“Drinking and driving is so much fun” is an unusual title for an anthropological workshop. It was just the right provocation to induce serious reflections on something that anthropologists usually reserve for the famous “corridor talk” during conferences, when they discuss ambivalent fieldwork experiences difficult to integrate into the success stories of anthropological research. The …
Author: Stephan Dudeck
Anthropologist at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, the Centre for Arctic Social Studies at the European University at Saint Petersburg and the Centre of Arctic and Siberian Exploration at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
“If research doesn’t surprise you, it’s not worth the research” Julie Cruikshank
I would like to share with you some of the things we learned from Julie Cruikshank and other elders from the Yukon Territory to better understand oral history from the North. To search for surprising insights, to be open to challenges to our conventional perceptions, that was Julie's most important advice to us. Her talk …
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Gateway to the Arctic – multidisciplinary Franco-German seminar at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven
Roza Laptander and Stephan Dudeck from the Anthropology Research Team in Rovaniemi participated in the Franco-German seminar “Gateway to the Arctic” from 17th -19th September in Bremerhaven. It aimed at enabling the dialogue of natural and social scientists in Arctic research. Roza Laptander presented a poster about the snow terminology in Nenets language and the …
Meeting old and new friends in Inari
For us from the Anthropology Research Team here in Rovaniemi the Sámi Cultural Centre SAJOS in Inari became a place where we regularly meet friends from the indigenous movement in Russia. Galina Platova from the Association of Nenets people “Yasavey” told me already in Naryan-Mar, that she will come soon to Inari for a conference. …
The cradle of fly-in/fly-out reindeer herding in Europe: greetings from Khongurei
In many works on reindeer herding Komi people are considered as innovators who made reindeer herding not only a way of life but a profitable economy. One innovation that they did in the small village of Khongurei (see my fieldwork blog stephandudeck.wordpress.com) Nenets Autonomous Okrug, European Russian North, turned out to be rather counter-productive in …
Continue reading The cradle of fly-in/fly-out reindeer herding in Europe: greetings from Khongurei
Terhi Vuojala-Magga and Stephan Dudeck breaching the image of the North as a home and as a field
Stephan Dudeck visited Terhi Vuojala-Magga in the Inari region of Finnish Sápmi (Sámi home area) two times during this year. The first visit was in January in Kuttura – a Sami reindeer herders´ forest village of six houses in the upper stream of Ivalo River - and the second visit was at the beginning of …
Conference in Riga “Oral History – Dialogue with Society”
I’m just back from the conference “Oral History – Dialogue with Society” in Riga that took place from 29th till 30th March. The conference was hosted by the Latvian National Oral History Centre of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia in cooperation with the Association of Oral History Researchers of …
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Arctic Anthropology 