ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about ways in which agentic reindeer serve identity politics in three texts. The texts studied are Iter Lapponicum by Carl von Linné, Antropogeografiska studier inom Petsamo-området, 1, Skoltlapparna by Väinö Tanner, and Suenjelin saamelaisten perintö by Matti Sverloff. The context of writing for the famed naturalist and author of Systema Naturae, Carl von Linné was a utilitarianist-mercantilist-colonial-economic thrust, seeking natural resources in order to accumulate national wealth. Geologist and professor of geography at the University of Helsinki, Väinö Tanner became acquainted with reindeer and herding as the chairman of pasture committees working on the pasture crisis in Torne Lappmark in the northeasternmost Swedish Sami villages in the early twentieth century. Matti Sverloff represents the old Skolt Sami herding as highly intensive, with reindeer roaming in very close contact, within the fence near the home of the herder, very tame for most of the herding year.
