People and Cultures of the Arctic

No previous studies required.

This course aims to give students comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the lives and cultures of the people living in the Arctic regions from a multidisciplinary perspective. After completion of the course the student is able to - distinguish the varieties of cultural approaches existing among the Arctic inhabitants - compare their different ways of interacting with their environment and the ways of expressing it - analyse the dynamics of how local communities as a whole and their constitutive social and ethnic groups interact among themselves and engage in politics of recognition at the national/international levels - name the basic research methods and specifics of conducting research in small Northern communities - describe existing theoretical approaches in understanding the concepts of ‘tradition’, ‘indigeneity’, ‘traditional ecological knowledge’, and ‘adaptation’ - discuss the different traditions of northern cultural history.

Anderson, D. G. (2004). Nationality and ‘Aboriginal Rights’ in Post-Soviet Siberia. In T. Irimoto & T. Yamada (Eds) Circumpolar Ethnicity and Identity. Senri Ethnological Studies 66: 247–267.

Donahoe, B., Habeck, J. O., Halemba, A. & Sántha, I. (2008). Size and Place in the Construction of Indigeneity in the Russian Federation. Current Anthropology, 49 (6): 993–1020.

Dudeck, S. (2012). From the reindeer path to the highway and back: understanding the movements of Khanty reindeer herders in Western Siberia. Journal of ethnology and folkloristics, 6 (1): 89–105.

Helander-Renvall, E. (2010). Globalization and Traditional Livelihoods. In L. Heininen & C. Southcott (Eds) Globalization and the Circumpolar North. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 179–219.

Joy, F. (2014). What influence do the old Sámi noaidi drums from Lapland play in the construction of new Shaman drums by Sámi persons today? In M. Kõiva & A. Kuperjanov (Eds) The Estonian Journal of Folklore, Volume 56, pp. 117–158. FB and Media Group of Estonian Literary Museum. Available at: http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol56/joy.pdf.

Joy, F. (2011). The History of Lapland and the case of the Sami Noaidi drum figures reversed. In M. Kõiva & A. Kuperjanov (Eds) The Estonian Journal of Folklore, Volume 47, pp. 113–144. FB and Media Group of Estonian Literary Museum. Available at: http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol47.

Mazzullo, N. (2005). Environmental Conservation and Local Interests in Finnish Lapland. Conservation and Society, vol.3 (2): 388–406.

Mazzullo, N. (2010). More than meat on the hoof? Social significance of reindeer among Finnish Saami in a rationalized pastoralist economy. In F. Stammler & H. Takakura (Eds) Good to Eat, Good to Live with: Nomads and Animals in Northern Eurasia and Africa. Northeast Asian Study Series 11: 101–119. Sendai: Center for Northeast Asia Studies (CNEAS), Tohoku University.

Mazzullo, N. & Ingold, T. (2008). Being Along: Place, Time and Movement among Sámi People. In J. O. Bærenholdt & B. Granås (Eds) Mobility and Place: Enacting European Peripheries. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Stammler-Gossmann, A. (2009). Who Is Indigenous? Construction of ’Indigenousness’ in Russian Legislation. International Community Law Review, 11 (1): 69–102.

Stammler, F. (2010). Animal diversity and its social significance among Arctic pastoralists. In F. Stammler & H. Takakura (Eds) Good to Eat, Good to Live with: Nomads and Animals in Northern Eurasia and Africa. Northeast Asian Study Series 11. Sendai: Center for Northeast Asia Studies (CNEAS), Tohoku University.

Stammler, F. & Saxinger, G. E. (2009). Introduction: The Northern Industrial City as a Place of Life and of Research. In F. Stammler & G. Eilmsteiner-Saxinger (Eds) Biography, Shift-labour and Socialisation in a Northern Industrial City, pp.9–16. Tyumen State University; Arctic Centre, online volume.

Stammler, F. (2005). Reindeer nomads meet the market: culture, property and globalisation at the end of the land. Muenster: Litverlag.

Principle tutor: Senior Researcher Nuccio Mazzullo, PhD, Arctic Centre. Lecturers: Senior Researcher Nuccio Mazzullo, PhD; Research Professor Florian Stammler, PhD; Senior Researcher Stephan Dudeck, PhD (remote lecturing); Researcher Francis Joy, PhD; Researcher Panu Itkonen, PhD; Researcher Ayonghe Nebasifu, PhD.