Reindeer herding as a high-level buffering mechanism : the role of climate change in a multi-causal model of the emergence of reindeer herding among the Sami of northern Sweden.

This thesis takes a critical examination of current theories of the
emergence of reindeer herding, during the sixteenth and seventeenth century,
amongst Sami communities in northern Sweden. This period coincides with the
latter part of the Little Ice Age, a period of extremely variable climate in northern
Europe, which has not been addressed in current theories of the emergence of
herding. Using a bottom-up approach, gathering evidence of the nature of the
environmental change and its impact on reindeer, human populations, and
subsistence activities, it is suggested this had a profound effect on subsistence
strategies. These impacts are considered in context to provide a multi-causal
model of cultural change during this period. The evidence suggests that
reindeer herding did not represent a radical and large-scale cultural change,
and that Sami subsistence strategies do not fit neatly into categories of hunting
or herding. The intensification of reliance on domestic reindeer emerged, from
the preceding mixed economy, as a high-level buffering mechanism to cope
with increased local environmental variability and a disruption In the wild
reindeer popUlation, and was facilitated by interactions with the Swedish state
through trade and taxation.