ABSTRACT
Departing from a small community of Chukchi people in the northern part of Kamchatka, this chapter is concerned with understanding the relationship between the people and their reindeer. Previous studies on human-reindeer relationships among various groups of people in Siberia convey complex and intimate relations. This chapter adds to the ongoing scholarly conversation on this matter by unfolding how an essential part of this relationship, at least among the Chukchi, has to do with their ancestors: the upper people. This human-reindeer-ancestor relationship lends itself to analysis through the spring ritual Kilvei. The main participants of the ritual, the gi’rgitti, at once the “owner or master of the herd” and giver of life, are being fed as a way of honoring and pleasing the ancestors, so that they, the ancestors, may allow the newborn calves to live a long life and allow for the herd to expand. Kilvei, as an analytical heuristic, provides us insight into just how entangled human, reindeer, and ancestors are in the constant co-creation of Chukchi life.
