The Corral and the Slaughterhouse

The Corral and the Slaughterhouse Knowledge, tradition and the modernization of indigenous reindeer slaughtering practice in the Norwegian Arctic Hugo Reinert Wolfson College Scott Polar Research Institute Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Cambridge This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. A copy of this license is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. 1 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration. No part of it has been submitted for any other qualification, and it does not exceed the word limits set by the Degree Committee for Earth Sciences and Geography. Signed [Hugo Reinert] Acknowledgements Teachers and friends, lovers and informants, helpers, critics, guides – to list them all would be impossible. This dissertation hangs in a shimmering web of gratitudes, and debts beyond repayment. Still, at least to the following, I would offer my thanks – and the acknowledgement that without them, it is difficult to imagine how it might ever have been written in the first place. To the Sámi Research Programme of the Research Council of Norway – for the generous financial support that enabled me to undertake this project, and for accounting flexibilities above and beyond the call of duty. To my informants, in Finnmark and elsewhere – for sharing their thoughts, opinions, company and experience, extending a friendly hand to a stranger in a strange land. To my friends and fellow students in Cambridge, at SPRI and in the Department of Anthropology – no one named, no one left forgotten; you all know who you are. To my two neo-structuralists in the Total Institution, Patrice and Evgenia – for coffees, talks and plaintive theorizing, and for all those little things, too numerous to mention. To Elina and Matteo, Mariam, Cheanie and Laura – for shelter and safe harbour, when waters were troubled. To my supervisor Piers Vitebsky – for instruction beyond words, for guiding example and exemplary guidance. To my parents, Erik and Fernanda – for infinite support, encouragement and the gift of going anywhere, knowing there is always somewhere to return. And, finally, to Kirsten – for turning up when she did, enchanting the dark with that reckless streak of peroxide. 2 Summary Summary Summary Title: The Corral and the Slaughterhouse Author: Hugo Reinert This dissertation is a contribution to the ethnography of contemporary indigenous reindeer pastoralism in Norway: specifically, to the study of the neglected fields of reindeer killing and slaughtering practice. Its central contention is that in recent decades, the proliferation of human powers vested in the conduct of reindeer slaughter has created new conditions for practice, placing the identities of reindeer and herders at stake in new and still only dimly conceptualized ways. By exploring these, the dissertation aims to broaden existing debates concerning the so-called modernization of pastoral practice in Norway, drawing attention to some of its neglected aspects and inscribing them in a new register. Two principal strands inform the theoretical framework: one, approaches to the social study of knowledge that emphasise its practical, non- verbal and material aspects; and two, Foucauldian concepts of biopower as these may – or may not – be applicable to the human management of animal life. Individual chapters examine, in turn: the local politics of space on the Varanger peninsula, focusing particularly on links between the spatial management and the killing of reindeer; the practices and social relations of slaughter as it is conducted at the round-up corral; the social effects of the introduction of slaughterhouses, and of the regime of which they form a part; controversies surrounding specific slaughtering techniques and instruments, particularly the curved knife; and the politics of animal welfare discourse and practices in their application to reindeer herding. Finally, using the figure of animal sacrifice as a guiding trope, the concluding chapter attempts to situate some key aspects of the modernization of reindeer slaughter in relation to the operation of broader sacrificial economies that regulate the destruction of life at aggregate or populational levels. 3 Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Summary.......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Illustrations................................................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 7 Traditional knowledge....................................................................................................................................................................11 Biopower and animals....................................................................................................................................................................14 Fieldwork and methods..................................................................................................................................................................19 Chapter breakdown........................................................................................................................................................................30 Chapter 2 Reindeer in space..............................................................................................................................3 4 The question of space.....................................................................................................................................................................35 The Varanger peninsula..................................................................................................................................................................38 'Killing in the manner of wolves'....................................................................................................................................................42 When reindeer become pests..........................................................................................................................................................46 Poaching and the spaces of the State..............................................................................................................................................50 Ownership, sovereignty and social visibility..................................................................................................................................55 Chapter 3 A carousel of slaughter.................................................................................................................. 5 9 Matters of knowledge.....................................................................................................................................................................63 The labour of the corral..................................................................................................................................................................66 A privileged space..........................................................................................................................................................................68 The visible nexus........................................................................................................................................................................... 72 The discipline of the corral.............................................................................................................................................................75 Chapter 4 The logic of the slaughterhouse................................................................................................. 7 9 A concentration of productive power............................................................................................................................................. 80 Trajectories of meat; the logic of the fetish.................................................................................................................................... 86 A new standard of killing...............................................................................................................................................................93 The disappearing reindeer............................................................................................................................................................100 Chapter 5 Knives for the slaughter............................................................................................................. 1 0 5 Reindeer hearts and minds..........................................................................................................................................................

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