Study Guide

Objective

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 students 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.

Content

The focus of the course is to outline the history, culture and social life of people in the Arctic by bringing in approaches developed in social anthropology, sociology, art, history and education. The study module also deals with how people of the Arctic are adapting to contemporary issues such as globalisation, industrial development and environmental changes. The course covers a broad range of aspects of northern societies and cultures in the Arctic region, including:
- Discourses of construction of indigeneity
- Discursive understanding of the concept of “tradition” and issues of traditional ecological knowledge
- Relations between development projects and community’s social viability (forestry, oil and gas, tourism) and resource governing
- Local adaptations to environmental climate changes and urbanization
- Various ethnographic accounts of local communities’ cultural and ethnic identities.

Materials

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.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Fail: Performance is highly deficient or erroneous. The work may be based on serious misunderstandings.

Sufficient and satisfactory (1-2): Performance is lacking in scope, superficial, or corresponds poorly to the assignment. The author merely lists things out of context or addresses them one-sidedly. The work may contain errors or obscurities.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

Good and very good (3-4): Performance corresponds to the assignment, manifesting comprehension and a skill to analyse and justify. The author has addressed the issue comprehensively. The work may contain some deficiencies.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Excellent (5): Performance delineates an extensive whole and the author can apply knowledge in a multifaceted way or place it in various contexts. The work manifests independency and insight, and it is a flawless entity that involves justified thinking or critical contemplation. The work is well written and implemented.

Qualifications

No previous studies required.

Further information

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.