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Research Arctic Centre Research Sustainability of the Arctic Anthropocene Circumpolar archaeology Circumpolar Ethnoarchaeology

Ethnoarchaeology of Circumpolar Sacred Landscape Geography, Mobility and Material Culture

This long-term research investigates how the cosmology and beliefs of indigenous circumpolar communities are expressed in the creation, use and deposition of material culture, and in the organization of the landscape, the structuring of their migratory seasonal rounds, and the formation of enduring sacred places. Much earlier work on northern hunter-fisher-gatherers had tended to focus on economic patterns of adaptation, rather than the role of history, spirituality and belief. The approach has developed over a number of publications, and primarily involves ethnoarchaeological investigation of sacred landscape geography, which in turn is linked to the region’s broader boreal ecological adaptations and also to the historical transformations associated with northern colonialism. More recently, the work has expanded to include analysis of the original historical archives of the 1926/7 Soviet Polar Census, which provide household-scale documentation of subsistence and mobility through the annual round. When combined with other historical sources, and ethnographic fieldwork with descendent communities, data in these archives enable fine-grained documentation of behavioural variability across regions, as well as reconstruction of culture-historical transformations between multiple generations.

Last modified:14 February 2019 4.22 p.m.