Academic traditions that separate humans from nonhuman animals are deeply embedded in Western philosophical views of humanity, relying on Cartesian dualism and the notion of human exceptionalism (e.g., Descola, 2006). Over the last 20 years, scholars in anthropology have increasingly moved toward fluid, interactive views of species relationships (Feinberg et al., 2013; Haraway, 2008; 2003; Kirksey and Helmreich, 2010). This shift challenges anthropocentric perspectives, encouraging human-animal interactions to be viewed within broader ecological and cultural frameworks. Posthumanist theory seeks to reconceptualize human-world relations; rather than placing humans as central actors, it embeds them within a vast interspecies, multi-entity network (Fuentes, 2010; Haraway, 1991; Haughton, 2023; Kirksey and Helmreich, 2010). These approaches attempt to identify and counter the limitations of the humanist paradigm. As a result, posthumanist and multispecies perspectives are gaining popularity in archaeology, broadening interpretations of the past (Crellin and Harris, 2021).

In archaeology, posthumanism can beter highlight the roles of nonhuman animals in human history, challenging archetypal human-animal relationships (Bogaard et al., 2021; Boyd, 2018; Weitzenfeld and Joy, 2014). Traditionally, archaeozoology examines human-animal relationships through a resource-oriented framework, categorizing them into primary products (e.g., meat, hide) and secondary products (e.g., transport, milk, wool) (Sherratt, 1981; Sherratt, 1983). This approach has been criticized for reinforcing an anthropocentric divide between nature and culture, overlooking the roles of nonhuman animals in social relationships and interspecies interactions (Boyd, 2017; Overton and Hamilakis, 2013). By focusing on archaeozoological records, researchers can gain access to material evidence of the intricate relationships among humans, animals, and the environment. However, to interpret these interactions across various historical moments and in the longue durée, archaeologists must navigate broader ecological webs, a task that remains highly complex (Boyd, 2017). Recent perspectives challenge the human/nonhuman binary, advocating for a more integrated view of human-animal relationships when studying the past. Consequently, until recently, archaeozoology often simplified the complex dynamics between human techno-economic activities and especially synanthropic relationships (Hussain, 2024). Despite these theoretical advancements, insect-human relationships remain largely underexplored, often filtered through Western biases that classify insects as either “good” or “pests” based on appearance and interaction with human environments (Beisel and Wergin, 2022; Claessen, 2022; Gunderman and White, 2021; Haraway, 2016). This normative lens reduces insects to empirical factors rather than recognizing them as integral agents in shaping communities and cultures, leaving their roles in multispecies systems even more overlooked.

Indigenous Knowledge systems, such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), offer valuable insights into complex interspecies relationships. TEK, developed through adaptation and cultural transmission, emphasizes interconnectedness among all living beings and their environment (e.g., Berkes, 2009; 2008; Berkes et al., 2000; Huntington, 2000). Incorporating these perspectives, aligning archaeological approaches with Indigenous perspectives on nonhuman entities could deepen understandings of historical human-animal cooperations (TallBear, 2015; Weismantel, 2015). Integrating TEK and posthumanism provides conceptual and technical tools to enrich archaeological interpretations, bridging divides between Western/non-Western, past/present, and Indigenous/colonial viewpoints (Atalay, 2008; Crellin and Harris, 2021). Addressing these gaps could then offer potent avenues for more inclusive perspectives (Cassino et al., 2025; Fitzpatrick, 2022; Hamilakis, 2016; Motta and Porr, 2023). Integrating posthumanist theory and TEK into archaeological research offers a more inclusive framework for understanding past human-animal-insect relationships, challenging anthropocentric biases and expanding interpretations of multispecies histories.

In archaeology, Niche Construction Theory (NCT) has been instrumental in exploring the origins of plant and animal domestication, offering insights into how species—including humans—modify their environments and influence evolutionary trajectories (Laland and O’Brien, 2010; Zeder et al., 2006). NCT posits that all organisms, deliberately or inadvertently, alter selective pressures in ways that shape not only their own development but also that of other species (Laland et al., 2017; Odling-Smee et al., 2003; 2013). While domestication has traditionally been examined through human-driven processes, growing research highlights how nonhuman species actively shape their ecologies, contributing to the formation of multispecies communities.

Zeder (2012) identifies three primary pathways to domestication: the commensal pathway, where animals voluntarily adapt to human environments; the prey pathway, where humans selectively manage wild species for subsistence; and the directed pathway, where humans intentionally domesticate animals for specific purposes. The commensal pathway is often invoked to explain early domestication, yet it does not fully account for the reciprocal ecological changes that emerge through prolonged human-animal interactions. Many organisms, from rodents to insects, modify their own ecologies by gravitating toward human settlements, fostering interspecies entanglements that reshape evolutionary pathways.

While NCT provides a valuable framework for recognizing nonhuman agency, it is often conflated with commensalism, a concept emphasizing neutral interactions between species, where neither party is significantly harmed nor benefited (Mathis and Bronstein, 2020). However, commensalism fails to acknowledge how animals and other organisms actively modify their own ecologies within human-altered environments, influencing both their own behaviors and those of other species. Synanthropy offers a more precise lens for understanding these entanglements, particularly in how certain species, such as rodents or insects, establish themselves in anthropogenic spaces, inadvertently fostering multispecies communities. This is because it describes how free-ranging animals adapt to human-modified environments, which can benefit from shared ecologies through behavioral and physiological adjustments (Klegarth, 2017).

Synanthropic relationships emerge through both bottom-up processes, where species exploit new resources, and top-down processes, where environmental modifications shape survival strategies (Hussain, 2024; 2023; O’Connor, 2013). Unlike commensalism, which implies incidental interactions, synanthropy explicitly acknowledges human and nonhuman mediated ecological changes that shape animal behaviors. This dynamic has been particularly explored in early Holocene studies, demonstrating how sedentary human societies provided novel adaptive landscapes for numerous species (Baumann, 2023; Hussain and Baumann, 2024). The expansion of the house mouse from the Near East into Europe (ca. 10,000–7,000 BCE) and the spread of wildcats alongside Neolithic farmers (Cucchi et al., 2012; Krajcarz et al., 2020; 2022) further exemplify how synanthropy influenced early domestication. While synanthropic relationships exist along a spectrum, from species that rely entirely on human environments to those with occasional interactions (Johnston, 2001; McKinney, 2006), shifting toward exploring synanthropic relationships could help illuminate the early development of interspecies relationships that later contribute to domestication.

To deepen this perspective, we examine niche-constructing practices among North Asian reindeer herders through synanthropy and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Reindeer herding exemplifies a multispecies lifeway where insects play crucial roles, highlighting how diverse theoretical frameworks enrich archaeozoological and domestication research. Building on these interdisciplinary efforts, we propose a conceptual toolkit integrating niche construction, multispecies theory, and TEK. By combining posthumanist perspectives with Indigenous ecological knowledge, this framework offers new methods for examining interspecies relationships. Applying it to contemporary North Asian reindeer herding communities provides a case study for refining archaeological approaches to reindeer domestication.

Reindeer, unlike other domesticates, have not been the focus of decades of targeted archaeological research into their domestication. This was because human-reindeer systems appeared to contradict contemporary normative human-animal relationships and domestication archetypes in archaeological research (Losey, 2021; Nyyssönen and Salmi, 2013). Reindeer are not necessarily industrially husbanded, and aspects of physical (Stammler et al., 2010), reproductive (Soppela et al., 2022), and dietary control (Salmi et al., 2015; Windle et al., 2025) are often lacking in reindeer herding systems. Morphological differences between ecotypes or from their wild counterparts proved difficult to differentiate (Nieminen and Helle, 1980; Puputti and Niskanen, 2008; 2008). Wild and herded reindeer regularly mix, and it is not uncommon for domestic reindeer to join wild herds or, perhaps more interestingly, vice versa (Brandišauskas, 2019). It is also widely documented that herded reindeer can guide and dictate human mobility (Golovnev et al., 2018; Stépanoff et al., 2017). Amongst herders, reindeer are also animate beings both as domestic herd animals and their wild counterparts that are hunted as game (Krupnik, 2000). Altogether, reindeer tended to be on the periphery of broader discussions on the trajectory of animal domestications until very recently.

Located between the Ob and Yenisei Rivers in West Siberia, the northern taiga features flat landscapes with thin forests of pine, Siberian cedar, fir, and larch, as well as large quantities of lichen. The landscape is dominated by mature river floodplains forming oxbow lakes and wetlands. This wet habitat is ideal for large numbers of water breeding insects like mosquitos and midges, while also supporting a number of fruit bearing plants like bog cranberries and blueberries. Temperatures once ranged from −26.5°C in January to +15°C in July but have risen significantly due to global warming (Piezonka et al., 2020). The fauna includes large ungulates (elk, wild reindeer), bears, small fur-bearing animals, forest fowl, aquatic birds, and abundant fish (Adaev, 2014). This ecotone offers rich seasonal resources ideal for hunting, fishing, and gathering.

In northern Mongolia’s Sayan Mountains, west of the Darkhad depression and Khuvsgul Lake, lies a vast region of alpine tundra and larch forest, locally known as the “taiga.” The lower-lying areas are characterized by larch forests, interspersed with mountain meadows and bogs, while the alpine tundra is dominated by dwarf birch scrub. At higher elevations, perennial ice patches play a crucial role in summer, providing thermal relief, insect reprieve, freshwater, and useful plant species (Ion and Kershaw, 1989; Reckin, 2013). Historically a habitat for wild reindeer, this lichen-rich region is now the southernmost area where reindeer herding is practiced (Taylor et al., 2019). Today, the use of natural resources in the taiga is highly regulated by the government through strict grazing limitations for reindeer herders and hunting bans.

While the differences in geography and husbandry strategies between the Siberian and Mongolian communities are substantial, a shared driver in the range of reindeer management practices was observed: insects. Insects, particularly mosquitoes (Culicidae), biting midges (Ceratopogonidae), and flies (Diptera, namely Sarcophagidae or ‘flesh flies’ like horseflies), are an ever-present fixture across North Asia from late spring to late summer, often referred to as a ‘plague’ by both locals and visitors to these regions. Insects substantially impact how people herd, hunt, and broadly interact with reindeer as we see in both regions explored here. Their impact on reindeer husbandry is significant, influencing how people herd, hunt, and interact with reindeer in both regions examined here. Insect harassment can negatively affect a reindeer herd’s health and cohesion, resulting in intense and distinct avoidance behaviors (Colman et al., 2003; Ehlers et al., 2021; Hagemoen and Reimers, 2002; Skarin et al., 2004; Vistnes et al., 2008; Weladji et al., 2003). However, local Indigenous communities do not regard insects solely as a negative factor. For instance, the Khanty herders we consulted explicitly stress that mosquitoes ‘help’ them herd their animals and that, without them, herding work would be significantly more difficult. During periods when mosquitoes are absent, herds tend to disperse, whereas their presence facilitates gathering and management.

While Sel’kup and Khanty communities utilize nuanced smoking practices within seasonal settlements to provide respite to their herd (Figure 6), Tsaatan engage in altitudinal migrations during the height of the insect plague season, moving up onto the treeless, windy mountain-tundra (Figure 7). These methods, which involve a co-creative relationship with insects, have broader implications for understanding human-animal interactions in the past, particularly due to their niche-constructing characteristics. Herefore, the social and economic significance of these strategies is best understood within the framework of NCT and its interrelated themes of hunter-herder subsistence and landscape modification. Human niche construction is associated with increases in the abundance and predictability of plant and animal resources while reducing labor efforts required to gather, hunt, or manage them (Laland and O’Brien, 2010; Smith, 2011). Like how hunting architecture has been argued as a form of niche construction (Lemke, 2021; Smith, 2013), the strategic use of insect manipulation through smoke, hobbling, and fish-feeding infrastructure may also be interpreted as a form of niche construction.

The multi-agent herding infrastructure relies on both a deep understanding of insect and reindeer behavior as well as strategic knowledge of local topography and the environment—key elements that align with the concept of TEK. Reindeer herding among Sel’kup, Khanty, and Tsaatan communities is informed by an in-depth knowledge of reindeer behavior, including their tendency to utilize wide grazing ranges (Åhman and White, 2018), their instinct to seek windy, uphill pastures to avoid predators and insect harassment (Hagemoen and Reimers, 2002; Reckin, 2013), and the trade-offs they make between grazing needs and insect avoidance (Colman et al., 2003; Ehlers et al., 2021). Additionally, herders recognize health risks posed by infectious agents and factor these into their management practices (Carlsson et al., 2018).

The practical application of that knowledge is the deliberate construction of a niche that benefits the multispecies community—and relies on intimate knowledge of and frequent interactions between humans, reindeer, and insects in daily life. The use of smoke to ‘train’ and ‘tame’ reindeer mirrors methods of ‘baiting’ animals into a human-mediated space (Anderson et al., 2017). This is analogous with strategic grassland burns to improve pastures around bison hunting architectures in the North American Plains (e.g., Oetelaar, 2014) or the cultivation of preferred browse at hunting architectures sites in the Near East which may have served as a pre-cursor to domestication in that region (Svizzero, 2016). The niche that is created in West Siberia is one where the hunter-herder seasonal settlement is a symbiotic/mutually beneficial space for both humans and reindeer. It allows for a lower labour output in day-to-day herding of the deer without interfering with daily foraging needs for the family. In the case of Tsaatan migratory practices, vertical transhumance is a well-established strategy. Herders actively manage reindeer grazing patterns, ensuring that lichen-rich pastures are preserved for the winter season when they are most needed. Insects also play a role in this process, as they help keep reindeer in breezy open areas, preventing them from trampling fragile lichen pastures during the summer. Without such intervention, excessive summer trampling could lead to pasture exhaustion, creating long-term sustainability issues.

Niche enrichment can be a consequence of herd management practises through the propagation of favourable forage plants and the suppression of unpalatable competitors such as grasses and sedges (Spate, 2019). Reindeer, like other grazers, modify both the quantity and quality of plant litter that forms soil organic matter (Stark et al., 2023). In turn, reindeer can aid in structuring the plant community composition of their habitats through three major mechanisms: food selection (i.e., favoring some plant species over others), trampling, and fertilization. Through this mechanism, reindeer exhibit a major impact on microbially mediated decomposition and mineralization processes in the soil, which in turn feedback to plant nutrient availability and uptake as well as carbon release (Stark et al., 2023). By facilitating and directing herds onto mountain tundra pasture in the Sayan mountains during the summer, the Tsaatan encourage a niche that benefits the reindeer and by extension the herders.

In both regions, herders try to keep reindeer away from lichen-rich pastures in summertime, when the lichen is dry and easily destroyed by the reindeer. Without interference a reindeer herd might trample lichen pastures in summertime, causing pasture exhaustion when kept in a small area. Insects help to keep reindeer in the breezy open spaces away from these important pastures. It is during the snow season that the herders let their herds graze in the lichen-rich forest. The bottleneck in fodder seems to be the late winter for reindeer, and the herders must take care to prevent overgrazing of these winter pastures. Without such intervention, excessive summer trampling could lead to pasture exhaustion, creating long-term sustainability issues.

A key aspect of this niche construction lies in the synanthropic behaviours of mosquitoes, midges, and fly species. These insects, which dominate taiga landscapes in spring and summer, differ from common synanthropes found near human settlements today (e.g., foxes, raccoons, coyotes, mice). However, the species of insects, particularly the mosquitoes, in the study areas are highly synanthropic and often take advantage of human-modified environments to thrive and spread (Andreeva et al., 2017; Khalin and Aibulatov, 2020; Matveyeva and Chernov, 2000; Pestov and Panjukova, 2013; Simard, 2021).

Building on the ethnographic and ecological contexts, the relationship between reindeer herders and insects is a complex, multi-dimensional one that spans cultural, technological, and environmental spheres. The strategies herders employ are shaped not only by ecological needs but also by cultural practices and traditional knowledge. For example, mobility patterns—such as seasonal movement to higher altitudes or specific terrains—reflect a deep understanding of the environment and the insects inhabiting it. These adaptive behaviors are proactive, reflecting the herders’ connection to both the land and its creatures (Davydov and Bobrova, 2023; Istomin, 2023; Norum et al., 2021). Through such mobility practices, herders ensure the health of their herds while maintaining a cultural tradition that recognizes the symbiotic relationships between humans, reindeer, and insects (Perevalov, 2022). This dynamic highlights how insects, as active participants in the environment, influence human practices and shape the ecological niche. These interactions likely played a key role in the domestication of reindeer, where human management of insect stressors may have encouraged reindeer behavior that facilitated closer human-reindeer relationships and, ultimately, domestication.

Anderson and colleagues (2017) demonstrated that smoke and supporting infrastructure have significant implications for understanding animal domestication. In our observations, smoke and insects were identified as important agents in reindeer husbandry, regardless of the specific infrastructure used. This human-reindeer-insect interface represents a co-created cultural record that reflects niche-constructing activities with significant time depth, potentially shedding light on the ecological dynamics that facilitated reindeer domestication.

Scholars increasingly recognize the importance of ecological relationships in shaping domestication processes (Krajcarz et al., 2020). We propose that the insect interface outlined here constitutes a consistent synanthropic niche in taiga environments—one that has played a beneficial role in the formation of human-reindeer cultural systems. Human responses to insect activity create feedback dynamics: by manipulating insect presence through smoke or migration, humans attract reindeer to habitation areas, generating new incentives and opportunities for interaction. This dynamic of labor reduction and reindeer wellbeing may have encouraged sustained human-reindeer cohabitation, representing a significant domestication pathway warranting further archaeological and archaeozoological research.

The human-reindeer-insect nexus is embedded in a complex relationship with the local environment, influenced by seasonal conditions (temperature), daily weather patterns (wind and precipitation), landscape features (e.g., elevated terraces, ice patches), and vegetation types (closed or open canopy forest, open tundra, lichen concentrations). Integrating insects into human-animal relationship models enhances archaeological prospection techniques and provides insight into herd management strategies, especially in contexts where architectural markers such as corrals or other built infrastructures are absent. For instance, ideal locations—such as high river terraces where open canopies and wind help deter insects or high-altitude sites with naturally low insect populations—could be examined for settlement traces and insect-related infrastructures.

Although insects themselves are typically invisible archaeologically, there are several ways these reindeer herding systems could be detectable in the archaeological record (ex. Adaev and Zimina, 2016; Groß et al., 2019; Piezonka et al., 2024). In Siberia, the appearance of post-built reindeer houses with one or two smoke ovens as a specific building type, the construction of open-air smoke facilities lined by stake fences to prevent reindeer from getting too close to the hot ovens, and evidence for reindeer husbandry such as bridle parts could be visible archaeologically. Other detectable markers include high concentrations of reindeer dung around smoking places and in reindeer houses, which are regularly cleared of dung and stained soil, leaving a sunken-floor structure with specific soil chemistry and biomolecular markers (ex. phosphate concentrations, fecal biomarkers such as sterols, keratin). As Khanty and Sel’kup communities do not engage in milking reindeer or keeping them bound to one place, only the smoke places would likely be visible archaeologically as infrastructural evidence. The origins of using smoke infrastructure as a herding aid remain unknown, making this an important footprint to explore from a domestication history perspective.

In Mongolia, where shorter-term campsites and vertical migrations are practiced, different infrastructures are associated with reindeer herding. Here, ties are wrapped around the heads of the deer, with each individual attached to a short wooden peg in the evening to keep the reindeer at the settlement at night—a solution employed in the absence of insects at higher-altitude summer sites. While the material evidence of this practice (rawhide or textile ties, wooden pegs) consists of organic materials that would only preserve under specific taphonomic circumstances, the stake holes of the pegs and the biomolecular markers at night sites could still be detectable archaeologically. Using higher-resolution techniques like soil micromorphology (Égüez et al., 2018; 2016), phosphate analysis (Anderson et al., 2019; Seitsonen and Égüez, 2021), as well as biomolecular sciences such as fecal and plant wax biomarkers (Égüez et al., 2022; Égüez and Makarewicz, 2018; Ventresca Miller et al., 2020) and stable isotopic analysis (Fjellström, 2023; Shishlina et al., 2018; Windle et al., 2025) may yield relevant signatures that could give some indication of insect presence in a past multispecies community, allowing for their role to be examined. Further investigation and testing are needed, with accurate interpretation dependent on knowledge of specific herding practices and their broader multispecies context.

The insect interface is not unique to Sel’kup, Khanty, and Tsaatan but appears to be a ubiquitous feature of North Asian reindeer herding, with mosquitoes and other bloodsucking insects acting as key agents in herd management and daily life (Norma et al., 2021). Smoke shelters and fires are used to provide respite for reindeer by south Siberian Evenki and Tuvan reindeer herders (ex. Anderson et al., 2017; Brandišauskas, 2007; Oskal et al., 2009) and herders throughout Taimyr (Perevalov, 2022), and Sakha (Yakutia, Russia) (ex. Magga et al., 2009). This holds true even among more mobile groups that do not rely on fixed infrastructure; for instance, Nenets (tundra sled-pulling herders) suggest that mosquitoes assist in herding reindeer (ex. Oskal et al., 2009; Klokov and Antonov 2022; 2013; Klokov and Mikhaylov, 2017) and play important roles in the mythology of Chukchi reindeer herders as well (Ozheredov et al., 2020). Natural infrastructure, such as the frost and ice patches of eastern Siberia and northern Mongolia, is also used to help reindeer avoid insects while providing heat relief and hydration (Magga et al., 2009; Oskal et al., 2009; Taylor et al., 2019; Vainshtein, 1980; 1961). These examples illustrate how the human-reindeer relationship is embedded in a broader socio-ecological network that includes other nonhumans as well as the wider Arctic and subarctic environment.

Beyond reindeer herding contexts, the manipulation of insects to prevent animal harassment is widely documented in the ethnographic record. In the Nepalese Himalaya, yak herding systems depend on cooperative interactions, one of which involves using smoke from yak dung fires to repel insects from herder campsites (Johnson, 2022). Mongolian steppe pastoralists also burn animal dung to produce smoke as an insect repellent for both herders and livestock (Peemot, 2022), a practice that, like wood smoke fires in Siberia, has transitioned to burning cow and horse dung in metal buckets rather than open fires. Comparable strategies exist outside of Central Asia, such as using smoke to shield cattle from tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) in Zimbabwe (Torr et al., 2011) and from mosquitoes in India (Gupta et al., 2017). The impact of insects on shared human-animal communities is relevant on a global scale, further underscoring the agential role of this animal class.

While three nonhuman animals—humans, reindeer, and insects—are involved, the environment also actively shapes this interface. Air movement (wind) and temperature play crucial roles in bringing species together, while different tree species and the smoke they produce mediate the process in West Siberia. Thus, what is explored here as a three-way relationship could be conceptualized as a four-way or even five-way interaction (Figure 6). Examining the roles of all members of such systems—whether human, nonhuman, or nonorganic—not only provides insight into the (in)visible impacts of these relationships on the archaeological record but also expands the narrative spectrum of potential pasts.