Social sciences and Area studies have produced significant insights in how societies of nomadic pastoralists in different regions define their systems of social hierarchies, prestige, and stratification through intimate relations of humans and animals. This volume tries to build fruitful academic dialogues between 'south' and 'north' in studies of pastoralism. The authors focus on the field of human-animal relations in pastoralism in its practice in the Arctic, Africa and Central Asia for understanding human socio-cultural identity, similarity and diversity. While the regional orientation is comparative, this volume, nonetheless, has a strong focus on the North. This is the first volume where scholars of the North take the lead in anthropological analysis and invite other scholars to contribute cases and analysis for general theory building.

Florian Stammler is Coordinator of the anthropology research team at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland and Institute Associate of Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK

Hiroki Takakura is Associate Professor at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Japan