Ivar Björklund, a Norwegian anthropologist, passed away on February 14, 2026. He made a huge contribution to the study of the history of Northern Norway and the Sámi community. Many of his friends and colleagues said that Ivar was not a typical scholar. He took with him the original ideal of anthropology: to understand people …
Author: Roza Laptander
Beaded Arctic Journeys: A Story of One Beaded Earring
It's a time when the Winter Olympics captivate so many of us, and we're glued to our televisions, heartspounding with excitement. I, too, watch the winter sports competitions, feeling my pulse quicken as I count along with the judges: 1, 2, 3... But I don't count the athletes' points; I count the beads, stringing them …
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Danger Muskox and Danger of Musk ox wool prices
My first personal meeting with muskoxen (Оvibos moschatus, in Latin "musky sheep-ox") happened in Alaska in one of the Wildlife Conservation Centres there. That time I was surprised how different muskoxen look from other Arctic animals: having such a massive ugly body they have very short legs but with very strong hooves. There was quite …
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When a great ship asks for deeper water.
Harlingen's harbour is usually half-empty on normal days. There are a few tall ships standing alone in water and many private modern yachts. Suddenly, among them you can notice an unusual vessel that is very different from other ships. This is de Witte Swaen (the White Swan) a reconstruction of a ship of the XVI …
Louis Apol, the painter of Novaya Zemlya
Since my very first visit to the Netherlands, I have been surprised at the interest of Dutch people in one of the islands in the North of Russia, which they call Nova Zembla, from the Russian name Novaya Zemlya (“New Land”). This topic of Novaya Zemlya drew attention since the time of the first Dutch …
A new book about Yukaghir people
Our anthropological team would like to congratulate Dr Cecilia Odé on her new book Life with the Yukaghir: North-East Siberia’s oldest tundra people. The book was published this summer in the Netherlands. Cecilia wrote it as a diary about her linguistic fieldwork trips to the far Northeast of Siberia. In this book Cecilia Odé describes her field …
Solitude in the wake of Willem Barentsz
A very new book with many beautiful pictures and a colourful text made by photographer Jeroen Toirkens and writer Petra Sjouwerman, with a historical epilogue by Diederik Veerman, was recently published in the Netherlands. It tells about a trip made following the so-called ‘Barents Road’ on the Barents Region, to the area that has been …
Arctic Anthropology 