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Paper short abstract:

Blood meat, hides unsuitable for dressing are consequences of agro-industrial reform, setting a "new norm": electroshock slaughter of reindeer. This technology leads not only to a break with traditional method of slaughtering, but puts a question whether it is eatable and built into the food chains.

Paper long abstract:

Yamal agro-industrial complexes are going through a reform, during which the slaughter of reindeer with electroshock becomes the norm from technological and sanitary point of view. On the one hand, slaughtering technology and "death" technology are saturated with symbolic meanings that may come into conflict with any new technology in reindeer herding tradition. On the other hand, the reason for the serious concern among local people brings situation to a different perspective: it is the meat of a reindeer slaughtered according to state standards that is not edible. Blood stagnating in the body also affects the quality of the hides in which it is absorbed.

The very preparation for "killing by the rules" involves waiting in enclosure for a long time. As a result, the deer are losing weight due to a different temporal regime, in which a modern slaughterhouse operates. In addition, new technologies imply destruction of old forms of collectivity preserved during the Soviet period: previously slaughter was carried out outdoor by a group of local men and ended three times faster.

The inability to dress hides by hand has led to deployment of new distribution networks and attraction of a new technology - chemical dressing - undertaken in another region. This implies breaking up local sales networks and social ties between the company, its employees and village residents. Thus, we propose to look at the new norm of "correct" slaughter as a violation of tradition, breaking the ethical and social norms and temporal regimes of reindeer herding.