In the current situation we do not get any more new research evidence from our Siberian field sites, unfortunately. Nonetheless Siberia remains THE place in the Arctic where…
A Russian vessel named “Saami” in a Norwegian wharf in Kirkenes in June 2023: the borderland reality on the ground continues as a lived experience even at times…
Prof John Ziker introduces his research and plans in the European Arctic. The anthropology team is pleased to announce a rather spontaneous talk by our visiting professor at…
In the European Arctic Midsummer nowadays marks mostly the start of the summer holidays. But at the roots of this big holiday, celebrated on or close to the…
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…
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…
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…
First of all, happy new year to all our readers, followers, and a big thank you to all those who contribute to making this blog a success. This…
So-called ‘ghost towns’ attract people in a certain sense, the ailing beauty of their ruins and the atmosphere of silence that is so different from the silence that…
related to the recent post about the forest fires in Siberia, here I share some footage from local people. This is not official news, it’s private people’s videos,…
Usually Arctic amplification is referred to as the reason why the Arctic is warming faster than the earth’s average, as the Arctic’s surface gets darker (due to less…
русский текст ниже One of the world’s most respected reindeer nomads, 1954-2021, mourning for a friend (all photos in this post © by Florian Stammler) Один из самых…
This winter and spring we hear again disastrous news from sudden temperature rises and falls, leading to thick ice-crusts on reindeer pastures that block reindeer’s access to their…
Piers Vitebsky (pv100(at)cam.ac.uk) and Roza Laptander (roza.laptander(at)mail.ru) are going to give an interesting example on how to de-provincialise Arctic social sciences. This time on a topic tha…
The European University at Saint Petersburg will host a seminar on the Northern Sea Route at its research Center for Arctic Social Studies. The seminar will be held…
This is dedicated to a long term and very good friend, Konstantin Ochepkov, who passed away in Siberia way too early yesterday, just a little over 50 years…
Just found out from the local news that in the Novyi Urengoy hospital two Nenets elders survived covid-19 and recovered from pneumonia, at the age of more than…
In spring we were proud to host the world’s first anthropological PhD defence in english by a Nenets colleague, Roza Laptander. Now we are happy that she got…
Public defence of the doctoral dissertation by blog contributor Lukas Allemann on 15 Oct 2020 Our team member and periodic blog contributor Lukas Allemann examines in his thesis…
It was probably a matter of time, but I thought until today ‘how great that the tundra is still free of infections’. The reindeer herders strategy of avoiding…
The population of Russia officially supported the suggested changes in the world’s largest country’s constitution, with almost 78% of those who voted. Half of the circumpolar Arctic, incl…
Midsummer, solstice on the 21 June is for many northern peoples and cultures an important holiday. In Finland it’s called Juhannus and a state holiday. In Yakutia, where…
Talking to a friend in Se Yakha, at the shore of the Ob Bay close to the Kara Sea, I realised how far the consequences of the recent…
The warm weather in Siberia seems to have led to an exceptionally early ice-thawing on Siberia’s major rivers. The specific of the river geography here is that all…