The weekend before Christmas our team hosted a reindeer herder from one of the many Evenki regions. He overseas a lot of reindeer and is an important man, so more about him another time in another place. It was great to encourage him as he often feels alone, none of the other reindeer workers share his point of view in life.
The Evenki of the taiga regions herd their reindeer quite differently from the Nenets. The Nenets use reindeer to pull their sleds across the vast open tundra. The Evenki are moving through enclosed forest areas and often sit on the backs of the reindeer.
2 comments:
I always thought that reindeer were similar or the same as caribou found in the Canadian north. The photo you posted would seem to indicate that the reindeer (at least in Siberia) are somewhat smaller. What can you tell us about this?
Caribou are not the same as Reindeer, they are definitely bigger. Caribou have not been domesticated at any level at all. Reindeer in Siberia are either wild or "semi-domesticated" as they are capable of returning to the wild at any moment.
They do fill a similar place in the food chain, but they are more important in Siberian than Canadian cultures.
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