It was more than ten years ago during our first visit to Santa Claus village – a tourist attraction in Rovaniemi in the north of Finland. My 6-year-old daughter asked Santa Claus why his reindeer can fly in the sky. Surely, this could not be true! Last summer, when she was in the Yamal tundra, she did …
Continue reading If Santa Claus’ reindeer can fly, what about other reindeer?
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 …
Indigenous knowledge, or better indigenous ways of knowing, have been key to anthropological debates on human-environment relations in the Arctic, even more so since climate change has increased the interest in this field of ours so much. Everyone is welcome if you like, to a discussion about a recent article in Current Anthropology on indigenous …
Continue reading Decolonising indigenous knowledge? Reading circle 12 May 2022 noon Finnish time
collectivism and individualism in the coastal fishing after 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami This was once Arahama - the vibrant fishing suburb of Sendai, right by the coast. After the 2011 Tsunami the entire community was not re-built. Nature takes it back. Picture from Oct 3, 2013 (Florian Stammler) Our long term friend and collaborator …
Continue reading Disaster anthropology talk 17 May 10 a.m: The role of culture in crisis:
Our friend Eduard Khudi and his wife Valentina sent these photos today, of the first reindeer calf of the year, born the 27th April in the Yamal tundra in the camp of Sergei Serotetto's son Lev. The big wave of calving has not started yet, but since then around 5-7 calves have appeared in this …
We all know that the current situation with Russia and Ukraine is rapidly changing a lot of the ways and values on which we have been relying in the past decades for our everyday lives. But recently I was surprised when discussing the impacts with Karoliina Majuri, a reindeer herder and colleague here at Lapland …
Continue reading The influence of world politics in the forest of Northern Lapland
A word of congratulations to the freshly baked Doctor Ayonghe Akonwi Nebasifu! He just now defended successfully his PhD dissertation with the title Knowledge Integration in Co-management: A Study on the People of the Mount Cameroon National Park. Thank you to Sabaheta Ramcilovik Suominen for a great 3 hour examination too. fresh Doctor Ayonghe Akonwi …
Continue reading New expert in knowledge integration: congrats!
Many of you may have heard about the resistance of Sámi people against the Alta-Kautokeino hydroelectric dam in the 1970s-1980s. Even though the dam was built, the Sámi resistance including hunger strikes was hugely influential not only for indigenous rights movement among the Sámi, but also worldwide. In a way we can trace the impact …
Continue reading Indigenous People against industry: theatre performance
Most people on our planet make their life choices mostly about in which settlement, country, climate etc they want to live. But the remaining nomads in the Arctic (unfortunately there are not that many any more) have this additional decision to make whether they bring up their children out on the tundra or in a …
Continue reading Nomadic or sedentary life: difficult choice?
This blog is run by the anthropology team of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. But today we want to share a very rare job opening of our namesake, the Arctic Centre of the University of Groningen. They offer the job of director, in conjunction with a full professorship in Arctic Studies. The last directors …
Continue reading Rare job opening: Groningen Professor Arctic Studies
Arctic Anthropology 