The Sooner You Drink It All, the More Time You Will Have Thereafter

Abstract

Many reindeer herders of the Taz tundra have problems with excessive alcohol consumption and most of them are fully aware of these problems and the risks associated with them. In order to mitigate these risks, the reindeer herders have built up a range of strategies for alcohol consumption, which aim to limit this consumption to periods and circumstances when the damage (in economic and social terms) it produces is likely to be less significant, to shorten the periods of drinking (zapoi), and to limit the amount of alcohol available. For example, reindeer herders choose their camping places in such a way that the distance between them and the village is big enough to deter the herders from starting for the village in the middle of the night to bring vodka. Nowadays, this strategy seems to affect the migration patterns in important ways. Other strategies include limiting artificially the space available in a reindeer sledge (or on a snowmobile) when going to the village (which would limit the number of vodka bottles the herder can bring back), trying to consume (preferably in a big company of other herders) all the alcohol one has as soon as possible, and some others. The paper analyses these strategies using the theory of alcohol craving developed in the field of addiction psychology. It shows that the strategies can indeed be effective in the circumstances of the nomadic way of life, but they become maladaptive once nomads settle in villages.