Introduction: The Benefits of the Cold and Domestication

The areas on our planet with extreme environments are increasing in the current time of a changing climate. The capacity for living organisms to not just survive, but flourish in an extreme environment becomes even more important in such a situation, which leads us to emphasize the contribution of the cold for the evolvement of a diversity of ecological relations on this planet. This introduction sets the theoretical scene for a “cold” view on domestication and adaptation that is the focus of this volume. We revisit the theoretical development in this field of human-animal relations in recent decades, showing how linear models of domestication from trust to domination were overcome. Several theoretical advances, some of which further developed by the chapters in this volume, show evidence of the partnership element and the reciprocity of domestication which is conceived as a process rather than a state, fluent along a gradient of familiarity between humans and animals. Such an approach to ecological relations bears further lessons for contemporary sustainability politics: the human being is not a master of the world any more, in subduing, controlling reproduction and conservation of other species. Rather, humans are entangled in life holding relative power and responsibility.