Arctic Mirrors

Arctic Mirrors
Author: Yuri Slezkine
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2016-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501703307

For over five hundred years the Russians wondered what kind of people their Arctic and sub-Arctic subjects were. "They have mouths between their shoulders and eyes in their chests," reported a fifteenth-century tale. "They rove around, live of their own free will, and beat the Russian people," complained a seventeenth-century Cossack. "Their actions are exceedingly rude. They do not take off their hats and do not bow to each other," huffed an eighteenth-century scholar. They are "children of nature" and "guardians of ecological balance," rhapsodized early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century romantics. Even the Bolsheviks, who categorized the circumpolar foragers as "authentic proletarians," were repeatedly puzzled by the "peoples from the late Neolithic period who, by virtue of their extreme backwardness, cannot keep up either economically or culturally with the furious speed of the emerging socialist society."Whether described as brutes, aliens, or endangered indigenous populations, the so-called small peoples of the north have consistently remained a point of contrast for speculations on Russian identity and a convenient testing ground for policies and images that grew out of these speculations. In Arctic Mirrors, a vividly rendered history of circumpolar peoples in the Russian empire and the Russian mind, Yuri Slezkine offers the first in-depth interpretation of this relationship. No other book in any language links the history of a colonized non-Russian people to the full sweep of Russian intellectual and cultural history. Enhancing his account with vintage prints and photographs, Slezkine reenacts the procession of Russian fur traders, missionaries, tsarist bureaucrats, radical intellectuals, professional ethnographers, and commissars who struggled to reform and conceptualize this most "alien" of their subject populations.Slezkine reconstructs from a vast range of sources the successive official policies and prevailing attitudes toward the northern peoples, interweaving the resonant narratives of Russian and indigenous contemporaries with the extravagant images of popular Russian fiction. As he examines the many ironies and ambivalences involved in successive Russian attempts to overcome northern—and hence their own—otherness, Slezkine explores the wider issues of ethnic identity, cultural change, nationalist rhetoric, and not-so European colonialism.

Circumpolar Peoples

Circumpolar Peoples
Author: Nelson H. H. Graburn
Publisher: Pacific Palisades, Calif : Goodyear Publishing Company
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1973
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

An introduction to the cultures of northern peoples. Each chapter is followed by an annotated bibliography. Supplementary bibliography:p.218-26.

The Human Biology of Circumpolar Populations

The Human Biology of Circumpolar Populations
Author: F. A. Milan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 1980-02-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780521222136

This study elucidates the biological and behavioural processes leading to the successful adaptation of circumpolar human populations.

Globalization and the Circumpolar North

Globalization and the Circumpolar North
Author: Lassi Heininen
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2010-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1602231044

The circumpolar north has long been the subject of conflicting national aspirations and border disputes, and with the end of the cold war and the coming era of potential resource scarcity, its importance will only grow over the next several decades. Anticipating that renewed prominence, Globalization and the Circumpolar North brings together an array of scholars to explore the effects of this increased attention, from the new opportunities offered by globalization to the potential damage to long-isolated northern communities and peoples.

Native Peoples of Canada

Native Peoples of Canada
Author: D. A. Rokala
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Total Pages: 572
Release: 1986-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1772821276

The Manitoba Masterfile, PBHD, is a bibliographic database maintained at the University of Manitoba. Currently, the database contains 6,000 entries relating to population biology, health and illness of Native North Americans. The present volume of 2,100 entries, 80% annotated, presents the Masterfile content on prehistoric, historic, and contemporary Native populations from within the geo-political boundaries of Canada. Research on related populations is reported only when the reports include Canadian content.

People, Places, and Practices in the Arctic

People, Places, and Practices in the Arctic
Author: Cunera Buijs
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2022-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000772780

This collection follows anthropological perspectives on peoples (Canadian Inuit, Norwegian Sámi, Yupiit from Alaska, and Inuit from Greenland), places, and practices in the Circumpolar North from colonial times to our post-modern era. This volume brings together fresh perspectives on theoretical concepts, colonial/imperial descriptions, collaborative work of non-Indigenous and Indigenous researchers, as well as articles written by representatives of Indigenous cultures from an inside perspective. The scope of the book ranges from contributions based on unpublished primary sources, missionary journals, and fairly unknown early Indigenous sources and publications, to those based on more recent Indigenous testimonies and anthropological fieldwork, museum exhibitions, and (self)representations in the fields of fashion, marketing, and the arts. The aim of this volume is to explore the making of representations for and/or by Circumpolar North peoples. The authors follow what representations have been created in the past and in some cases continue to be created in the present, and the Indigenous employment of representations that has continuity with the past and also goes beyond "traditional" utilization. By studying these representations, we gain a better understanding of the dynamics of a society and its interaction with other cultures, notably in the context of the dominant culture’s efforts to assimilate Indigenous people and erase their story. People’s ideas about themselves and of "the Other" are never static, not even if they share the same cultural background. This is even more the case in the contact zone of the intercultural arena. Images of "the Other" vary according to time and place, and perceptions of "others" are continuously readjusted from both sides in intercultural encounters. This volume has been prepared by the Research Group Circumpolar Cultures (RGCC) which is based in the Netherlands. Its members conduct research on social and cultural change focusing on topics that are of interest to the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic. The RGCC builds on a long tradition in Arctic studies in the Netherlands (Nico Tinbergen, Geert van den Steenhoven, Gerti Nooter, and Jarich Oosten) and can rely on rich Arctic collections of artefacts and photographs in anthropological museums and extensive library collections. The expertise of the RGCC in Arctic studies is internationally acknowledged by academics as well as circumpolar peoples.

Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples
Author: Henry Minde
Publisher: Eburon Uitgeverij B.V.
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2008
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9059722043

Review: "During the past decade there has emerged growing criticism largely from anti-essentialist social scientists and multicultural politicians advocating a critique of ethnic and indigenous movements, accompanied by a general backlash in governmental policies and public opinion towards ideigneous communities. This book focuses on the implication of change for indigenous peoples, their political, legal and cultural strategies."--BOOK JACKET

About the Hearth

About the Hearth
Author: David G. Anderson
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2013-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0857459813

Due to changing climates and demographics, questions of policy in the circumpolar north have focused attention on the very structures that people call home. Dwellings lie at the heart of many forms of negotiation. Based on years of in-depth research, this book presents and analyzes how the people of the circumpolar regions conceive, build, memorialize, and live in their dwellings. This book seeks to set a new standard for interdisciplinary work within the humanities and social sciences and includes anthropological work on vernacular architecture, environmental anthropology, household archaeology and demographics.