“When Willow Roots Start to Thaw, People Come Back to Life...”: Relations of Chukchi Reindeer Herders to Plants
Known traditionally as sea-mammal hunters and reindeer herders, Chukchi are usually described in terms of their relations to the world of animals, rather than plants. However, plants also play an important role in the life of this people of northeastern Siberia. This close relationship expresses itself in practices of everyday life but even more specifically in rituals. This article combines ethnobotany and the anthropology of ritual to provide an analysis of how reindeer herders of Amguema interact with plants. It shows that the vegetal world is part of a system of circulation and equivalence uniting humans, plants, reindeer, and spirits—a system in which women are in the position of privileged intermediaries.