ABSTRACT
Dogs and reindeer are animals which can be met in many northern communities, but the question of their co-existence has been rarely discussed in anthropological literature. In many cases they have been represented in separate texts devoted either to 'reindeer breeding' or to 'dog breeding'. These two activities were represented in the ethnographic literature as two separate spheres and two different domains of knowledge. This chapter discusses the mutual involvement of humans, dogs and reindeer in the process of landscape appropriation using extensive examples from the author's own fieldwork in different regions in Siberia. This ethnographic data shows that appropriation is not a mechanical process but involves active engagement of human and non-human persons. Domestication is not a quality of an animal; rather it is a continuous process involving everyday tasks. These tasks vary from place to place and in part determine the quality of human–animal relations.
