian to the Grand Prince Vasili Ivanovic of
Muscovy in the years 1517 and 1526, he met at the Court of this
Prince in Moscow his interpreter, Gregory Istoma, who in 1496
had been sent by the Prince to the Court of King John of Den-
mark, where he acquired the Latin language. He gave Herberstein
an account of his journey, which had taken him over Great Nov-
gorod to the mouths of the Dvina and Potivlo. There the party
embarked in four boats, and sailed along the right-hand shore of
the ocean; and after accomplishing sixteen miles and crossing a
certain gulf, they sailed along the left shore. Leaving the open
sea to their right, they came to the people of Finlapeia. Although
these people dwell in low cottages, scattered here and there along
the seacoast, and lead an almost savage life, Istoma reported, yet
they are more gentle in their manners than the wild Laplanders.
He stated that they were tributary to the Prince of Muscovy. A
voyage of eighty miles, after leaving the land of the Laplanders,
brought them to the country of Nortpoden, which was subject to
the King of Sweden. The Russians call the country Kaienska
Semla; and the people, Kaiemai. After having passed two perilous
promontories, they sailed up to the country of the Ditciloppi,
who are wild Laplanders, to a place named Dront [Drontheim],
two hundred miles north of the Dvina.
They then left their boats and performed the rest of their journey by land,
in sledges. He further related that there are herds of deer there, as plentiful
as oxen are with us, which are called in the Norwegian language 'rhen.' They
are somewhat larger than our stags, and are used by the Laplanders instead of
oxen, and in the following manner: they yoke the deer to a carriage made in the
form of a fishing-boat, in which the man is bound by his feet lest he should fall
out while the deer is at full speed; in his left hand he holds a bridle, to guide the
100 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
course of the deer, and in his right a staff, with which to prevent the upsetting of
the carriage, if it should happen to lean too much on either side. He stated
that, by this mode of travelling, he himself had accomplished twenty miles in
one day, and had then let loose the deer; which returned of its own accord to
its own master and its accustomed home. Having at length accomplished this
journey, they came to Berges [Bergen], a city of Norway, quite in the north,
amongst the mountains, and then reached Denmark on horseback. 1
As Herberstein's narrative is based on the report of Gregory
Istoma, whose experience dates back to 1496, we are entitled to say
that the Lapp were in the possession of sleigh-drawing reindeer in
the latter part of the fifteenth century.
Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala and Metropolitan of
Sweden, who died in 1568, published in Rome, 1555, his famous
work Historic, de gentium septentrionalium variis conditionibus ?
where a somewhat lengthy and fairly correct description of the
reindeer of Lapland is given. Certainly he is not the first author,
as asserted by Hahn, who told Europeans about the tame rein-
deer, as Baron von Herberstein .preceded him by a generation.
Olaus' account is not based on personal experience, but evidently
draughted from hearsay. The English naturalist E. Topsell 3 then
gave a description based on Olaus, and justly emphasized that the
beast was altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
It is thus shown that the documentary evidence presented by
European history does not mention the domestic reindeer before
the latter part of the fifteenth century. I regret not having access
to ancient Russian chronicles, especially those of Novgorod and
Archangelsk, which might contain facts bearing upon the problem.
There is a noteworthy negative evidence presented by the Kalewala,
the national .epic poem of the Finn. Here we have a true picture
of the primeval cultural conditions in which the Finn lived prior
to their christianization (A.D. 1151), also a description of their
1 Notes upon Russia: being a Translation of the Earliest Account of that Country,
entitled Rcrum Moscoviticarum Commentarii by the Baron Sigismund von Herberstein,
translated by R. H. Major, vol. n, pp. 105-108, Hakluyt Society.
2 An English translation appeared in 1658 under the title Compendious History of
the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals, and Other Northern Nations. His description of the
reindeer is on p. 176. Those who have not access to this edition may be referred to
E. Phipson, Animal-Lore of Shakespeare's Time, p. 123, where the passage is extracted.
3 Historic of Foure-Footed Beastes (1607), p. 592.
LAUFER
THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
101
relations to the Lapp. Sledge-driving is most frequently men-
tioned, but the sledges are always drawn by horses. The wild
reindeer was an object of the hunt, but there is not the faintest
allusion to reindeer kept in captivity under the control of man.
The period of this ancient Finnish culture is difficult to gauge by
exact dates, but it is generally admitted that the beginning of this
national poetry falls between A.D. 800 and Pooo. 1 If we assume
that the Lapp adopted the domesticated reinaeer from the Samoyed
during the eleventh or twelfth century, we shall probably not
commit too great an error of calculation.
Before leaving the European field, it should be remembered
that the theory of a Scandinavian origin of reindeer domestication
has also been propounded. Its main champion was a Norwegian
scholar, A. Frijs. 2 According to him, the Lapp of the ninth century
were not yet reindeer-nomads, but merely hunters and fishermen,
whose only domesticated animal was the dog. The domestication
of the reindeer they learned from the Scandinavians. The evidence
for this bold statement is based on philological arguments: it is
proved by the language of the Lapp, for only the dog has a genuine
Lapp name ; with the reception of the other domestic animals, the
Lapp adopted also their designations; the Lapp has no word for
" taming," and has therefore accepted the Scandinavian word
for it. It is generally known how fallacious such play with alleged
linguistic evidence is; in fact, no serious scholar any longer derives
historical conclusions from conditions of language. Frijs evi-
dently traced Lapp raingo (" reindeer ") to Scandinavian hreinn,
but there is as good reason to believe that the latter is based on
the former. In fact, no lesser scholar than Jacob Grimm 3 regards
the Lapp word as the foundation of the Germanic forms (Anglo-
Saxon hrdn, Old Norse hreinn, Swedish ren, Danish rensdyr, German
rein, reiner, renn). Be this as it may, neither the one nor the
1 D. Comparetti, Kalewala, p. 280 (authorized translation from the Italian).
It is noteworthy also that Tacitus (Germania, 46), in his notice of the Fenni, the
oldest account of some Finno-Ugrian tribe, makes no mention whatever of deer.
2 Globus, vol. xxn (1872), p. 2, translation of his work En Sommer i Finmarken,
Russisk Lappland og Nordkarelen (Kristiania, 1871).
3 Deulsches Worterbuch, vol. vii, col. 2007.
JO2 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
other supposition could prove that the domestication is due to
Scandinavians, or to any other nation. It is merely indicative of
a fact of language, and nothing else.
In others, the theory of the Scandinavian origin of reindeer
domestication may have been inspired by certain efforts in Sweden
to tame the elk (Alces alces or Cervus alces). These, however,
belong to recent times, and stories relative to them are not well
substantiated by historical records. Although Louis Figuier, in
his Mammalia, asserts that in Sweden for two or three centuries
the elk was used in the harness, but that the custom is now given
up, the objection has justly been raised by J. D. Caton 1 that it is
difficult to understand why this alleged domestication was aban-
doned in a country so well adapted to its use. Sporadic cases of
training elks to harness may formerly have occurred in Sweden;
but no general attempt to tame the animal, and certainly no
" domestication " of it, has ever taken place.
As a consequence of geographical conditions, the Chinese were
far removed from reindeer-breeding localities; and for this reason
we cannot expect to find in their records any coherent and compre-
hensive accounts, which would permit us to elaborate an intelligent
history of the domestication. The expansion of their political
power and the extension of their influence over neighboring tribes,
however, enabled the Chinese occasionally to get a glimpse of the
curious animal; and for lack of any other sources, their casual
mentions of it are of capital importance, and at the same time
represent the oldest extant references to the reindeer.
A very curious allusion to reindeer occurs in the Annals of the
Liang dynasty in the description of the mythical country Fu-sang. 2
In A.D. 499 the Buddhist monk Huei Shen returned to King-chou,
the capital of the Liang, and gave a fabulous account of Fu-sang,
alleged to have been situated far off in the northeastern ocean.
As to means of conveyance, he reported, the people there have
vehicles drawn by horses, oxen, and stags; they raise deer in the
1 The Antelope and Deer in America, p. 278.
2 Liang shu, ch. 54, p. 12. This work was compiled by Yao Se-lien in the first
half of the seventh century from documents of the Liang dynasty, which ruled from
A.D. 502 to 556.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 1 03
manner as oxen are reared in China, and make cream 1 from their
milk. The allusion to the reindeer is unmistakable: they are
plainly described as being kept in the state of domesticity for the
purpose of drawing vehicles (that is, sledges) and for milk-con-
sumption. Such an economic condition, as described in this text
the simultaneous breeding of horse, cattle, and reindeer is not
found, however, in any region of the northern Pacific; and if Fu-
sang has been identified with America by some fantasists, the
fact remains that neither the domestic horse nor cattle nor rein-
deer ever existed in pre-Columbian America. Nor are these con-
ditions applicable to the Island of Saghalin, which Schlegel put on a
par with the Fu-sang country of the Chinese account: horse and
cattle were introduced there only by the Russian settlers in the
latter part of the nineteenth century; and the reindeer, as already
shown by L. von Schrenck, is there likewise a recent introduction
going back to a few centuries. We do not even know whether
Saghalin was populated at all in the fifth century. Neither can
any Tungusian tribe come into question, since the Tungus employ
the reindeer only as a beast of burden and for riding-purposes, but
rarely for drawing sledges. The Fu-sang account is a fantastic
concoction, devoid of any geographical value, pieced together from
heterogeneous elements emanating from different sources and
quarters. While each of these elements bears a germ of truth,
their combination makes an unreal picture. The breeding of
horse, cattle, and reindeer combined, in reality, occurs only in the ,
Baikal region, particularly among the present Soyot; and Huei
Shen's account of the reindeer in connection with horse and cattle
has doubtless hailed from that quarter. The ethnic and economic
1 The Chinese term lo 62 denotes any dairy products, as cream, butter, cheese,
sour or fermented milk. The former translators of this text have made a liberal choice
without being concerned about what products are actually made of reindeer-milk.
Bretschneider had butter made from reindeer-milk, but butter is never produced from
it by any East-Siberian tribe. Schlegel (T'oung Pao, vol. in (1892), p. 123) decided
on a fermented liquor, but such is never made. In fact, reindeer-milk is not made
into any product in northern Asia, but is consumed as it is, in its natural state, as a
fatty, creamy substance. S. W. Williams (Journal American Oriental Society, vol. xi,
(1882), p. 93) therefore was quite right in translating, "and make cream of their
milk."
104 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
condition of this locality, which is of paramount importance for the
history of reindeer domestication, will be fully discussed hereafter.
Before mentioning the three kinds of vehicles used in Fu-sang,
Huei Shen speaks also of a peculiar breed of oxen with very long
horns. According to Williams, the horns were so long that they
would hold things the biggest as much as five pecks. According
to Schlegel, the oxen could carry on their horns loads weighing up
to twenty quintals. 1 Schlegel 2 thinks also that the reindeer is
intended by this ox, but it is improbable that Huei Shen would
first designate the reindeer as an ox and in the following sentence
describe it as a deer. Further, loads are never placed on the rein-
deer's antlers; and it is equally inconceivable that loads were ever
packed on the horns of an ox. 3
1 The passage is not very clearly worded, and the text presumably is corrupted.
In all probability, it means that the people used these horns for carrying loads in
them, the horns holding up to twenty corns (hu jty , a measure of capacity).
2 L. c., p. 142.
3 There are several other misconceptions in Schlegel's discussion of the subject.
The Manchu term kandahan refers to the elk only, not to the reindeer. The Tungusian
name for the " reindeer," oron, has no connection with Russian olen', or -vice versa, as
asserted by Schlegel. Russian olen' is an old Indo-European word connected with
Lithuanian elnis-, alms; Lettic alnis, Old Prussian alne, German elen, Greek eXa
CENTER OF DOMESTICATION
All observers agree in regarding the domestication of the rein-
deer as an imitative process leaning toward that of horse and cattle.
In fact,* the reindeer is utilized by man in exactly the same manner
as those two breeds, as a draught, pack, and riding animal.
The recent date of the domestication also, brings out its secondary
character. One of the most peculiar and uniform features which
is apt to illustrate the imitative tendency is the castration of the
stags, practised alike throughout the zone of reindeer occurrence.
1 See Aspelin, Antiquites du nord finno-ougrien, p. 68, no. 307; p. 69, nos. 311,
313-315; P- 7i, no. 323-
2 Inscriptions de V lenissei, p. 16. I. G. Grano, Archdol. Beobachlungen in Siidsi-
birien und Nordwest-Mongolei (Helsingfors, 1910), pp. 49, 53; and Geogr. Verbreitung
der Alter tiimer in der Nordwest-Mongolei (ibid., 1910), pp. 37, 45.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 115
In the eighteenth century Knud Leems 1 reported, " Taurum rangi-
ferinum castraturus Lappo, testiculos non, ut alias fieri solet,
dissecta cute, eruit, sed, admoto ore, dentibus contundit." In the
same manner the process is described in modern times by J. D.
Caton, 2
The Lapp perform the operation with their teeth; the glands are bruised or
crushed without breaking the skin. No other mode of castration has ever been
known among the Lapp. This imperfect operation is probably sufficient for
their purposes, for it so" subdues the natural ferocity of the animal as to subject , ..
him to control, while it leaves enough of spirit to make his services highly suf-
ficient. Were it carried as far as with us, it might so destroy his energy as to
leave him practically useless. 3 .
The Ostyak designate the gelded reindeer xatri, which, according
to S. Patkanov, 4 is a loan-word received from Samoyed. Whether
the Ostyak adopted the process from this people remains an open
question; but this is more than probable, in view of the fact that
the Samoyed are the most skilful and successful reindeer-breeders,
and are doubtless responsible for the transportation of the animal
from Asia to Europe. 5 The Chukchi, according to Bogoras, 6 in
order to geld the bucks, bite with their teeth either through the
dowcets or through the spermatic ducts. The operation is said
>
1 Beskrivehe over Finmarkens Lapper (Kiobenhavn, 1767; in Danish and Latin),
p. 152. ' About a century earlier we have the same observation recorded by J. Scheffer,
Lappland (Franckfurt, 1675), p. 374.
2 A Summer in Norway (Chicago, 1880), p. 228. . ,
3 See also E. Demant, Das Buck des Lappen Johan Tfyiri, p. 40: This book con-
tains the autobiography of a Lapp, and is one of the finest documents of primitive
life and thought that we possess.
*Die Irtysch-Ostjaken, vol. I, p. 18. See also A. Ahlqvist, Journal de la Sociele
Jinrio-ougrienne, vol. vin, 1890, p. 6. *Phere are many more Samoyed loan-words in
Ostyak relative to reindeer-culture: hence AhlqvisfcJj^fo'c?., p. 21) concluded that the
Ostyak appear to have adopted from the Samo^led certain important features of
reindeer-breeding, or perhaps even this entire industry, i ....
5 Among the Samoyed, a very specialized nomenclatraSr of the rei
zeichnisse aus den samojedischen Sprachen, pp. 262-263^ Terms denoting the wild
and domesticated animal, the gelded and ungelded male, are strictly differentiated;
and there are peculiar words for the female, the calf in its various stages of growth,
the old and the hornless animal, with many variations in the dialects.
6 Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vn, p. 84.
Il6 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
not to affect the reindeer much, for immediately afterward it con-
tinues to graze. Sometimes the scrotum is tied very tightly with a
sinew thread, and after a while becomes atrophied and drops off.
'The milking of the reindeer is another practice which demon-
strates the dependence of the domestication. There can be no
doubt that it came into existence in imitation of milking cows,
mares, and sheep. The fact that this economy is comparatively
old is attested by the Chinese account of the fifth century. Even
the Tungus, who, with a few exceptions, use the reindeer solely for
riding, milk the calving females. Four teacupfuls of milk within
twenty-four hours make the whole produce. The Chukchi even
try to suck milk from the doe's udder. 1 ' The reindeer is plainly
not a milk- furnishing animal, and has been forced by man into
assuming a role which is denied to it by nature. 2 j^^
Property-marks for the purpose of recognizing their aniprals
are utilized by all reindeer-breeding tribes. The Chukchi again
betray their fondness of biting likewise in this case; for they mark
their property by biting a piece out of the fawns' ears in late summer,
or the next spring during the separation of bucks from pregnant
dams. The Lapp, 3 Samoyed, Tungus, and other reindeer peoples,
cut marks in the ears of their animals. Thirteen such marks
from the Tungus of Ayan have been illustrated by Pekarski and
Tsv'atkov. 4 One or two cuts, in straight lines, angular, or rounded,
are made in one ear or in both. This practice has been perpetuated
by our Government in Alaska.
Every local superintendent must take careful oversight of the annual mark-
ing of the reindeer and see that all reindeer are correctly marked according to
ownership. He shall keep a complete list of such marks in the records of the
station. 6
1 Bogoras, I. c.
2 In regard to peculiar methods of milking on the part of the Lapp, see E. Demant,
Buck des Lappen Johan Turi, pp. 30, 39; on the part of the Soyot 0. Olsen, El primitivt
-folk (Kristiania, 1914), p. 67.
3 J. Scheffer, Lappland, p. 379.
4 " Ocerki byta Priayanskix Tungusov," Publication du Musee d'Anthropologie,
vol. n, p. 37-
8 Rules and Regulations regarding the U. S. Reindeer Service in Alaska, approved
June 10, 1907, and December 7, 1008 (Washington, 1911).
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION H7
Aluminum button markers are employed for this purpose. 1 The
reindeer-breeders of Siberia are not the originators of this custom,
but it was doubtless transmitted to them by Turkish-Mongol
tribes. The term tamaga, tamga, tamka, denoting a property-
mark on cattle and subsequently a seal, is common to all of these;
it is diffused all over Siberia, and is even known in China and Tibet
(dam-k'a, t'am-ga). 2
The uniformity of reindeer-breeding is characterized also by the
universal method of lassoing the animals. Everywhere a long
lasso, either plaited from horse-hair or from thin seal-skin straps,
is used for catching the deer after pasturing in the morning, when
its services are required. The Tungus are very skilful in throwing
the lasso from a respectable distance; and most animals will pa-
tiently halt, or even run to their master's side, as soon as merely
touched by the rope. A classical description of this procedure i
given by the Yakut Uvarovski in his autobiography. 3
The reindeer-breeders cannot lay claim, either, to any origin
thought or invention as to the entire apparatus utilized by them in
connection with the reindeer. Above all, the pack-saddle and the
method of loading, riding-saddle, harness, sledge, and snowshoes,
are all borrowed institutions. 4 The geographical distribution of
sledge and snowshoe by no means coincides with the area of reindeer
domestication. On the one hand, we encounter the two imple-
ments among the primitive dog-breeding tribes of northern and
northeastern Asia, inclusive of the Amur and Ussuri regions, where
the reindeer is unknown; and, on the other hand, they extend far
into the south of Siberia, even into Mongolia and Turkistan, where
they are associated neither with the dog nor with the reindeer.
Sledge and snowshoe, accordingly, cover an infinitely wider territory
than the domestic reindeer, and obviously were in existence in
1 S. Jackson, Fourteenth Annual Report on Introduction of Reindeer into Alaska,
1904 (Washington, 1905), p. 108. On plates 33 and 34 of this report will be found
illustrations of several such marks.
2 W. Radloff, Worterbuch der Tilrk-Dialecte, vol. in, col. 1003; T. Watters, Essays
on the Chinese Language, p. 374.
3 O. Bohtlingk, Ueber die Sprache der Jakuten, text, p. 45.
4 Bogoras (/. c., p. 88) has called attention to the uniform character of the collar
for the sledge-reindeer among Chukchi, Tungus, Samoyed, and Lapp.
Il8 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
times prior to its domestication. As we learn from the early
Chinese account relating to the year A.D. 499, the reindeer must
have been trained to the sledge at that date (and certain it is that
this utilization of the animal preceded its breaking-in for the
saddle) ; and, since the same people had also horses and oxen for
drawing vehicles, it is manifest that this older method was simply
transferred to the reindeer. The Chinese annals furnish several
classical examples of the early employment of snowshoe and sledge
on the part of tribes which never availed themselves of the service
of the reindeer.
According to the Annals of the T'ang dynasty (618-906), there
was east of the Kirgiz, on the Yenisei, a tribe styled " Snowshoe
Turks" (Mu ma T'u-kiie, literally, "wooden-horse T'u-kue 'V
consisting of three hordes.
They covered their habitations with birch-bark and owned numerous horses.
They used to cross the ice on snowshoes ('wooden horses') which they tied to
their feet, taking curved branches as supports for the shoulders (snow-sticks),
and thus swiftly pushing ahead.
In regard to the Pa-ye-ku (Bayirku), it is said that all people
put wooden boards under their feet and pursue deer over the ice. 2
The Liu-kuei, a tribe to be located in Kamchatka and mentioned on
page 113, note 3, according to the T'ang Annals, 3 " fastened to their
feet wooden boards six inches wide and seven feet long, and thus
hunted the game over the ice." Likewise the Kirgiz on the upper
Yenisei, of whom we have a description in the Annals of the T'ang,
pursued the game on snowshoes. 4 A description of the snowshoe
and the mode of using it is given also by Rashid-eddin in connection
1 In Tibetan, sin-rta (wooden horse) means any vehicle or carriage. Compare
also Russian konki (skates; literally, little horses), from kon'ok, diminutive of kon f
(horse). Chinese T'u-kiie represents a transcription of the name Turk, more exactly
of the plural form Tiirkiit (see Pelliot, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 687).
2 T'ang hui yao, ch. 98, p. 16. The Pa-ye-ku are mentioned under the name
Bayirku in the Turkish inscriptions of Kiil-tegin and Bilga-kagan; they were a Turkish
tribe living in the north of the Gobi. See also above, p. 105.
3 Ch. 220, p. ii b.
4 Some authors, like Klaproth and Ritter, thought in this connection of sledges;
but it has been correctly observed by W. Schott, in " Ueber die achten Kirgisen," Ab~
handlungen Berliner Akademie (1865), p. 447; and his additional notes in Monats-
berichte Berliner Akademie (1874), PP- I- 8. that snowshoes solely are involved.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION Up
with the Uryangkit (above, p. 108). He adds that the snowshoe is
known in a large part of Mongolia and Turkistan, and that ski-
running is particularly practised by the Barguchim Tukum, Khori,
Kirgiz, Urasut, Telengut, and Tumat. The word used by the
Persian annalist is cane or cana, which, as is well known, is found
in all Turkish and Mongol languages with both significances,
"snowshoe" and "sledge:" Mongol tsana and cana, Buryat
sana, Altaic canak, cana, etc.; Finnish saani, Esthonian san,
Lettish sanus, sanas, Magyar szdn, szdny, or szdnka, szdnko
(diminutive); Russian sani (plural), sanki or sanocki (diminutive). 1
A profound study of all types of sledge and snowshoe will doubt-
less yield promising results. 2 Here it may be emphasized only
that the reindeer-breeders adopted ready-made what they found,
merely changing some of the material : thus they preferred reindeer-,
skin for snowshoes, while the Turks used horse-skin and the Gilyak
seal-skin. L. von Schrenck 3 has shown in particular how the v
Orocon (Schrenck: Oroki), scattered over a few spots of Saghalin
Island, adapted the dog-sledge of the Gilyak to reindeer-trans-
portation. 4
From a negative viewpoint, we might say that neither the
1 J. Kalima (Worter und Sachen (1910), vol. n, p. 183) has studied to some extent
the distribution of this word from the Slavistic standpoint, and arrives at the con-
clusion that it is a very ancient word, which Slavic, Finno-Ugrian, and Turkish lan-
guages have in common. In my opinion, the word is of Turkish-Mongol origin, and
a loan-word in Finno-Ugrian and Slavic. There can be no doubt that the term has
migrated jointly with the object which it denotes. The investigation of Kalima is
obscured by the fact that he adds Lapp cidinne, Russian cuni, cunki (in the northern
dialects), and Vogul sun, which must be dissociated from the above series, and in fact
are independent words.
2 Compare the preliminary remarks on snowshoes by G. Hatt, " Moccasins and
Their Relation to Arctic Footwear," Memoirs American Anthropological Association,
vol. in, 1916, p. 240.
3 Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande, vol. in, p. 494.
4 It is not correct, however, to say with Schrenck that the Saghalin Orocon are
the only Tungusians to make use of sledges in connection with the reindeer. The
practice is not generally Tungusian, as wrongly asserted by C. Hiekisch, Die Tungusen,
p. 78, but is an exception, which, however, occurs sporadically wherever Tungusians
come in contact with Palaeo-Asiatic dog-breeders. The illustration of a Tundra
Tungus in the Kolyma district, driving on a reindeer-sledge, may be seen in V. Jochel-
son, Ocerk zv'aropromyslennosti i torgovli m'axami v Kolymskom okrug' a (Sketch of the
Animal Industry and Fur Trade in the District of Kolyma), p. 36.
120 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
Lapp nor the Ugrians in the west, nor the Yakut (p. no), nor the
Chukchi and Koryak in the northeast, can come into question as
the original reindeer-tamers. Among the Chukchi the introduction
of the reindeer appears to be an affair of comparatively recent date,
as shown, if by nought else, by the imperfect degree of domestica-
tion. It is difficult, however, to accept Bogoras' opinion that
" they did not introduce the tame reindeer from their neighbors,
but that, in imitation of them, they attempted to domesticate the
race of reindeer inhabiting their own country." Such an expendi-
ture of energy cannot be attributed to the Chukchi; and, as a
matter of fact, such an instance of waste of energy is beyond our
experience in the life of peoples. Man in general is not inclined
toward work, unless compelled by sheer necessity or some induce-
ment; still less does he try to do over again what has been accom-
plished by his neighbor. Bogoras believes his theory to be plausible,
since the Chukchi reindeer is quite different from that of the Tungus.
This fact, however, can be simply explained from the constant
crossings between tame and wild reindeer, emphasized by Bogoras
farther on. It is inconceivable that any Palaeo-Asiatic tribe ever
undertook to domesticate the reindeer, as the maintenance of
sleigh-dogs excludes the reindeer. L. von Schrenck l has already
made the appropriate remark that
the ancestors of the migrating Chukchi and Koryak themselves surely did not
domesticate the reindeer, but received it in the domesticated state from a nomadic
.tribe, presumably the Tungus.
Tungusians, however, cannot be claimed to be the originators of
reindeer-domestication, as L. von Schrenck maintains they are.
The first Russian discoverers of eastern Siberia, who came in con-
tact with the Tungus, speak of Reindeer, Horse, Dog, Steppe, and
Woodland Tungus. 2 These divisions have no ethnographical sig-
1 Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande, vol. in, p. 489.
2 P. J. v. Strahlenberg, Das nord- und ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia (Stock-
holm, 1730), p. 423. Regarding the distribution and economy of the Tungus. see S.
Patkanow, " Geographie und Statistik der Tungusen-Stamme Sibiriens " Keleti
Szemle, vol. iv, pp. 141-171, 287-316; vol. v, pp. 36-56, 185-203; vol. vi, pp. 130-
174, 222-283; and the same author's prirosl'a inorodceskago naseleniya Sibiri
(S.-Peterburg, 1911), pp. 87-115.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 121
nificance, but merely allude to the economic conditions under
which the people were encountered at a certain time. Even this
mode of life is by no means a stable characteristic, for the economy
of these tribes is subject to sudden and fundamental changes.
Cases have occurred where reindeer-owners lost their herds and
turned to the rearing of horses or only dogs, or where woodland
people were transformed into inhabitants of the steppe. 1 The
Birar, settled in the river system of the Bureya and on both banks
of the Amur above and below the mouth of that side-river, accord-
ing to the Cossack Poyarkov, who came in touch with them in
1646, were engaged in reindeer-breeding; only thirty-five years
later they are described as horse-nomads. 2 The Tungusians,
accordingly, are shifting opportunists, and, in the course of their
constant peregrinations, simply adopt that mode of life best suited
to the geographical and economic environment of the respective
places. Originally they were mere hunters and fishermen; but,
being possessed of an adaptable spirit and a quick grasp of change-
able conditions, they were capable of appropriating any industry
offered by their neighbors. Historical considerations show us
that the Tungusian tribes, in former periods of their life, were never
given to reindeer-breeding. In fact, they are late arrivals in
Siberia, while their original home is to be sought for in Manchuria.
We can trace their history almost completely from very early
times by means of the Chinese annals; but in these no mention of
reindeer is made with reference to any Tungusian people, with the
sole exception of a branch of the Wu-huan (p. 105). Only when
they were pushed into Siberian regions did they become acquainted
with the reindeer. It is even doubtful whether the Tungusians
were the first to use the reindeer as a riding-beast. The Soyot, !
as will be seen, still ride the reindeer; and the reindeer-riding tribe
alluded to by Marco Polo (p. 107) was doubtless related to the
Soyot or their group.
If it is true that the reindeer represents a mere repetition of
cattle and horse domestication on a smaller scale, it is logical to
1 Examples are cited by C. Hiekisch, Die Tungusen, p. 47; and L. v. Schrenck,
Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande, vol. in, p. 144.
2 Patkanow, Keleti Szemle (1904), vol. V, p. 41.
122 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
conclude that the reindeer can have been domesticated only in a
locality where it occurred in close association with cattle and horse.
In the northern regions, where the wild tundra reindeer prevails,
we meet at present as domestic animals the reindeer and the dog;
in the southern belt, occupied by the wild woodland reindeer, we
find the domestic reindeer in company with other large domestic
stocks. It is therefore clear that the original center of domesti-
cation is to be looked for in the gouthern^belt. The fact that
Ugrian peoples were in possession of reindeer-herds employed as
draught-animals toward the end of the fifteenth century, has been
established from Russian documents (pp. 96-99). At present the
well-to-do Wogul living in Beresov (in the western part of Tobolsk
government) keep cows, horses, and reindeer. They are so reduced
to poverty, however, that few own more than several tens. A
Wogul on the upper Tapsya River, who has a couple of hundred,
is regarded as very rich in this region; whereas, compared with
well-to-do Samoyed in Obdorsk, he would only be a wretched
beggar, for these count their reindeer by the thousands. 1 In the
beginning of the eighteenth century the wealthy among the Ugrian
Ostyak still kept a large number of reindeer, together with cattle,
horses, and dogs; but many of them were so poor that they had to
be content with reindeer. This is the account of G. Novitski, who
wrote in 1715, the earliest historian of this tribe. 2 At the present
time, only the Ostyak of the north, being neighbors of the Samoyed,
still have reindeer; 3 but it lost ground among the Irtysh-Ostyak
farther south. In the epic traditions of this people, ably collected
and translated by S. Patkanov and traced with good reason to a
period from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century, reindeer and
1 A. Ahlquist, in Erman's Archiv fur wissensch. Kunde von Russland (1860), vol.
xx, p. 157. Regarding reindeer among the Wogul, see also A. Erman, Reise um die
Well, vol. i, pt. i, p. 384. Reindeer-sledges of the Wogul are illustrated by K. D.
Nosilov, U Vogulov ocerki i nabroski (1904), pp. 183, 189.
2 G. Novitski, Kratkoe opisanie o narod'd Ost'atskom, ed. of L. Maikov (St. Peters-
burg, 1884), p. 37. An interesting contribution to the history of this people is the
article of A. van Gennep, " Origine et fortune du nom de peuple ' ostiak ' " Keleti
Szemle (1902), vol. in, pp. 13-32; reprinted in his Religions, mceurs et legendes, pp.
94-109.
3 M. A. Castren, Reiseerinnerungen aus den Jahren 1838-1844, p. 300.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 12$
dog are mentioned as domestic animals. At that time, also the
inhabitants of the northern part of the district of Tobolsk kept
herds of reindeer; while at present half-domesticated reindeer are
encountered only farther northward, beneath Beresov. The
domestic reindeer supplied the Ostyak with meat, skins, and sinews;
served as most important draught-animal in those snow-abounding
regions; and was slaughtered in honor of the gods on the occasion
of the sacrificial holidays. When the breeding of reindeer was still
thriving among them, this animal was exclusively chosen for the
sacrifice, which is still customary in the north, among the Ostyak
and Samoyed living there. 1 Patkanov holds the opinion that
reindeer-breeding is only a secondary industry among the Ostyak
and Wogul; that is to say, when these tribes were pushed from
southern regions into their present northern domicile, they were
compelled to abandon the larger domestic breeds in consequence
of unfavorable geographical conditions, and to take to the reindeer.
I would not subscribe to this theory unconditionally; but what
interests us in this connection is merely the coexistence of reindeer,
cattle, and horse among Wogul and Ostyak, neither of whom,
notwithstanding, can be regarded as the original domesticator of
the reindeer.
There is but one territory where all the necessary postulates for
reindeer-breeding are given, and which may come into question as
the original center of the domestication, and this is the region of
Lake Baikal. There we meet the reindeer, wild and domesticated,
and, as has been shown, from ancient times. There we meet a
host of tribes partially engaged in horse and cattle rearing, and
partially depending on the reindeer; there, accordingly, the contact
of reindeer-breeders with horse and cattle raisers is virtually estab-
lished. The ancient Chinese records, as we have seen, likewise
point to the same center. In the Baikal territory we find at the
present time three large and distinct stocks of peoples, the Buryat,
a branch of the Mongol family ; Tungusians ; and a large number of
tribes, originally of Samoyed and Yenisei-Ostyak stock, but now
either Turkicized (otatarilis, " Tatarized," as the Russians say)
1 S. Patkanov, Die Irtysch-Ostjaken, vol. i, p. 109; vol. n, p. 017.
124 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
or Mongolized, and for the most part speaking a Turkish language.
The Buryat occupy the area in the governments of Irkutsk and
Transbaikalia from the Chinese frontier as far as the Lena system
northward, and from the rivers Onon to Oka, the side-river of the
Angara, westward, and still farther west into the region of Nizne-
Udinsk. The Buryat element is strongest beyond the Baikal, in
the valleys of the Uda, Onon, and Selenga. Those on this side of
the Baikal are to some extent Russianized, even practising agri-
culture. The others are herdsmen and owners of horses, cattle,
sheep, and goats. The reindeer is entirely foreign to them, and
never was in the hands of any tribe of the Mongol family. Tun-
gusians are scattered in the governments of Irkutsk, Yenisei, and
Transbaikalia, chiefly subsisting on fishing and hunting, but also
on agriculture and cattle-breeding. In Irkutsk government only a
few clans on the upper Lena keep reindeer; in Yenisei government
the latter are owned only by the well-to-do. In Transbaikalia we
encounter among the Tungusians hunters, agriculturists, cattle-
breeders, and reindeer people. Especially those inhabiting the
districts of Tshitin and Barguzin keep reindeer. 1
It seems certain that the Samoyed are not autochthonous in
their present habitats, but migrated there from southern regions,
in all probability from the territory of the Sayan mountains or the
upper courses of the Yenisei basin, where there are still many
scattered tribes of them enclosed by Mongols and Turks. Most of
these split Samoyed adopted the language and customs of their
superior neighbors, yet they remain conscious of the fact of their
original nationality. I designate this group as Sayan tribes or
southern Samoyed. Among the Soyot within the boundaries of
China there are family-names that also occur among the Samoyed
roving along the Arctic littorals. 2 The Woodland Kamasin still
spoke Samoyed at the time of Castren's travels (about 1840-50);
1 S. Patkanov, Keleti Szemle, vol. vi (1905), pp. 278, 279. Concerning the Bar-
guzin Tungus, see an article by N. M. Dobromyslov, " Zam'atki po etnografii Bar-
guzinskix Orocen," in Trudy of the Troitskosavsk-Kiachta Section of the Imperial
Geogr. Soc., vol. v (1902), pp 78-87.
2M. A. Castren, Kleinere Schriften, pp. 116-117; W. Crahmer, Zeitschrifl filr
Ethnologic (1912), p. no.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 12$
but fifteen years later, when visited by W. Radloff, 1 they had
adopted a Turkish form of speech. Two groups of these peoples
are still active reindeer-breeders, the Karagas and the Soyot.
The former roam in the territory between the rivers Oka, Uda,
Biryusa, and Kan (the boundary district of the governments of
Yenisei and Irkutsk), numbering about 550 individuals. They are
divided into five clans, one living in the neighborhood of the Soyot,
another near the Kamasin, and another near the Buryat. Although
now speaking a Turkish language of which we have an excellent
grammar by Castren, and closely resembling their Turkish neighbors
in costume and manners, their methods of hunting and reindeer-
keeping, as well as their winter tents made of reindeer-skins, are
identical with those of the Samoyed. Also their physical habitus,
several of their family names, and the survival of many Samoyed
words in their speech, clearly bespeak their origin. The Soyot or
Soyon, styling themselves Tuba and designated by the Mongols
Urangkhai (see above, p. 109), inhabit northwestern Mongolia and a
small strip of country along the Russian frontier from the sources
of the river Kobdo as far as lake Koso. A great number of them
who live farther south on the slopes of the Tangnu mountains are
completely converted into Mongols. According to Castren, many
Soyot clan-names agree with those of the Samoyed ; and the Soyot
clan Mattar, according to traditions, originated from the Mator,
who decidedly were Samoyed ; he argued also that several Yenisei-
Ostyak clans had become Soyot. Radloff 2 regards them as a medley
of Kirgiz, Samoyed, and Yenisei-Ostyak; Katanov, 3 as consisting
of Mongol, Turkish, and Samoyed elements. At present their
language is Turkish, but among many tribes Buddhism and Mongol
speech have spread so widely, that the Turkish element is threatened
with extinction.
G. Radde, 4 in 1862, outlined the following sketch of the distri-
1 Ethnographische Uebersicht der Tiirkstamme, p. 6. Regarding the Saj^an tribes
compare also the interesting article of N. F. Katanov, " Predaniya Prisayanskix
piemen o preznix d'alax i 1'ud'ax," in Sbornik v cest' semides'atil'atiya G. N. Potanina,
pp. 265-288.
* L. c., p. 17.
3 In Sbornik Potanina, p. 286.
4 Reisen im Stiden von Ost-Sibirien, vol. I, Saugetierfauna, p. 287.
126 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
bution of the reindeer in the Baikal region. South of Ilchir lake
the tame reindeer, together with the horse and frequently also with
cattle, is found among the mountain tribes. During the summer a
division of these herds becomes necessary, the reindeer being driven
into the high mountains of an altitude of seven or eight thousand
feet, the horses and cattle grazing in the deeper valleys of four or
five thousand feet. In the Baikal regions the reindeer is ubiquitous;
in the southwestern parts, however, it is sparse now. In the
mountains where the river Jida takes its source, south of Turansk,
it is met among the Uryankhai, who inhabit there the space between
the Russian and Chinese frontiers. It is excluded from the Selenga
valley, the upper part of which, on the Russian side, is inhabited
by Buryat engaged in the rearing of sheep, cattle, and horses.
In the northeastern corner of lake Baikal it increases in frequency,
but even there the Tungusians become impoverished in consequence
of the decrease of the stock. In regard to the Soyot and Jot, he
observes that they rear reindeer in large numbers (up to three
hundred). The wild species still occurs farther to the south as an
inhabitant of the upper zones of the forest boundary, and beyond
as far as the snow-line. Hahn 1 has made the correct observation
that in the Sayan mountains, the source of the Amur, the reindeer
reaches the southernmost point of its diffusion, and comes there in
contact with the camel and tame yak; but he draws from this fact
no conclusion whatever as to the home of the domestication, but
offers solely the commonplace remark that any of the migratory
tribes of northeastern Asia may have been pushed back into an
inhospitable country, and, losing its stock of cattle and pack-
animals owing to the unfavorable climate, tamed the reindeer as a
substitute.
The Soyot were visited and studied in the summer of 1914 by
0rjan Olsen, who published interesting information on the tribe. 2
According to this author, the breeding of reindeer constitutes a
secondary industry among the Soyot, who also keep horses and
dogs, in opposition to the Lapp and Samoyed. Their herds are
1 Haustiere, p. 266.
2 Et primitivt folk. De mongolske Rennomader (Kristiania, 1915). Compare the
analysis of Ch. Rabot in La Geographic, vol. xxxi (1916-17), pp. 42-46.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
not very numerous. The most fortunate among the inhabitants
of the Sayan mountains (and there are few) own no more than four
hundred animals; in general, the herds count from ten to fifteen
heads, at least on the banks of the Sesti-Kem. The people, ac-
cordingly, cannot live exclusively on the flesh of their herds'; and
those on the upper Yenisei loathe to slaughter their animals, unless
compelled to do so by famine. The only alimentary product is the
milk, consumed either fresh or in the shape of butter or cheese.
One or two large cupfuls are obtained from each operation, which
is performed twice a day in an enclosure formed by wooden palisades.
The reindeer is used by the Soyot as a pack and riding animal. 1
It is not attached to a sledge. The animal belongs to a very sturdy
breed, the largest being able to carry loads from eighty to one
hundred and ten kilo; with such a load, they make five to six kilo-
meters an hour.
Among the Soyot, the domestication of the reindeer has pro-
gressed further than among any North-Asiatic tribe. Although
they capture wild reindeer and cross these with their domesticated
individuals, this offspring is remarkably little savage. Whereas
other reindeer must be lassoed in order to be caught for duty,
the Soyot reindeer allow themselves to be caught by hand, and
follow their master like dogs, licking his hand with the expectation
of a bit of salt. When pasturing in the woodland, a call from
their owner is sufficient to make them return immediately. It is a
notable feature also that the domestic reindeer of the Soyot terri-
tory is capable of standing the extreme summer heat. At that
time the wild reindeer, which likewise occurs in the region of the
sources of the Yenisei, take refuge in the snow zone of the high
mountains. The domesticated herds constantly remain in the
forest, in the proximity of human habitations, without suffering
1 Compare the illustrations in Olsen, pp. 52, 73. According to I. Pesterev
Magasin asiatique, by J. Klaproth (Paris, 1825), vol. I, p. 126, who was commanded
to the Russian-Chinese frontier in the districts Udinsk and Abakansk from 1772 to
1781, the nomadic tribes near the fort of Udinsk (then belonging to the government
of Tobolsk), divided into four sections, Silpigursk, Udinsk, Karagansk, and Kamgatsk,
kept domestic reindeer from oldest times, the richest possessing a hundred animals;
seven years before his time they lost the greatest part. He states also that the stags
were used for the hunt and mounted by the hunters.
128
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
from the heat. During the hot hours they rest under thickly
foliated trees. In order to protect the fawns from the blaze of the
sun, the Soyot erect hedges around large cedars.
The culture of the Soyot, like that of any other people in north-
ern and central Asia, is in a state of complete disintegration, and
original conditions can no longer be expected. What we find at
present is merely the weak echo of a former glory which still elo-
quently speaks to us from the brief accounts of Marco Polo, Rashid-
/ eddin, and the Chinese annals. Itjs difficult, if not impossible, to
i credit any domestication to a certain people, or even to a certain
* stock of peoples. In the majority of cases we must be content to
trace the beginnings of a domestication to a more or less securely
defined geographical area. In the present case it can be positively
stated only that the primeval domestication of the reindeer took
place in the Baikal region; but, if the original domestication of the
^
reindeer is to be attached to the name of a tribal group, I should
venture to say it was the southern Samoyed, or the Samoyed in
the early period of their history, before migrating into their present
northern habitats. I do not say, of course, that the present Soyot
were the domesticators : our knowledge of the history of this tribe
is altogether too vague to admit of such an interpretation. The
Soyot are simply remnants and epigones of that once extended and
powerful family in the midst of which this fact was accomplished.
The history of the domestication can now be clearly conceived.
From the Samoyed it spread eastward to the Tungusians ; from the
latter to the Yakut, Chukchi, and Koryak; westward to the Ugrian
tribes of the Ural and the Lapp. 1 Applied to the reindeer, this
result means that the woodland reindeer was domesticated in times
prior to the tundra reindeer. When the Samoyed moved north-
ward, they naturally took along their woodland reindeer, and
gradually replenished and improved their old stock by capturing
wild tundra reindeer (by the methods described in the following
1 The peculiar boat-shaped sledges of the Lapp, to which G. Hatt, " Lappiske
slsedeformer," Geografi.sk Tidskrift, vol. xxn (1913), pp. 139-145, has devoted a
special study, in my opinion are derived from the Samoyed; for A. Olearius, Reise-
Beschreibungen (Hamburg, 1696), p. 81, already mentions the reindeer-sledges of the
Samoyed, which are shaped like half canoes or boats.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 1 29
chapter), until a point was reached when the latter breed pre-
ponderated or prevailed exclusively.
The Ainu of Saghalin do not keep reindeer, but only know the
animal (styled by them tonakai) in the possession of the Tungusian
Orocon. It would hardly be necessary to emphasize this fact,
were it not that A. E. von Nordenskiold 1 has published the sketch
of an Ainu standing on large snowshoes, and pulled along by a
reindeer the bridle of which is tied to his belt. This illustration
is said to be derived from a Japanese book published in 1804. In
regard to such an employment of the reindeer onJbe^rjaTt of the
Ainu I learned nothing on Saghalin, nor^^rTMd any reference to
it in the literature on the Aim^^Even the Japanese traveler
Mamia Rinso, who visTteS^Saghalin in 1808, and whose valuable
account has been made accessible by Ph. von Siebold, gives no
information on this point ; on the contrary, he mentions the reindeer
only in the possession of the Orotsuko (Orokko, Oroki, Orocon).
The sketch in question, accordingly, is either based on an incidental
and isolated occurrence, or, which is more probable, represents a
purely imaginative artistic production in which two features foreign
to the Japanese snowshoes and reindeer were arbitrarily com-
bined.
PROCESS OF DOMESTICATION
We have no contemporaneous records showing how the i
domestication of the reindeer was brought into effect. In order to
obtain some idea as to how this was done, or might have been done, we
must rely upon a reconstructive method. One means to this end
is furnished by present-day observations of the training of indi-
vidual animals. The schooling of the 'individual is typical of the
entire breed, and the course of lessons through which each animal
has to run at present must have been valid, with some variations
perhaps, also ages ago.
In regard to the training of the animals, S. Jackson 3 has the fol-
lowing observation :
1 Umsegelung Asiens und Europas auf der Vega, vol. n, p. 101.
2 Ph. von Siebold, Nippon, new ed., vol. n, p. 229.
3 Fourteenth Annual Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska
(Washington, 1905), p. 126.
130
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
The training begins when the deer is three years old. Generally the stoutest
males and geldings are selected. Females are also trained, but they are smaller
and less enduring. The training begins by lassoing the selected animals, thus
separating them from the herd. The poor beasts are much scared, and jump
about in frantic efforts to escape. The trainer advances hand over hand on the
rawhide lasso till the head is reached. They are then sometimes given a little
salt, of which they are fond; they are then led about for some time or tied to a
post to, accustom them to confinement and, the lesson over, again released.
This is repeated day by day, and when sufficiently tamed they are harnessed
and in the same manner gradually accustomed to draw light loads. This takes a
long time and persistent work. They should not be worked before they are
three years old. At six or seven they reach their prime and then gradually
decline.
The Eskimo selected by the government as apprentices to learn
the art of breeding reindeer from expert Lapp reindeer-men enter
into an agreement to remain from two to five years, or until suf-
ficient skill to handle a herd is acquired. 1 This affords some idea
as to the time required for a man to develop into a herder.
Although the reindeer is the only species of the deer family
that has been brought into the state of domestication, there are
many examples known of other members of the family Cervidae
which develop a great adaptability to domestication and have been
tamed to a high degree. Yet domestication has succeeded only
in the case of the reindeer. The efforts to raise other kinds of
deer are interesting to the student of reindeer-domestication as
affording an object-lesson and showing us the possibilities in the
initial stages preceding the state of true domestication.
All of the deer family are easily tamed. The moose has often been reared
and tamed in this country ; but I know of no systematic attempt to domesticate
them, nor have I ever heard of their breeding in domestication. They have
been sometimes broken to the harness and proved themselves able to draw good
loads; and yet I know of no regular effort that has been made to reduce them to
servitude. When tamed, they are reasonably docile, except the males during
the rutting season, when, as might be suspected, they become ferocious, and
should be kept in close quarters where they can do no harm. If castrated young,
and early taught obedience to man, we may not doubt that they would readily
submit to his dominion, and their great strength would give promise of useful
Ibid., p. 128.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION l$l
beasts of draught, especially in countries where deep snows prevail, through
which they pass with facility where ordinary cattle could make no progress. 1
A highly interesting notice on deer-farming has been written
by D. E. Lantz. 2 In the United States, the wapiti or Rocky
Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis) and the Virginia deer (Odocoileus
mrginianus] are managed and reared in enclosures, chiefly for profit
in the sale of venison ; but also the desire to preserve our vanishing
game has caused the confinement of small herds under private
ownership in many places. The elk readily adapts itself to any
environment. It proves especially useful in clearing out under-
brush from thickets, in which they are more useful than goats,
since they browse higher. The increase of elk, while kept in pre-
serves with surroundings as nearly natural as possible, is equal to
that of cattle: fully ninety per cent, of the females produce healthy
young. The male elk is ordinarily docile, but in the rutting season
the older ones often become ill-tempered and dangerous. The
remedy for viciousness is castration, the effects of which are that
the animal is made docile, and its value for venison is greatly
enhanced. The stocking of parks and preserves with deer merely
for sport or aesthetic purposes appeals much more to a sensitive
mind. The idea of raising beautiful animals like deer merely for
slaughtering purposes is revolting and unsportsmanlike, and for
this reason has no future. A vigorous propaganda in favor of the
destruction of some of our finest game-animals, which we have
every reason to wish to see preserved, should be combated in all
ways possible.
Examples of tame deer can be gathered from all parts of the
world and from all times. In ancient Italy herdsmen reared does
(caprea) on sheep's milk, and the wealthy Romans were fond of
keeping them in their parks together with chamois and gazelles. 3
1 J. D. Caton, The Antelope and Deer in America, p. 277. This author, further,
has interesting notes on efforts to tame caribou, elk, and other deer.
2 " Deer Farming in the United States," published by the U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Farmer's Bulletin 330 (Washington, 1908), p. 20. Compare also the same
author's " Raising Deer and Other Large Game Animals in the United States," pub-
lished by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Biological Survey, Bull. No. 36 (Wash-
ington, 1910), p. 62.
3 O. Keller, Tiere des classischen Allertums, p. 103.
132 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
Tame stags are frequently mentioned by Greeks and Romans.
Sertorius owned in Spain a white deer, which, he made the people
believe, communicated prophesies to him. Vergil 1 tells how a
stately stag was bathed, combed, and adorned with flowers by
Silvia, the daughter of the head pastor Tyrrhus, and how the
animal became accustomed to the master's hand and table. In
art, neck-collars and girth are repeatedly represented on stags.
Apollo, Artemis, and Amor drive in chariots drawn by stags or
deer. Heliogabalus possessed a chariot pulled by four powerful
stags; and Aurelian, in his triumph over Zenobia, drove with a
team of four tame stags which had once belonged to a king of the
Goth. 2 Columella 3 says that wild animals, like roes, antelopes,
stags, and boars, are kept either for one's pleasure or for sale and
profit. In the former case, any hedged place near one's homestead
is sufficient, and the animals receive food and drink from one's
hand; a plot of woodland with running water, walled around or
fenced with pallisades, must be set aside for the game.
The genus Dama, which originally appears to have been re-
stricted to the Mediterranean countries and Persia, has been intro-
duced into western and central Europe, where it exists in a semi-
domesticated condition as far north as the British Islands and the
south of Sweden.
Owing to long domestication [read "taming"], the fallow deer of the British
parks frequently display great variation from the original type of coloration,
and a uniformly dark brown breed has been long established, while white or
whitish varieties are far from uncom ;: :.i.
Tamed deer were kept and fed by the hermits of ancient India.
The deer-park near Rajagriha in which Buddha used to dwell is
familiar to all readers of Buddhist literature. The kings of India
built special stables for deer on the west side of their palaces. 5
West of Tokmak the Turkish Khans of the seventh century
maintained a summer residence with a park of tame harts provided
1 Aeneis, vn, 483.
2 Keller, 1. c., p. 90; and Antike Tierwelt, vol. i, p. 278.
3 De re rustica, ix, i.
4 R. Lydekker, Catalogue of the Ungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Lon-
don, 1915), vol. iv, p. 229.
6 B. K. Sarkar, The Sukramti (Allahabad, 1914). P- 3O.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 133
with bells and rings, in the words of the Buddhist pilgrim Hiian
Tsang, " familiar with men and not fleeing at their sight." The
Khan, being very fond of them, forbade his subjects to kill them on
pain of death without remission. 1
The Island Mijo, or Aki-no Mijo (so called from the neighbor-
hood of the province Aki), is famous for a particular breed of
deer, which they say are very tame and familiar with the inhabi-
tants. It is contrary to the laws of the country to chase and to
kill them. 2
In several places of the Altai, the maral (Cervus elaphus) is
reared in captivity in consequence of the large demand for its
antlers on the part of the Chinese, who are said to pay as much as
150 rubles for a pair, and employ it for medicinal purposes. Taming
and feeding the animals are said to be easy; the antlers are cut off
in their third year, the operation being without harm for the
animals. 3 The Chinese have many stories in regard to tame deer,
which were even used for drawing carriages. In mythology, gods
and fairies ride on deers' backs. 4 Some tribes of Formosa practised
the capturing of harts alive, and dexterity in this feat was regarded
as a manly virtue highly extolled by folk-songs. 5
It is not necessary to multiply these examples. Those given
illustrate sufficiently the fact that many species of deer exhibit a
high degree of adaptability, and that in diverse parts of the world
and at different times efforts have been made to tame them and
to keep them as pets in parks mainly for aesthetic reasons. In
the case of every domestication, the animal deserves as much
credit as man; an animal unqualified for the status, and without
sympathetic instincts for man, cannot be domesticated.
1 S. Julien, Memoir es sur les contrees occidentales, vol. I, p. 14; S. Beal, Records
of Western Countries, vol. i, p. 28; Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs)
occidentaux, p. 120.
2 E. Kaempfer, History of Japan (Glasgow edition), vol. I, p. 200.
3 A. Printz, Erman's Archiv fur wissenschaftl. Kunde von Russland, vol. xxv,
1867, p. 294; A. Jarilow, Beitrag zur Landwirtschaft in Sibirien, r. 319.
4 An interesting article on Chinese notions of cervines is by M. Cibot, " Notice
sur le cerf," in Memoires concernant les Chinois (Paris, 1788), vol. xui, pp. 402408.
6 K. Florenz, " Formosanische Volkslieder," Mitt. D. Ges. Ostasiens, vol. vu,
(1898-99), p. 122.
134 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
The following case presents a good example as to how primitive
man may have managed to get possession of wild reindeer alive.
The ancient Kitan and Jurci (Niiici) of Manchuria had a peculiar
method of hunting deer by imitating its belling, and killing with
arrow-shots the animal thus allured. 1
A lively description of this manner of hunting was given in the
eighteenth century by C. Visdelou 2 as follows:
The Niuci were always celebrated for a sort of hunting peculiar to their
nation. The same method is still appropriate solely to the Manchu. These
tell the following story as a well-substantiated fact. Briefly before the rutting-
season each stag will establish a seraglio of does and occupy a stretch of forest
or mountain. After this division there are stags left who either did not receive
their share or were robbed of their spoils. Each is intent on acquiring a terri
tory by right of conquest. He invades the district of one of his neighbors. On
entering it he utters a cry as a challenge for combat. A courageous owner does
not await another call, but will pounce on the intruder instantaneously. Mean-
while the does will line themselves up in two rows to watch the duel. The
adversary being put to flight or thrown to the ground, his does will pass over to
the victor. The Manchu take a stag's head with the antlers, hollow it out, and
place it over their own head. With a hidden decoy whistle they imitate the
call of a stag so perfectly that the animal is deceived. They crouch in the thicket,
and at the sound of the whistle the stag comes out in the open for an attack,
sometimes so precipitately and furiously that the hunter has no time to make
use of his weapons. He who is thus surprised is usually lost and torn to pieces.
During his youth the Emperor K'ang-hi once risked his life on such a hunt, which
takes place annually. The Manchu affirm that the best, largest, and strongest
1 H. C. v. d. Gabelentz, Geschichte der grossen Liao, pp. 98, 154; Chavannes, " Voy-
ageurs chinois chez les Khitan," Journal asiatique (mai-juin, 1897), p. 404; also
Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de I'Asie, p. 90. In the latter's translation appears a
zoological puzzle by which no one as yet seems to have been struck. According to
Klaproth, the Jurci subsisted on the flesh of the stags, and prepared an intoxicating
beverage from the milk of the does. The question as to how it was possible to milk a
wild animal did not alarm the learned sinologue. In fact, the Chinese author, the
traveler Hu Kiao, who lived among the barbarians of the north from 947 to 953,
did not write this nonsense. The text of the Wu tai ski (ch. 73, p. 3 b), in which his
account is embodied, simply contains a misprint (mi 1j$ , Cervus davidianu*, instead
of mi, " millet "); and the passage means, as rendered by Chavannes, " They make a
fermented beverage from a decoction of millet." Schlegel (T'oung Pao, vol. in
(1894), ,p. 141), citing the same passage after Ma Tuan-lin, arbitrarily takes the term
mi in the sense of " reindeer," and thinks that the Jurci distilled an alcoholic beverage
from reindeer's milk. As to the other animals mentioned by Hu Kiao in this region,
the " wild dogs " (ye kou), I believe, represent Canis procyonoides.
2 In d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque orientale (La Haye, 1789), vol. iv, p. 292.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 135
stags are brought in from these hunting-expeditions, and that there is no finer
sight than the majesty, pride, and intrepidity of these animals when coming
forward to fight, a quality less conspicuous at other times.
G. Radde 1 reports that during the rutting season the hunters of
the Sayan, Baikal, Yabloko, and Chingan mountains avail them-
selves of slightly curved horns made from fir or larch wood; 2 on
the left bank of the Amur they use also the thick, hollow stems of
the Kongola-Umbelle (Calisace daurica). At this time the stag is
not timid, and approaches the hidden sportsman at a short distance.
Old stags, however, do not easily accept this challenge to battle,
and are said to discriminate well between the call of the hunters
and their own kind. The Mongols avail themselves of a whistle
(called urum or urum-dal) to attract the hart, or also imitate his
cry.
According to the reminiscences of the Lapp, they received their
domesticated reindeer from the wild animal. Johan Turi narrates
in his autobiography (p. 64),
In ancient times there were many wild reindeer, and there was no one who
cared to guard reindeer. And the Lapp learned how to make the wild reindeer
feel safe, so that they remained in his herd. When a wild reindeer has joined
the herd, it is necessary to go cautiously around the herd and to allow it to walk
ahead quite a distance, that the wild reindeer does not know that men are near.
When the wild animal has visited the herd, it is familiar with it, and does not
move away even when seeing men. Not all wild reindeer, however, are equally
bold; some never become confiding, however long they may remain with the
herd, but some it takes only little time to become accustomed to reindeer and
man; neither does it run away unless it should drift into a troup of wild reindeer;
in this case it follows the wild ones. The timid ones can never be tamed. The
wild ones are much larger than the domesticated stock, and more glossy, as
though having silver hair. A few of those which cannot be rendered tame were
obtained in this manner, that a wild reindeer bull visited the herd in the rutting
season. And when a wild reindeer is in the herd, the latter need not be guarded.
Johan Turi continues (p. 65),
A Lapp sojourned in the vicinity of Koutokaino, and he would annually
1 Reisen im Suden von Ost-Sibirien, vol. i, p. 284. Radde has transcribed the
call in notes. See also A. von Middendorff, Sibirische Rehe, vol. iv, p. 1390.
2 According to the Ta Kin kuo chi (ch. 39, p. i; written in 1234 by Yii-wen Mou-
chao), the Jurci made horns from birchbark, on which they produced sounds like
yu-yu, in order to allure the harts (mi-lu), and then to shoot them with bow and
arrow. Yu-yu is a Chinese term of endearment for a tame deer.
136 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
allow the reindeer to mate on a strip of land in the Elf. A wild reindeer always
appeared during the mating-season for several years, and he did not kill him.
Somebody, however, killed him at last. And the Lapp regarded this as a much
more deplorable loss than if it had been one of his own bulls. Yet he received
offspring from the wild reindeer. His deer became as glossy and slender as wild
reindeer; it was quite extraordinary reindeer, and every one envied him for his
reindeer, since they were much finer than others.
While this account proves nothing for the origin of the domesti-
cation, it shows clearly that the old stock was renewed and re-
cruited from wild material, and that a great number of wild animals
were gradually absorbed by the Lapp. In this respect also Oh-
there's account given above (p. 95) is of fundamental value.
.^ Aside from battues, the Samoyed have conceived a peculiar
.^ method of capturing wild reindeer. They train four or five tame,
/ usually female, reindeer in such a manner that they walk together
around the hunter in a certain order. One walks ahead, being
held by a rope many fathoms long, the others going at the side
of the hunter, who fastens to his girdle the ropes of all animals.
The hunter, clad in reindeer-skins and bending low, steals along
as near as he can to the wild herd, and picks out the best specimen
for his shot. During the rutting season the Samoyed select a
strong, ungelded buck, and look for a wild herd. When such is
sighted, slings are laid around the antlers of the buck and attached
by means of loose bast. Thus he is set on the wild herd. The
wild stag, being aware of the alien rival, challenges him to a duel.
During the brawl, his antlers become entangled in the slings of the
tame pseudo-opponent, who will press his antlers toward the
ground, and thus hold the adversary till the hunter arrives. 1
The Ostyak have developed a similar method, or rather adopted
it from the Samoyed. They fasten to their tame deer a strap
between the upper tips of the antlers, and allow them to disperse
near a herd of wild ones. These rush on the strangers, and, during
the struggle, entangle their antlers in the straps prepared, being
held till the arrival of their captors. 2 A similar method prevails
1 P. S. Pallas, Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs (1776),
vol. in, p. 91.
2 A. Erman, Reise um die Welt, vol. i, pt. i, p. 653.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 137
among the Amur tribes. In the autumn and the spring the native
hunters indulge in the chase of wild reindeer by means of tame ones.
The latter are let loose, but held with a long strap by the hunter,
who cautiously follows behind in their trail. According to his
will, the reindeer is made to pasture, to lie down, to stand up, and
to turn round in this or that direction. The skilful hunter can
thus slay many wild deer before his presence is suspected by the
herd. 1 V. Jochelson 2 has described the same procedure for the
inhabitants of the Kolyma district, where the decoy animal is
known under the name man'scik (probably from Russian manit',
" to lure "), in the language of the Lamut ondadd. Thus the
practice is universal throughout Siberia. This method may illus-
trate how the decoys of Ohthere were used (p. 95), and how primi-
tive man at all times understood how to add a fresh supply to his
stock. What method he employed in detail for breaking his deer
certainly escapes our knowledge. Some of his methods have been
alluded to, as gelding and the imitation of processes gained b 1
experience with other domestications.
An interesting problem is whether reindeer-driving is to be
conceived as an imitation of the method of driving on dog-sledges.
In regard to the latter we possess unfortunately little historical
material. We have seen that dog-sleighs were known among the
Kirgiz in the thirteenth century (p. in) and in northwestern Siberia
in 1499 (p. 97), and that they even extended to the west of the
Ural in ancient times. 3 Driving with dogs is practised throughout
Siberia. As is well known, the dog was originally the sole domestic
animal kept by the so-called Palaeo- Asiatic peoples, the Ainu,
Gilyak, Kamchadal, Yenisei-Ostyak, 4 Yukagir, Koryak, and Chuk-
1 Grum-Grzimailo, Opisanie Amurskoi Oblasti, pp. 334, 335.
2 Ocerk zv' dropromyslennosti i lorgovli m'axami v Kolymskom okrug' a (Sketch of
the Animal Industry and Fur Trade in the District of Kolyma), p. 44-
3 These data escaped L. von Schrenck (Reisen'und Forschungen im Amur-Lande,
vol. in, p. 488) in his discussion as to the time when the Russians became acquainted
with dog-driving; he does not go beyond the seventeenth century. S. von Herber-
stein (Notes upon Rtissia, vol. n, p. 46) mentions large dogs used as beasts of burden,
"which are very useful for this purpose, with which they convey baggage in carriages,
in the same manner as will be hereafter described in speaking of the deer." Compare
above, p. 99.
4 J. Klaproth, Asia polyglolta (Paris, 1823), p. 167, stated that the Yenisei-Ostyak
138 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
chi; and dog-sleighs represent the exclusive means of land trans-
portation among these tribes. The same condition is found among
the Eskimo, while the tame reindeer is unknown to them. From
this wide geographical distribution covering the Old and New
Worlds it necessarily follows that the employment of the dog
for the sledge is far older in time than that of the reindeer for the
same purpose. Although strictly mathematical proof cannot be
put forward, the ethnographical facts well warrant the conclusion
that the reindeer-sledge is based on the dog-sledge, and that rein-
deer-driving sprang into existence as a perfectly conscious and
volitional imitation of driving with dogs. This being the case,
it is clear that the reindeer people must have profited from the
experiences of the dog-drivers, and reproduced many of their
methods. 1
subsist on fishing, hunting, and to a small extent reindeer-breeding. Recent authors
say nothing about this point, but mention only fishing and hunting, with the dog as
the exclusive domestic animal (S. Patkanov, Essai d'une statistique et d'une geographic
des peuples palae-asiatiques (St.-Petersbourg, 1903), p. 9). The peculiar language of
this group has been studied by M. A. Castren, Versuch einer Yenisej-ostjakischen und
kotlischen Sprachlehre (St.-Petersburg, 1858). G. I. Ramstedt " Ueber den Ursprung
der sog. Jenisej-Ostjaken," Journal de la Societe finno-ougrienne, vol. xxiv, 1907, pp.
1-6, has made the singular attempt to compare the Yenisei-Ostyak numerals from
two to ten with those of Tibetan and Chinese, and to proclaim on the basis of this
result the Yenisei-Ostyak as a branch of the Indo-Chinese family. The alleged coin-
cidences are by no means convincing, and either do not exist at all, or are mere re-
semblances on paper; not phonetical, however. It would hardly be worth while to
call attention to this fantasy if the author were not a good philologist, whose contri-
butions to Mongol phonology and dialects command respect.
1 Two extraordinary statements in respect to reindeer-driving are made by the
Jesuit Philippe Avril, Ttavels into Divers Parts of Europe and Asia (London, 1693),
p. 172, English translation of his Voyage en divers etats d'Europe et d'Asie (Utrecht,
1673, and Paris, 1692). " To make the reine-deer go more swift, they tie a great dog
behind, that scaring the poor beast with his barking, sets her a running with that
speed, as to draw her burthen no less then forty leagues a day." " But that which
is more wonderful as to these sort of sledds, they are also driven along by the wind
sometimes over the land cover'd with snow, sometimes over the ice of frozen rivers,
as our vessels, that sail upon the sea. For in regard the country beyond Siberia is
open and extreamly level as far as Mount Caucasus, the people who inhabit it making
use of this advantage to spare their beasts, have so order'd their sledds, as either
to be drawn along by^the reine-deer, or else to carry sails, when the wind favours
'em." I cannot find any confirmation of this dog contrivance and of sail sledges in
any other source. Avril was commissioned by the then King of France to discover
a new way by land into China, left Marseilles in 1664, reached Moscow, where he
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 139
The advantages of reindeer over dog keeping are obvious. The
reindeer feeds itself, the dog must be fed. In traveling, food must
be carried for the dogs. The maintenance of dogs develops into a
burdensome task. In case of emergency the reindeer will furnish
food to his master.
As soon as the wind blows a little, the dog cannot travel; especially is this
so if the wind happens to be in the face. The deer does not mind the wind in
the least, from whatever direction it comes; it rather enjoys travelling against
the wind. It costs nothing for feed; it faces all weather, and makes its way
where the driver can hardly walk without snowshoes. It goes uphill and down-
hill alike. Trail or no trail, it will haul its two hundred pounds or more day
after day, even week after week. 1
It is not to the point that, as asserted by G. Mortillet 2 after K.
Vogt, reindeer-breeding is impossible without the use of the watch-
dog. In fact, only the western _group of reindeer-tribes Lapp,
Wogul, Ostyak, and Samoyed have their herds managed by dogs;
while neither the Tungus nor the Koryak and Chukchi have their
reindeer chaperoned by dogs; on the contrary, they keep these
away from the herds. 3 With me it is not an open question, as
stated by Bogoras, whether reindeer-breeding was begun with dogs
or without them. The dog, in my estimation at least, had^nothing
to do with the incipient process. He is merely an incidental
accessory, being transferred from his office previously held in other
herds to the guarding of reindeer long after the latter's domestica-
tion was completed.
As regards the employment of the reindeer for riding purposes,
there can be no doubt that it existed at least as early as the thir-
teenth century in the Baikal region (p. 107). The only moot point
was compelled to return, and traveled by way of Warsaw to Constantinople, reaching
Toulon in 1670. The information supplied by him on Siberia was gathered in Russia,
for the most part from oral accounts. In his biography (Biographic universelle.
Supplement, vol. LVI, p. 605) it is said, " Ce qu'il dit sur 1'histoire naturelle montre
que ses connaissances en ce genre n'etaient pas tres etendues." Nevertheless his
book is full of interest and teems with curious information (see, for instance, T'oung
Pao (1916), p. 363)-
1 Fourteenth Annual Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska
(Washington, 1905), p. 105.
2 La Piehistorique, p. 439.
3 Bogoras, Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vu, p. 71*
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
is whether this practice is primarily due to the southern Samoyed
or to Tungusians. 1 Since the northern Samoyed do not ride the
reindeer, it would seem that the claim of the Tungusians merits
preference; but this conclusion would be fallacious. The northern
Samoyed are mentioned as early as 1096 in the Russian chronicle of
Nestor, and it is therefore conceivable that the northward migra-
tion of this stock was an accomplished fact at a time when the
reindeer w r as not yet trained to the saddle in their southern home;
or, in other words, that the riding of the reindeer in the Baikal
region came into existence after the separation of the Samoyed
tribes, and for this reason never reached the northern group.
Thus the question as to the particular people which first mounted
the reindeer must remain undecided; assuredly it was a tribe that
had gained some experience with horses. It is said that it takes
the reindeer only a very short time to become accustomed to the
saddle. 2
Although truly in a state of domestication, it can by no means
be asserted that the reindeer has been brought fully under the
control of man. On the contrary, the reindeer controls man to a
much higher degree than man has sway over the animal, and in
fact determines his whole manner of life. In this respect reindeer-
keeping differs radically from cattle or horse breeding. Cattle and
horse have been subordinated to human will so completely that
they cannot subsist without being provided by man with fodder
and shelter. They share man's habitation, and stable-feeding has
made them the close associates and. friends of his home. To the
reindeer man does not furnish lodging and board. It remains
independent, and pursues its natural instincts along the question
of nutrition ; it is not sheltered from the inclemencies of the weather
by house or tent, but spends the night like its wild congener. In
short, it makes and lives its own life, only to answer its master's
call when occasion for labor arises. It performs its duties willingly
1 N. V. Latkin, Yeniseiskaya Guberniya, p. 169, includes also the Dolgan and
Yakut among the reindeer-riders. If this is the case, it is certainly due to Tungusian
influence. An example of reindeer-riding Yakut is found in the autobiography of the
Yakut Uvarovski (O. Bohtlingk, Sprache der Jakuten, pp. 26, 49).
2 Latkin, I. c.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 14!
and submissively; but as soon as the short working-hours are past,
it demands its freedom, and must be released for grazing and
browsing: it cannot be held in socage indefinitely. The reindeer's
life is bound to a well-defined geographical area with specific floristic
characteristics, and it cannot be removed to other quarters without
its existence becoming endangered. Individuals taken into our
zoological parks, even if provided with moss, do not thrive long,
and are usually doomed after a few years; while transplantations
of herds into Switzerland, for instance, have proved failures. The
reindeer cannot live in captivity, it cannot be acclimated to un-
congenial zones, and will never approach that state of true domes-
ticity attained in cattle and horse. If domestication be taken in
the true sense of the word, " habituation to home-life," the rein-
deer has certainly not reached it, quite in conformity with its
master.
In view of the reindeer's economic independence, the inter-
esting question arises: What forces bind the animal to man? If
it receives from him neither food nor shelter, by what factors is it
induced to maintain such a seemingly unprofitable association?
Indeed, the reindeer's position is singular. Examining other
domestic breeds, we plainly recognize the foundation of their social
contract with man, which is based on an unwritten law of reci-
procity, that on both sides has developed into the quality of faith-
fulness. Dog, cat, and swine have reserved to themselves a certain
degree of independence in the choice of their diet, and if forsaken
by man, or even while under his care, may hunt for a meal on
their own initiative; nevertheless they will always appreciate more
what is offered them by man. Reindeer are fond of salt and
sugar, and a bit of these articles may accelerate their run; but
they are so rarely given to them, that this could hardly be thought
of as an inducement for them to keep up companionship with man. 1
It may be, then, that it believes in man as a superior being, that it
trusts in his power and strength, and looks up to him as his guardian
from perils threatening from wild animals, chiefly its arch-enemy
1 Hahn, Hausliere, pp. 558-559, regards the animal's craving for salt, satisfied by
human urine, as the strongest bond that binds it to the service of man, doubtless an
exaggeration.
142 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
the wolf. But even this argument, weighty as it may be, does not
seem to me sufficient to explain the whole scale of the reindeer's
relation to man. It seems to me that psychic qualities both in the
animal and in man must be made responsible for the final result.
There is man's aesthetic pleasure in animals, and the entire deer
family is attractive to every human soul. This sympathy is doubt-
less reciprocated by the reindeer. Above all, there is the social
instinct developed both in deer and man, and in the loneliness of
the arctic regions these social bonds are doubtless intensified. The
deer is a highly social creature, impressing its friendship on man.
It is of gentle disposition, and is loved by children. Those of the
Tungus are fond of decorating their riding-deer with ribbons to
which are sewed glass beads or buttons. 1
Not much positive information is available in regard to feral
reindeer. The Lapp, Johan Turi, in his fascinating autobiography
(p. 40), speaks of the savage character of the bulls during the
rutting season, when they even pounce on men, and observes that
the " bulls of the wilderness " (that is, animals which have segre-
gated from the herd and lived long in the wilderness without man's
care) particularly are prone to attack people.
In accordance with the history of the domestication, the tending
of the herd, and the care of everything connected with it, are every-
where the business of man. Among the Chukchi, labor is divided
between man and wife in this manner: that all domestic affairs,
inclusive of preparation of hides, yarn, and clothing, fall to the
lot of woman; while man looks after the herd, harnesses or un-
harnesses the deer, and, if necessary, slaughters it. This is man's
sole business, but his time is fully occupied with it. 2
To dilate on the effects of reindeer-breeding is beyond the scope
of this article. This would mean to set forth in detail the eco-
nomic features of the culture of the tribes in question, which has
been done in a number of excellent monographs. I should like to
emphasize merely a single point; and that is, that in my estimation
the reindeer-breeders have developed higher psychic qualities
1 Pekarski and Tsv'atkov, Ocerki byta Priayanskix Tungusov, p. 39.
2 G. Maydell, Reisen und Forschungen im Jakutskhchen Gebiet Ostribiriens, pt. i,
pp. 186-187.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 143
than the PalaeoAsiatic dog-breeders, owing to the fact that the
latter, as agreed upon by all observers, have no inward relations to
their dogs, and their savage dogs lack all superior traits of the
civilized dog, while there is mutual affection between man and
reindeer. I do not believe in generalizations nor in comparisons,
still less in dogmas of racial superiority and inferiority or of good
and evil, and I am very far from extolling the reindeer tribes at
the expense of the dog-breeders. Of these the Gilyak and Ainu
are known to me from personal experience, also the Olca and Golde
on the Amur, whose culture is partially based on the maintenance
of dogs. I gained a deep respect and sympathy for these people,
for their manliness and good nature, their hospitality, and their
intellect. I felt more at home, however, with the reindeer-breeding
Tungusians, who are more alert, open-minded, straightforward,
and psychically more developed, and I found that A. von Midden-
dorff was perfectly right in styling them the aristocracy of Siberia.
There can be no doubt that constant intercourse with an animal
as noble, civil, and civilized as the reindeer has a psychical value,
and exerts a beneficial and ennobling influence on the hearts of the
people. Let me quote the experience of a Finnish author. Among
the Lapp, songs are particularly cultivated by the reindeer-breeders;
and in the opinion of Armas Launis, 1 who has published a compre-
hensive collection of such songs with their musical notations, they
may be regarded as the originators of the songs which receive their
natural explanation from the life of the herder. At home he is
reserved and taciturn, and he scarcely sings otherwise than during
his sojourn on the tundra, where he tends his herd. Confronted
with the wide panorama of lakes and the blue mountains bordering
the horizon, he will remember a good friend or brood evil against
an enemy. The reminiscence assumes shape in words and tones,
and a tune thus arises on the subject of his thought. While he
looks over his herd with a feeling of content, he gives vent to his
sentiments, and, muttering the words " cabba cello cabba cello "
(handsome herd, handsome herd), he will finally compose a melody
in praise of his flock.
1 " Lappische Juoigos-Melodien," Memories de la Societe finno-ougrienne (Helsing-
fors, 1908), vol. xxvi.
144 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
Hahn 1 says that the economic value of the reindeer has been
overstated, as would follow from the fact that it is restricted
everywhere to the aborigines; while Europeans did not take to its
breeding, even there, where the animal would be important. Again
he thinks that " the reindeer is not sufficient to man of European
descent and culture, or that the latter has not the patience required
for it; in this point he is surpassed by the ' savage.' ' But Oh there,
the Norseman, was a European (p. 94). The Russians, when
advancing and settling in northern regions, where horses do not
thrive, easily took to reindeer-breeding. P. S. Pallas 2 reported in
1772, in regard to the district of Obdorsk, that horses imported
there did not live a year, and that the reindeer-herds, which,
despite numerous diseases and wild animals, increase rapidly
form a not unimportant wealth both of the Russian and Pagan
inhabitants of those northern countries. 3
Erroneous also is Hahn's statement that
the reindeer has never followed the European, as particularly shown by the
introduction in 1770 into Iceland of reindeer which were supposed to give new
domestic animals to that poor country.
What was introduced into Iceland in 1771 and 1777 (not in 1770)
were not domestic, but wild reindeer from Norway, which were
gradually shot, and are now almost exterminated. 4
The reindeer introduced into Alaska at the end of the last
century are as useful to the whites as to the Eskimo. Says Dr.
1 Haustiere, pp. 264, 267.
2 Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reichs, vol. in, p. 23.
3 The Russian nomenclature relating to the reindeer, chiefly in the dialects of
northern Russia, is borrowed from Finno-Ugrian languages: thus pyzik (young rein-
deer, fawn), that already occurs in Old Russian, from Syryan pez, Wotyak puzey,
Wogul pezka, Ostyak pezi; vazatka or vdzenka (doe) from Syryan vazenka, Lapp vaz,
vaza; to the same root belong in the dialect of Archangel vacegal' (to tend a reindeer-
herd), vacuga (reindeer relais), vacuzn'a (reindeer-herd); hora (reindeer-bull) from
Samoyed hora, Syryan kora; girvas (male reindeer) from Finnish hirvas; gigna, higna
(leash in the reindeer-harness) from Finnish hihna; loima (a herd of reindeer) from
Finnish lauma, etc. (compare R. Meckelein, Die finnisch-ugrischen Elemente im Rus-
sischen, p. 20).
4 See the interesting account of A. Gebhardt (after Th. Thoroddsen), " Die Ren-
tiere auf Island," Globus, vol. 86 (1904), pp. 261-263.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION 145
Jackson, the father of this new economic movement, on this point: 1
The industrial pursuit which nature has mapped out for the native popu-
lation of arctic and subarctic Alaska is the breeding and herding of reindeer and
the use of the deer as a means of transportation and intercommunication. During
the past season the influx of miners into the Yukon region has made a very urgent
call for reindeer for freighting-purposes. In the original plan for the purchase
and distribution of reindeer, reference was mainly had to securing a new food-
supply for the famishing Eskimo; but it is now found that the reindeer are as
essential to the white men as to the Eskimo. The wonderful placer mines of
the Yukon region are situated from 25 to 100 miles from the great Yukon River.
The provisions brought from the south and landed upon the banks of the river
are with great difficulty transported to the mines. So great was the extremity
last winter, that mongrel Indian dogs cost $100 to $200 each for transportation
purposes, and the freight charges fiom the river to the mines, 30 miles, ranged
from 15 to 20 cents per pound. The difficulty experienced in providing the
miners with the necessaries of life has demonstrated the necessity of reindeer-
transportation, and that the development of the large mining interests of that
region will be dependent upon the more rapid introduction of reindeer for freight-
ing. There are no roads in Alaska, and off of the rivers no transportation facili-
ties to any great extent. In the limited traveling of the past, dogs have been
used for that purpose; but dog-teams are slow, and must be burdened with the
food for their own maintenance. On the other hand, trained reindeer make in a
day two or three times the distance covered by a dog-team, and at the end of
the day can be turned loose to gather their support from the moss, which is
always accessible to them.
On the other hand, it is stated,
The ordinary white man is unwilling to undergo the drudgery of herding in
that rigorous climate, and unwilling to work for the small compensation that is
paid for such services. He can do better. . . . With the increase of domestic
reindeer in Alaska, it will become possible for white men to own large herds;
but the men that will do the herding and teaming will always be Eskimo and
Lapp. 2
Hahn's gloomy prophesy of the ultimate extinction of the rein-
deer jointly with the " miserable " tribes of the Ostyak, Wogul,
and Samoyed, has happily not been fulfilled. He who is but
superficially posted on the subject knows that the Samoyed are
not a dying people, but vigorously spread and thrive. 3 So does
1 Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1805-06 (Washington,
1897), vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 1454.
2 Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1003, vol. n, p. 2375.
3 See, for instance, W. Crahmer in Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic (1913). P- 543-
146 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION [MEMOIRS, 4
the reindeer. It is protected by the Russian government, and the
study of the improvement of the economy has been entrusted to
special commissions. The reindeer is gaining ground, and will
claim more importance and attention in the future. * It has con-
quered Alaska and parts of Canada. The successful introduction
of domestic reindeer into Alaska has led to their introduction into
Newfoundland. Dr. Grenfell, who in 1892 organized a medical
mission among the fishermen off the shores of Newfoundland and
Labrador, on reading the U. S. reindeer reports, became convinced
that he had to have reindeer for his winter trips, and January 7,
1908, landed safely three hundred head at the village of Cremeliere,
two miles from St. Anthony, on the northern coast of Newfound-
land. 1
The ethnologist will watch with interest the gradual trans-
formation of the Alaskan Eskimo into reindeer-breeders. 2 History
repeats itself: it is the same process that reshaped the life of the
Chukchi and Koryak. The introduction in 1890 of reindeer into
Alaska was inspired by a desire to provide a new and more perma-
nent food-supply for the half- famishing Eskimo. Up to 1902
there were sixty individual holders of domestic reindeer in Alaska,
forty-four of these being Eskimo, the majority of whom had served
a five-years' apprenticeship and gained a competent knowledge of
the management and care of reindeer. In 1903 sixty-eight Eskimo
and one Indian owned 2,841 deer. From the 1,280 Siberian rein-
deer imported between 1892 and 1903, and from their natural
increase, 7,983 fawns have been born in Alaska.
The Eskimo has always been skilful in driving dogs, and now,
under instruction, is proving equally skilful in driving reindeer,
and upon various occasions, when the opportunity has offered,
has invariably demonstrated his ability to successfully transport
with reindeer mails, freight, and passengers between mining-camps. 3
1 Sixteenth Annual Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska (Wash-
ington, 1908), p. 42.
2 Compare E. W. Hawkes, " Transforming the Eskimo into a Herder," Anthropos,
vol. vin (1913), pp. 359-362.
3 From Dr. S. Jackson's report, in Report of the Commissioner of Education for the
Year 1003 (Washington, 1905), vol. n, p. 2374.
LAUFER] THE REINDEER AND ITS DOMESTICATION
In view of the opportunities and facilities granted in Alaska,
it is a matter of surprise that biologists have not yet seen fit to
take up the study of breeding problems in connection with the
reindeer, either for- theoretical purposes or with a view to im-
proving the races. We are anxious to know, for instance, why the
Tungus reindeer is larger and sturdier than that of Lapland, and
why most of the wild deer are larger than the domesticated. As
to the question of color variation in the domestic stocks we have
merely vague descriptions of laymen, and the differentiations of
the various stocks have not yet been determined scientifically.
Likewise the following observation would offer a problem to the
biologist.
No deterioration in the herds on account of inbreeding has been noted.
On the contrary, the chief of the Alaska division maintains that the reindeer now
in Alaska are larger animals than those which comprised the original stock im-
ported from Siberia, that Alaska affords a better range than Siberia, and that
the climate is better adapted to the reindeer industry. The herds in Alaska
average moire than seven hundred reindeer each, so that the danger of inbreeding
cannot be serious. The introduction of wild caribou into some of the herds has
increased the size of the reindeer in those herds. 1
1 " Report on the Work of the Bureau of Education for the Natives of Alaska,
1913-14," p. 10 (1915), Bulletin, No. 48.
AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
President :
Vice-President, 1917 :
Vice- President, 1918 :
Vice-President, 1919 :
Vice- President, 1920 :
Secretary :
Treasurer :
Editor '
Associate Editors :
Executive Committee :
OFFICERS
A. L. KROEBER, Affiliated Colleges, San
Francisco.
GEORGE B. GORDON, University of Pennsyl-
vania, Philadelphia.
B. LAUFER, Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago.
JOHN R. SWANTON, Bureau of American Eth-
nology, Washington.
GEORGE GRANT MACCURDY, Yale University
Museum, New Haven.
ALFRED M. TOZZER, Harvard University, Cam-
bridge.
NEIL M. JUDD, U. S. National Museum, Wash-
ington, D. C.
PLINY E. GODDARD, American Museum of
Natural History, New York.
JOHN R. SWANTON, Bureau of American Eth-
nology, Washington; ROBERT H. LOWIE,
American Museum of Natural History, New
York.
THE PRESIDENT, SECRETARY, TREASURER, and
EDITOR (ex-officio} , CLARK WISSLER, EDWARD
SAPIR, W. C. FARABEE.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION
A. L. JCROEBER, Chairman ex-officio.
"PLINY E, GODDARD, Secretary tx-offici*.
HIRAM BINGHAM, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN.
STEWART CULIN, BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM.
A. A. GOLDENWEISER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK.
G. B. GORDON, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA.
WALTER HOUGH, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D. C.
NEIL M. JUDD, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D. C.
F. W. HODGE, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
BERTHOLD LAUFER, FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, CHICAGO.
EDWARD SAPIR, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, OTTAWA.
M. H. SAVILLE, MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, NEW YORK.
JOHN R. SWANTON, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
A, M. TOZZER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE.
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