Experience, Movement and Mobility: Komi Reindeer Herders' Perception of the Environment

On the basis of fieldwork among Komi reindeer herders in the north of Russia, the author discusses the concepts of movement and mobility. In the first part, he describes reindeer herders' migrations from an outsider's point of view, which reflects the conventional academic approach to the theme of pastoralists' mobility. Komi reindeer husbandry may be described as a transhumant system with protracted linear migrations. In the second part, he tries to look beyond these etic categories and gives an account of their movements from an emic perspective. Moving through the forests and tundra is inextricably connected with a sense of temporality, with the seasons and the weather, with events and memories, and with experience, learning and 'enskilment' (Ingold 2000). This emic perspective is discussed in the frame of Tim Ingold's thoughts about 'the perception of the environment' and other phenomenological approaches. The author differentiates between mobility as the potential of movement, and movement as mobility 'acted out'. The etic (outsiders') perspective can explain pastoral migrations as a potential (mobility), yet it cannot fully account for the pastoralists' being in action (movement).