In this issue
Features
From the Secretariat
Arctic Council Updates
Fourth International Polar Year
Partnering between Arctic Communities and Researchers
ICARP II: Request for Proposals
ICASS V

Departments
About IASSA
Conferences and Meetings
For Students
Money Line
Bookshelf
On the Web
Remembering . . . .

From the Secretariat
Peter Schweitzer, President
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This is the last issue of Northern Notes you will receive before we hopefully see you all here in Fairbanks next May. Thus, the majority of pages of this newsletter are devoted to information surrounding ICASS V: the third announcement and call for papers, information about keynote speakers, a list of proposed sessions, as well registration information and first notes about the congress schedule.

Please note that the deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended until January 15, 2004. I hope that this will give all of you the opportunity to participate in IASSA's main triannual event. I also want to mention that we have a conference organizer, Pips Veazey, on board since September (see her column below). Pips (together with Anne Sudkamp) is already doing a tremendous job to ensure that ICASS V will be a memorable event.

IASSA continues to be represented at the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council (AC). This October, it was IASSA member Rasmus Ole Rasmussen who agreed to attend the SDWG meeting and an AC-sponsored IT conference (see his reports below).

The Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR), sponsored by the Arctic Council, is entering its "hot phase." As I am writing these lines, the first drafts of individual chapters are being produced and the chapter lead authors will be meeting in Rovaniemi in mid-December. We all hope that it will be possible to present a progress report and first results during ICASS V.

A new initiative relevant for all arctic social scientists is the Fourth International Polar Year (IPY-4) scheduled for 2007-08. IASSA member Igor Krupnik was kind enough to provide a first announcement of this initiative (see below) and intends to hold a special IPY panel during our congress in May.

Another special addition to ICASS V is the "Partnering between Arctic Communities and Researchers" workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Alaska Native Science Commission and the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. The workshop will look at how these relationships are working and will highlight the work of several partnerships (see information below).

Finally, I encourage all IASSA members to consider the International Arctic Science Committee's request for working group theme proposals for the Second International Conference for Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II). It is critical that social scientists play a role in this planning. Deadline is January 5.

I wish all members and friends of IASSA joyous holidays and a happy new year 2004! See you in Fairbanks in May!

Anne Sudkamp, Executive Officer
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Things are moving right along here at the IASSA secretariat as we march toward spring and ICASS V.

In order to make signing up for ICASS V as easy as possible, we have created online forms on our website, http://www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/index.html, including an abstract submittal form and a secure membership form.

Please note that the abstract deadline is January 15 and the deadline for advance registration, with reduced fees, is February 15. Please also note that we are allowing participants to act in a maximum number of three roles (e.g., presenting two papers and organizing one session or presenting one paper and organizing two sessions).

We are pleased to announce that we will have a poster session at ICASS V. To participate, fill out the abstract submittal form on our website and under "Preferred session" note "Poster session." Note that travel funding will be available only to participants giving an oral presentation.

Please be aware that current membership in IASSA is required in order to attend ICASS V. If you get Northern Notes through the mail, take a look at your mailing label. In the top right-hand area is the date your membership expires. I would greatly appreciate getting membership dues now, while there's plenty of time to process them. If you aren't already a member, this is a good time to join. Our secure membership form is at https://ssl.uaf.edu/anthro/forms/membershipform.htm

Congratulations to the following IASSA members:

Betty Kobayashi Issenman, a researcher at the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal, was invested into the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honour for Canadians, for her work to promote understanding of Inuit culture.

William Schneider, a professor of oral history at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, received the Contributor to Alaska History award from the Alaska Historical Society in recognition of more than 30 years of promoting and preserving Alaska's history.

I look forward to meeting so many of you whom I've "talked" with the past two years!

Pips Veazey, Conference Coordinator
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ICASS V is approaching fast, and we are working hard to bring together the details that make for a successful and energizing conference. I hope to continue the tradition of excellence established by previous ICASS conferences.

Prior to being hired with IASSA, I spent eight years raising my young children and acting as President of the Board at the Fairbanks Montessori School. I have a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bates College (1987), a master's degree in oceanography from the University of Alaska (1993), and am currently working on a master's degree in education at the University of Alaska. I have lived as an East Coast transplant in Alaska since 1987.

I look forward to meeting many of you at the May conference in Fairbanks.

Arctic Council Updates
On behalf of IASSA, Rasmus Ole Rasmussen of NORS, Roskilde University This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , attended the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) Meeting and International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in the Arctic and filed the following reports:

SDWG Meeting, October 2003
On October 8, 2003 the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) held its meeting at Svartsengi, Iceland.

A key discussion in the meeting was the development of an "Action Plan for Sustainable Development," in which Russia is the lead country. A concept paper was presented that stresses the objectives of an action plan that reveals gaps in Arctic Council activities in relation to sustainable development. It was generally agreed that the concept paper was an excellent basis for proceeding, but concern was expressed that the time would be too short to produce an ambitious action plan before the next Ministerial Meeting. Consequently it was decided to aim at completing a "phase 1" before the Ministerial Meeting and then continue with further advances and updating during the next Chairmanship period. Due to the whole concept of sustainable development, an action plan has to be a "living document," subject to regular updating. It was also agreed that a workshop should be arranged in conjunction with the SDWG meeting in August where the document should be subjected to scrutiny and discussions, eventually involving other working groups.

A request from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) regarding advice on how to include social and economic aspects of assessment of petroleum hydrocarbon in the Arctic was discussed. It was generally agreed that such an inclusion, assessing both the risks and benefits of such development for humans in a balanced way, would be essential. The SDWG has the necessary mandate and competence to take the task, but resources for the activity were undetermined. Consequently, it was decided to await a decision by the Senior Arctic Officials on whether a chapter on human elements is necessary or not. If assistance were requested and funding and working methods clarified, the WG would be willing to follow up on the request.

Canada has started an initial review looking into how Council projects, policies and initiatives contribute to capacity building. It aims to develop an Arctic Council compendium addressing capacity building with the working title: "Capacity Building Overview of the Arctic Council." It will be based on baseline data that can provide an overview of the Arctic Council's programs, initiatives and policies as they pertain to capacity building, and a draft outline will be circulated amongst the Working Groups for consideration and input before it will be made available for the Fourth Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in 2004.

The Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) have prepared a proposal aimed at economic reform as related to natural resource use and with a view to creating viable mechanisms that support building the capacity of IPON - The Economic Profile of Indigenous peoples of the North. To empower the communities to action, the project focus is on improving institutional structures by establishing a series of centers for indigenous training. It should empower the indigenous communities to capitalize on their latent potential and existing abilities and support the creation of production facilities based on traditional economic activities.

Norway is the lead country in a project regarding women's participation in decision-making processes in arctic fisheries resource management. Six subprojects are in progress. Canada heads a project aimed at documenting the participation in and perceptions of fisheries management and its influence on the lives of women in small indigenous communities. Greenland is leading a project studying how the wife's income has become crucial for the family economies of dinghy-based fishing. Iceland is in charge of a project studying gender aspects within the aquaculture sector. Norway is heading a project compiling data regarding ownership and leadership in the fisheries sector in participating countries. Sweden is in charge of a project studying the discursive power preventing Sami women from participating in the regulations debate in Sweden. And Sámediggi is in charge of a study of the Regulatory Council and the influence of the Norwegian Samí Parliament and the Samí Coastal women in this governing body.

Progress in the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) is looked upon with great expectation. The report aims to give an overview and assessment of the status of human development in the circumpolar region, and the report confirmed that the work is progressing according to schedule. The necessary group of lead authors has been found, and they have organized chapter teams of contributing authors. The authors are currently working on their first draft chapters with a deadline of November 15, 2003. The next meeting of lead authors is scheduled for December, and the goal is still to have the AHDR ready in time for presentation at the fall 2004 Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council. It was originally intended that the drafts of the chapters should go through a peer-review process managed by the Executive Committee before being made accessible to a wider audience, but concerns regarding this process were expressed by several participants. It was stressed that the process with peer review was OK, but that first drafts should also be distributed to the whole Steering Committee (25 members including representatives from member states, permanent participants and observers) in order to get local input at an early stage in the process.

Norway is the lead country in a project focusing on family-based reindeer economy and the status and management of wild reindeer/caribou populations. Reindeer/caribou herding and hunting are livelihoods with specific cultural dimensions of fundamental importance to the population in the Arctic. The focus of the project is on developing an economically, socially and culturally sustainable family-based economy by adding to the base of scientific knowledge of the economics of family-based reindeer/caribou herding and hunting of wild reindeer/caribou as a natural resource. The project is a follow-up of the "Sustainable Reindeer Husbandry" project which was presented at the AC Ministerial Meeting in Finland in 2002.

The Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force (USA-led) is continuing to explore opportunities for developing infrastructure in the North. In relation to aviation, a feasibility study on the possibility of air links between Canada, Alaska and the Russian Far East is planned; it also aims to look at reestablishing an eastern connection between Canada and Greenland. In relation to telecommunications, a meeting in conjunction with the University of the Arctic including IT experts from USA, Greenland, Norway and Russia had looked into the state of telecommunications infrastructure and service availability throughout the eight arctic nations, and developed and presented a white paper to the Arctic Council. Continued exploration will look into possible ways to facilitate rural broadband accessibility through international cooperation, aimed at establishing a telecommunications expert network. Regarding marine transportation, the focus is on the improvement of arctic shipping and plans include working with arctic scientists to encourage in-depth analysis of physical changes that affect future viability for commercial shipping in the North. Participants expressed concern about the future transport of crude oil from the Barents Sea to USA, which eventually will cover 20% of US consumption, stressing the need for this activity to be included in future research.

The three-year project on Ecological and Cultural Tourism (USA/Finland as lead countries) with the acronym SMAT (Sustainable Model for Arctic Sustainable Tourism) started in April 2003. It aims to assist the arctic tourism sector, mainly local small- to medium-sized businesses and local stakeholders, to develop positive economic, social and environmental benefits from tourism based on the cultural and natural environment of the North. During the first period, focus has been on information collection as well as defining the framework of sustainable tourism to be used during the project.

The project on "Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases" with USA as the lead partner aims to establish an integrated international circumpolar surveillance system for infectious diseases by means of a network of hospital and public health laboratories throughout the Arctic. Preliminary results have been presented at the 13th European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Glasgow Scotland and at the 12th International Congress on Circumpolar Health in Nuuk, Greenland. At the 2004 AC Ministerial Meeting a comprehensive report on invasive bacterial diseases will be presented.

The project on "The Future of Children and Youth in the Arctic" with Canada as the lead partner aims to improve the health and well-being of children and youth of the Arctic, as well as to improve the basis for sound decision-making by increasing the knowledge and understanding of sustainable development among arctic youth and children. The project includes an ongoing data collection process and, in connection with the 12th International Congress on Circumpolar Health in Nuuk, Greenland, preliminary results regarding the damage of bacteria, viruses, environmental tobacco smoke and chemical contaminants on the respiratory health of Inuit children were presented. The project also includes a networking package with nine different subprojects, all expected to be completed in 2004. The results of these projects, as well as materials regarding health issues in the circumpolar North, will be made available on the "On Top of the World" and the "Educators Material Exchange Database" web sites in 2003/2004.

The "Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic" (SLICA) project with Greenland/Denmark as the lead partner has been ongoing since 1997, and results of the project are awaited with great expectation. It is a joint international project aimed at conducting a comparative study of living conditions among the Inuit and Saami peoples of USA, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the indigenous peoples of the Kola Peninsula and Chukotka in Russia. The last part of the data collection is scheduled for spring 2004, so results may eventually start appearing by 2005.

The SDWG has established a permanent secretariat as well as a website at http://www.sdwg.org/ where further information about the activities can be found. The next meeting is scheduled for May 2004.

International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Arctic
On October 20-21, 2003 a conference entitled "Opportunities and Obstacles for Sustainable Development, Education and Telemedicine" was held in Akureyri, Iceland. Being the chair of Arctic Council (AC), Iceland has considered use of ICT as a tool for development in the Arctic as one of their key priorities. Out of a large number of options the conference focused on three areas - infrastructure, distance education, and telemedicine - and the two-day conference included keynote presentations, roundtable discussions, as well as concurrent paper presentation sessions on these issues.

The use of information and communications technology is generally perceived as being a means of contributing in a significant way to the future development of arctic communities. In a setting with small communities separated by vast distances, the means of communications is vital to economic and social viability and most of the presentations focused on this fact, stressing the positive perspectives by showing different approaches and means to make use of ICT to overcome these problems.

Crosscutting themes in most of the presentations were the possibilities of ICT to transcend barriers to communication and cooperation. Among the promising assets of ICT, whether it involves education, health or other fields, is to give people a practical and real chance to live where they want to live and stay in their traditional home settings. The use of ICT has the potential to advance and distribute knowledge, as well as solve health-care problems, by means of telemedicine and distributed health services.

A few of the presentations also touched upon some of the technical problems and limitations existing in the North, such as limited access and functionality for many of the more isolated communities and the potential divide between have and have-not communities.

In connection with a few of the presentations and discussions - primarily in the roundtable settings - some of the problems and potential negative effects of ICT that need to be addressed in the future were mentioned. Distance education, for example, has limited relevance to people if it does not correspond to their cultural, social and economic realities. Once educated, people need opportunities to make use of their skills and learning. Otherwise, ICT may counteract intentions and eventually lead to outmigration. Consequently, concurrent local development of business activities able to make use of human resources with new qualifications is a prerequisite for the bright future usually depicted in connection with ICT development. While this aspect received only a limited amount of discussion, it may be an important ingredient in future conferences.

One reason for AC to arrange the conference has been the intention to use it as a starting point for the establishment of an AC Information and Communications Technology Task Force. It should include the present active ITC activities such as the Arctic Telemedicine community, the University of the Arctic, and working groups existing at the Barents and Nordic levels, as well as strong representation of user interests. This group should be tasked with planning and coordination of ICT activities, developing programs, and ensuring practical collaboration between relevant Arctic Council working groups and other stakeholders. The main goals include 1) the implementation of a circumpolar community demonstration network project where northern communities in all arctic states are connected in an arctic village; 2) the maintaining of an arctic ICT clearinghouse, to share information of best practices and promote public and governmental awareness of existing arctic ICT initiatives in all fields; 3) the organization of annual ICT conferences, alternating between selected ICT themes at suitable locations and an Arctic Telemedicine meeting in conjunction with the Tromsø Telemedicine Conference, and 4) the organization of an annual arctic ICT prize to the best project demonstrating active and creative use of ICT in supporting sustainable development in northern communities.



Fourth International Polar Year
Igor Krupnik, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , filed the following:

Planning is currently underway for a new large-scale international program in polar research that has been named "International Polar Year-4" or IPY-4. The IPY-4 is going to take place in 2007-08; it will include 18 months of intense research activities, followed by data analysis, publication, policy and public discussions. It is going to be the fourth similar effort undertaken by the international polar science community, 125 years after the first International Polar Year of 1882-83 (IPY-1), 75 years after the second such program in 1932-33 (IPY-2), and 50 years after the third and the most concerted effort in 1957-58, called the "International Geophysical Year" (IGY or IPY-3). All previous IPY ventures provided major opportunities to enhance polar research (and its funding). They all promoted international cooperation among polar scientists and national research institutions, and they helped collect benchmark data on many facets of the cold regions of the world. They also served as major vehicles to capture public imagination and to convey the crucial role that the polar areas play in the functioning of the Earth as the planetary ecosystem.

Hopes are very high that IPY-4 will play an even larger role in spurring research and science cooperation. IPY-4 is envisioned to be an intense, international campaign of coordinated observations and analysis. It should be bipolar in focus, multidisciplinary in scope, and truly international in participation. The emerging vision for the IPY-4 is for researchers from many nations to work together to gain holistic insights into planetary processes, to explore and increase our understanding of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, and of their roles in the global system. The new IPY-4 effort will also expand our ability to detect ongoing changes in the polar regions and to extend this knowledge to the public and decision makers.

The concept of IPY-4 has been endorsed and advanced by a broad range of polar and global research groups. In February 2003, the International Council for Science (ICSU) formed an International Polar Year Planning Group (IPY-PG). Gérard Duhaime, former IASSA president and current council member, has been appointed to that group. Several national IPY groups and planning committees are under various stages of organization. In August 2003, the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academies created the U.S. Planning Committee on the International Polar Year. Igor Krupnik from the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and Richard Glenn from the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation in Barrow, Alaska are serving on that committee. We hope to see more social scientists and representatives of northern indigenous organizations being nominated to their respective national IPY committees to stand for our common interests in preparation for this seminal international research effort.

Unlike the previous IPY ventures of 1882-83, 1932-33, and 1957-58, which were primarily, if not exclusively, focused on geophysical and natural sciences, IPY-4 is planned as a true interdisciplinary program. Its widely shared new vision is to integrate polar residents and social scientists into all its major stages. Some national IPY agendas, particularly that of the Canadian IPY group, put very high priority on "human dimensions" in its research planning. We hope that the final agenda developed for IPY-4 activities, both internationally and for each of its participating nations, will include many cultural, social, health, and environmental issues critical to polar communities and social/human scientists.

Both constituencies have great stakes in this new international initiative. There is also a powerful, though mostly forgotten legacy stemming from earlier IPY efforts, particularly from the First International Polar Year of 1882-83 that is highly relevant today. Several IPY-1 expeditions and related later surveys produced extensive ethnographic and natural history collections and other documentary records, such as historical photographs, personal diaries, local site descriptions, and early publications. The collections, photographs, and writings of the U.S. International Polar Year Expedition at Point Barrow (1881-83) now at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC (Ray 1885; Murdoch 1892/1988) offer, probably, the best-known illustration on how valuable IPY materials could become today. In fact, Barrow has probably the most extensive record of serving as the key research site for all the previous IPY efforts: in 1881-83, 1932-33, and 1957-58; it is sure to become a major station for the new IPY-4 operations as well. Thus, the community of Barrow is to benefit immensely from the previous IPY records that contribute benchmark data on its status, profile, and cultural transition over 125 years.

Several other expeditions affiliated with IPY-1 offer a no less promising source of historical data of great interest to today's northern communities. Lucien Turner's two-year survey in Ungava Bay (1882-84), Franz Boas' study on Baffin Island (1883-84), and a three-year stay of Adolphus W. Greely's party on Ellesmere Island (1881-84) made breakthrough contributions to the development of knowledge on northern areas and residents. Troves of invaluable historical information on local cultures are also preserved in the records of the Norwegian International Polar Year expedition (Sophus Tromholt's stay in Kautokeino, 1882-83); two Russian IPY expeditions (data on the Evenki and Sakha/Yakut of the Lena River Delta, 1881-84, and Nenets of the Novaya Zemlya Islands, 1882-83); in H. Abbes' notes from the German IPY expedition (Inuit of Cumberland Sound, 1882-83); in K.R. Koch's survey of the Labrador coast (1882-83), and in other IPY-1 publications. Those expeditions' materials as well as other IPY-based collections, photographs, and site descriptions can be shared with northern communities and should become available to them through various exhibit, museum, educational, and "knowledge repatriation" programs.

There is another crucial aspect to the planning of the new IPY activities for 2007-08. Arctic residents, indigenous communities, political and other non-governmental organizations are now key players in polar research. They have their stakes in every facet of today's arctic science, particularly in the issues related to modern climate change, pollution, cultural heritage, subsistence, health, and economic development in northern areas. Burgeoning northern towns, like Barrow in Alaska, Iqaluit in Nunavut, Kautokeino in Norway, Nuuk in Greenland, Rovaniemi in Finland, and Tiksi in Sakha Republic, Northern Russia, have emerged at sites once selected as 'pristine observation stations' by the First IPY expeditions. Those Arctic towns now have their own museums, research institutions, colleges and even universities. They also have many experienced elders as well as hundreds of educated local residents and many younger students interested in polar science. For these and many other reasons, northern residents should play important roles in every aspect of the IPY-4 research, from pre-planning to scholarly design, funding, data collection, and the final processing and dissemination of results.

This collaboration will also assure that the new IPY-4 studies have a strong focus on contemporary issues that are relevant to local communities and will be beneficial to their cultural sustainability and social development.

Major IPY-4 research activities are still three or even four years ahead; but time is ticking away, since today's research planning, grant application, and funding takes years to accomplish. The 'human component' of the IPY-4 will require concerted efforts by social scientists and indigenous communities as well as several discussions to develop their joint agenda. Communication, exchange of ideas, and sharing of existing knowledge needs to begin soon. To this end, the U.S. National IPY Committee, the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA), NSF, Smithsonian Institution, and Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC) are exploring several venues to reach out to those social scientists and northern communities interested in forging new partnerships. To promote these activities, a special IPY panel will be organized at the forthcoming 5th ICASS in Fairbanks in May 2004.

Workshop: Partnering between Arctic Communities and Researchers
Anna Kerttula, Program Director, Arctic Social Sciences, Office of Polar Programs/NSF < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > submitted the following:

Over the last decade Arctic communities have increasingly become the location and object of formal scientific inquiry. The intensification of interest by scientific researchers in the Arctic can be attributed, although not exclusively, to an increased global interest in and funding for climate change research, increased access to research possibilities in the Former Soviet Union, advances in technologies that allow greater access to remote regions with extreme climates, as well as the demands by Arctic communities to understand the rapid changes occurring in their environment and societies. These research agendas are driven not only by the interests of formal science but also by Arctic residents themselves. These circumstances have brought about a change in the Arctic community from being merely an object of study to being a research partner with a scientific agenda of its own.

This workshop will highlight the work of several sets of partners, e.g., scientists both academic and Native working with Arctic communities on projects that serve the goals and interests of both. The purpose of the workshop is to gain insight into how to create partnerships, how partners complement one another, and what the successes and failures of the partnership enterprise are from each partner's point of view. The workshop will be structured with invited morning presentations from partner projects and afternoon sessions of open roundtable discussions.

The workshop is sponsored in partnership between the National Science Foundation, the Alaska Native Science Commission (ANSC), and the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS).

It will be held during ICASS V on Friday, May 21 and Saturday, May 22, 2004.

Students and Arctic community residents interested in participating should contact Sue Mitchell at ARCUS, < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > 907-474-1600; or Patricia Cochran at ANSC, < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > 907-258-2672 to get information on travel grants.


ICARP II: Request for Proposals
Odd Rogne, Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, submitted the following request for working group theme proposals for the Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II):

In 1995, an International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP I) was held in Hanover, NH (USA) after an international planning process. This planning process included 10 international working groups, who, over about 12 months, drafted initial science plans for potential circumarctic research projects. These plans were then discussed and reviewed by the 300 conference participants. Since then, almost all of these plans have been implemented and have contributed significantly to Arctic research and knowledge.

Earlier this year, it was agreed to initiate a similar process and base the initiative on a community-wide partnership. At present, 13 major Arctic research and user organisations are taking part in this venture, and after consultations, and assisted by an Ad-hoc Planning Group, an ICARP II Steering Group is now in place. The Steering Group held its first meeting October 29.

Working Group Themes
The Steering Group agreed that in order to launch this process, proposals on the themes for each working group need to be generated. All sponsors are encouraged to use their network for extending this invitation for proposing themes as widely as is possible both in the science and user communities; e.g. an open and transparent process.

Deadline for proposals is January 5, 2004.

In order to initiate the creative process, we are quoting some parts of the ICARP II Vision Statement:

-Research needed to address problems, priorities and concerns of those who live in or near the Arctic,
-Linkages between Arctic and global processes,
-Physical, biological and social science priorities that are necessary to address issues concerning Arctic natural resources and environmental quality and that can guide international cooperation over the next five to ten years,
-Each priority should be framed in thematic rather than in disciplinary terms.

The Steering Group also discussed a potential overarching theme and proposes the following working title: Understanding the Arctic System: Regional Sustainable Development and Global Connections.

When drafting the proposal you should consider the overarching theme together with the following:

-Is there a clear scientific focus?
-Is the proposal circumarctic in scope?
-Does it address a priority issue as seen from a user community, and/or is it cutting edge science?
-Is it likely to become implemented and funded?

The proposal should contain a brief description (1-2 pages maximum) of each proposed concept, including a title, contact person and contact information, and a concise description of the research activity. If possible, 2-3 prominent scientists working in this area could be mentioned.

It should not be a formal science proposal, but a candidate idea that can be sorted and considered for ICARP II.

What happens next?
The next meeting of the Steering Group will be held January 19-20, 2004. In order to keep to the timeline, the Steering Group will take the feedback that it receives in response to this request and derive a set of selected Working Group themes.

Following that, there is the equally important process of appointing members of the working groups; e.g. those who will be drafting the circumarctic science plans. The working group will begin work in the spring of 2004 and work for approximately 12 months. The conference is planned for the fall of 2005.

Thank you for your kind and quick consideration of this request. We look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Feel free to contact the IASC Secretariat if you have any questions.

The proposal should be sent to:

The IASC Secretariat
P.O. Box 5156 Majorstua, 0302 Oslo, Norway
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Fax: int.+47-2295 9902, and
Sara Bowden, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it



ICASS V

 See also From the Secretariat
Third Announcement and Call for Papers
The International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) is pleased to issue the third announcement for the 5th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS V) to be held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA from May 19-23, 2004.

ICASS V's theme is Connections: Local and Global Aspects of Arctic Social Systems.

These international congresses are held every three years, bringing together people from all over the world to share ideas about social science research in the Arctic. The last one, ICASS IV, was held in Quebec City, Canada from May 16-20, 2001, hosting some 300 participants from 17 different countries.

ICASS V will open with registration and a reception on Wednesday evening, May 19. The sessions will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday days, as well as Sunday morning. Events are planned for each evening, including the main social event, a riverboat cruise, for Saturday evening. The IASSA General Assembly will be held on Sunday morning. Post-conference tours will begin Sunday and Monday.

This is our third call for papers. Abstracts may be submitted online at our website: www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/icass5abst.htm. The abstract deadline has been extended to January 15, 2004.

ICASS V will also include a poster session. To participate, fill out the abstract submittal form on our website and under "Preferred session" note "Poster session." Note that travel funding will be available only to participants giving an oral presentation.

Membership in IASSA is required in order to participate in ICASS V. A secure membership form is included on our website for attendees to join IASSA or renew their membership: https://ssl.uaf.edu/anthro/forms/membershipform.htm

Online registration will be available on our website. The deadline for advance registration, with reduced fees, is February 15, 2004.

Conference organizing committee members include Peter Schweitzer, chair; Amy Lovecraft, Molly Lee, Richard Caulfield, Tammy Mix, Gordon Pullar, Jonathan Rosenberg, Gary Kofinas, Jordan Titus, Dan Odess, Pips Veazey and Anne Sudkamp.

Keynote Speakers
IASSA is pleased to announce that the following distinguished individuals have accepted our invitation to join ICASS V as keynote speakers: Larisa Abryutina, Fikret Berkes, Tim Ingold, and Dalee Sambo Dorough.

Other plenary activities are in the works; check our website for updates: http://www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/index.html

Keynote presentation titles and abstracts available are included here:

Larisa Abryutina
Vice President, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), Moscow, Russia

Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North: Sources of the Crisis and Ways to Overcome It
Indigenous peoples of the Russian North are now in a situation of deep crisis. Resolutions to this crisis seem to be unlikely, despite significant efforts on the part of the Russian and foreign governments. It is possible to suggest that change for the better will come about only when these peoples cease being distinctive ethnic groups, which they partly still are, and become regular groups, similar in many respects to the rest of the population of Russia.

This prognosis is based on several conditions, the main ones being:

-An unclear definition of these ethnic groups as subjects of state politics;
-An unclear idea about what indigenous peoples of the Russian North are. They are not homogenous groups and in order to create solutions it is imperative to develop new relations between organs of state power and indigenous communities.
-A lack of understanding of the internal causes for the crisis in which indigenous peoples of the Russian North find themselves, in particular a lack of understanding of such an important factor as the low level of health, in the wider sense of the word.
-A lack of coordination in the preparation of decisions and breaches in the execution of planned practical measures.

Before the background of all these factors, discussions about paternalism and partnerships, traditional and "European" paths, sustainable development and self-determination turn out to be kind and intentional.

Fikret Berkes
Distinguished Professor of Natural Resources and Canada Research Chair in Community-Based Resource Management, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Why Keep a Community-Based Focus in Times of Global Interactions?
Arctic societies and ecosystems are connected to global process perhaps more than ever before, making them vulnerable to pressures and incentives that may originate at other levels of political and economic organization. I propose a four-step conceptualization of Arctic communities in a complex world. First, not only are communities part of a larger world, but communities themselves are complex systems embedded in larger complex systems. Second, communities respond to various influences, making it important to identify drivers of change originating outside of the Arctic system. Third, we need to study cross-scale linkages between communities and other levels of political organization. Fourth, we need to investigate the various ways in which we can help build adaptive capacity at the local level to increase resilience in the face of change. In my own research in the Canadian North, I am finding it useful to think of "community-based resource management" as shorthand for governance that starts from the ground up but deals with cross-scale interactions. A community-based focus helps build grounded theory and practice. But at the same time, we need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how cross-scale linkages and external drivers shape the interactions that are the subjects of our various fields of study.

Tim Ingold
Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

A Manifesto for the Anthropology of the North
At different periods in the history of Social Anthropology particular regions of the world have provided an ethnographic context for key theoretical advances in the discipline as a whole: thus research in sub-Saharan Africa led to the development of kinship theory; Melanesian ethnography forced a fundamental rethinking of our ideas of personhood and sociality; while studies of European societies brought issues of ethnic identity and nationalism to the fore. Long before all of that, the anthropology of the circumpolar North had been at the heart of the debate between evolutionism and diffusionism. It is now once again the turn of northern anthropology to drive the theoretical agenda. But in so doing, we can return to those eternal questions that have lain at the heart of anthropological inquiry from the outset. How do people relate to the land and to animals in the procurement of livelihood, as in hunting or herding, and in their cosmological understandings as manifested in the practices of animism and totemism? What is the role of property (or its absence) in the constitution of social relationships? How are people linked to one another, and to landscapes and localities, in the formation of personal or collective identities? From what sources does knowledge grow, and what are the effects of its codification as either 'science' or 'tradition'? What conditions lead to the establishment or dissolution of structures of social inequality and political domination? What makes the anthropology of the North so exciting, and underlies its agenda-setting potential, is that while charting contemporary events it is also taking us back full circle to these issues that preoccupied the founders of the discipline, while recasting them in a genuinely new light. At the same time it is looking outwards to new forms of engagement, with residents of the region (whether of 'native' or 'settler' origin) , with science, administration and business, with governmental and non-governmental organisations, and of course with other traditions and disciplines of scholarship. In this paper I shall outline some of the recurrent themes of northern anthropology that seem to me of particular significance in pointing to directions for future research.

Sessions
See our website for updates: www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/icass5sessab.htm

Arctic Policy: Re-examining Shifting Boundaries
Session Proposed by: Peter J. May < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Session Chair: Fae Korsmo, NSF, < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Proposed Discussants: Fae Korsmo and Greg Poelzer < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
In keeping with the theme of ICASS V, this proposal is for a session that will examine various aspects of the shifting boundaries that have defined Arctic policy in the United States and Canada. One aspect is the role that indigenous knowledge has performed in shaping policy. A second aspect is the interplay of global considerations with national, regional, and local considerations in defining Arctic policy. A third aspect is the changing agenda that comprises Arctic policy in the United States and Canada. This session will examine these shifting boundaries and their implications for the study of Arctic policy. Research findings will be presented that are based on an on-going study of Arctic policy in the United States and Canada being undertaken with funding by the U.S. National Science Foundation by researchers at the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, University of Washington, Seattle USA.

Building Human Capacity in the Arctic: Innovations in Circumpolar Higher Education
Gordon L. Pullar < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Richard A. Caulfield < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Developing resilient and sustainable communities in the Arctic requires building enduring capacity for culturally informed and globally aware leadership. This session focuses on the role that community leadership and innovative educational initiatives play in contributing to community wellness and development. We invite contributors who help us understand how indigenous and local knowledge can be combined with an awareness of dynamic global social-ecological systems. We seek to understand innovations in higher education theory and practice that demonstrate how indigenous ways of knowing, Western scientific knowledge and methods, and emerging technologies can be brought to bear in improving the lives and livelihoods of Arctic peoples. Elders, community members, students, and faculty from northern educational institutions are welcome to submit papers to ensure a wide view of human capacity-building in Arctic communities.

Building Sustainable Worlds: Native and Non-Native Perspectives on the Management of Natural Resources in the Arctic
Frank J. Sowa < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Several conflicts over the management of local natural resources as e.g. birds, reindeers and whales as well as conflicts over the establishment of nature reserves and national parks in the Arctic and Northern countries show that the increasingly globalised world has brought about new consequences for Inuit and other local people. They are more and more confronted with "Western" ideas of scientific management regimes, nature conservation and in general the category "nature". Even if there are attempts to combine the different worldviews and knowledge bases as e.g. through establishing co-management or by recognizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), the mutual intercultural understanding of each other is limited.

The session invites scientists to make their contribution to the following topics: theoretical and empirical aspects on native and non-native perspectives on nature, sustainability and human-animal relations in the Arctic; cultural significances of local resources for the Inuit Life-World(s) (Lebenswelt); cultural representations through local food; the implication of "nature" in political processes of nation-building; various meanings of sustainability in the Arctic; ideas of the finiteness and infinity of natural resources; methodological and scientific commitments of the management of local resources; and the Western ideas of nature protection and conservation.

Building Sustainable Worlds as a cooperative and joint task in the Arctic is only possible if there is more reciprocal hermeneutical understanding of categories, perspectives, methods and ways of knowledge production. The fundamental aim of the session is to reflect the stereotypical projections of Inuit/Eskimo of the past, to analyse contemporary conflicts and debates over the management of natural resources and to create more constructive dialogue in the future.

Children in the Arctic
Barbara Crass < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Children are one of the invisible groups of people (Moore & Scott 1997), not only in the past but, to a certain extent, in the present as well. Anthropologists often see children as either a separate topic for research or, more commonly, as a side issue to research dealing with adults. But children are a very important and visible part of everyone's daily life. They have their own culture as well as being active participants in the dominant culture of adults. This session seeks to explore aspects of children and childhood in the Arctic, past and present. Papers on archaeological, cultural, educational, medical, sociologic, folkloric and historic aspects of children are welcome.

Circumpolar Arts in an Era of Globalization
Nelson H.H. Graburn < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
In 1990, at the founding of IASSA in Fairbanks, Alaska, we convened the first panel on the arts of the Circumpolar North. Important processes of change in the arts such as the North-South connections with mainstream urban art worlds, and circumpolar cooperation in art exhibitions were then in their infancy. Since that date, some of these trends have come to fruition, for instance Arts of the Arctic, the circumpolar traveling art exhibition, organized by Ron Senungetuk and Lorne Balshine in the early 1990's, and the burst of artistic activity among Canadian Inuit artists currently living in the south. The papers of this session will examine the consequences of these events and point the way towards new trends and processes in the politics of art and culture.

Connections: Collaborations between Communities and Language Workers
Anna Berge < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, Gary Holton < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, Lawrence Kaplan < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, and Kathy Sikorski < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Past approaches to language documentation and revitalization in the North have often been structured from the top down. While such efforts have produced materials which are useful to outside researchers, these materials have not always been of direct use to language communities. Today there is a growing recognition of the value of locally based research which directly addresses the needs of the community through a collaborative approach. The future of language work in the North points toward more active participation by communities in language work and a more meaningful and engaging relationship between communities and language workers. In recognition of the conference theme, we encourage papers which explore the past, present, and/or future of these relationships. Papers which discuss current or proposed collaborative and innovative documentation and revitalization projects are especially welcome.

Effective Local Institutions for Collective Action in Arctic Communities
Sharman Haley < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Why are some small communities more successful than others in developing a sustainable mixed economy, with good public services, and positive social outcomes for residents of all ages? What are the factors that foster effective local institutions? How can communities learn to more effectively address problems and promote their own community goals? This session invites interdisciplinary inquiry into community-based collective action in the Arctic.
Effective self-governing institutions for collective action are the theoretical cornerstone for development. (Cornell 1997; Cornell and Kalt 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000; E. Ostrom 1990; V. Ostrom 1993) There are historical, cultural and political-institutional dimensions to identifying catalysts and impediments to collective action. The inquiry is necessarily interdisciplinary, and must involve both theory and practical experience. At the same time it must be collaborative, including both community stakeholders with in-depth local knowledge, and outsiders with a broad comparative perspective.

The Enemy Within: The Dilemma of the Outsider in Northern Aboriginal Communities
Ken Caine < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, Mike Salomons < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
and Deborah Simmons < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
It is widely recognized that Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories of Canada are leaders in land claims, self-determination, and self-government. There is much attention being paid to defining aspirations, but much less on the process to implement these aspirations. This has contributed to the development of a contradictory scenario whereby communities are compelled to hire outside professionals to achieve their self-defined aims. There is a heavy reliance on outsiders to implement the projects, but there is also much hostility towards these outsiders. There are two main reasons for this: one, outsiders are perceived as representing the old paternalistic structures of the past; and two, outsiders embody the community's recognition of the gap that exists between the community's goals and their ability to independently achieve them. This session will explore this issue from both Northern Canadian and international perspectives.

Gender Issues in the Arctic
Joanna Kafarowski < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This session is designed to reflect the breadth and diversity of gender issues in the North. A paper may adopt a theoretical or empirical approach and address a range of topics including, but not confined to, the role of gender in governance and leadership, the impact of gender on natural resource management, gender and traditional knowledge and gender and socio-economic issues.

Globalization and Self-Determination: Assessing Challenge and Change in the Arctic
Gabrielle Slowey < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Just as colonialism and capitalism are often treated as uniformly destructive on Aboriginal systems, globalization is also considered to be detrimental to Aboriginal self-determination. But just as indigenous nations are not monolithic or unified in organization, neither are their perspectives on, or experiences of, globalization. For some, it may positively affect their quest for self-determination. For others, the experience of globalization may be a negative experience. And for others still, it may be any combination of both. For Arctic/northern societies that are often seen as especially marginalized and ill-placed to resist the tide of globalization, the question that arises is - to what extent is this assumption accurate? This session explores how globalization is changing and challenging indigenous communities in the circumpolar world. It seeks to broaden our knowledge and understanding of globalization and Aboriginal self-determination by exploring ways in which they are connected - both in theory and in practice. Topics that might be addressed in this session include issues pertaining to indigenous governance, Aboriginal agency, state-market relations, economic participation and resource development, international organization and mobilization as well as challenges that confront local associations. Participation by indigenous people and from across circumpolar regions is greatly encouraged.

Herding Reindeer and Hunting Caribou: Circumpolar Perspectives on People and Deer
Patty Gray < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >, Gary Kofinas < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Alexander King < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This panel is a forum to connect recent research among Siberian reindeer herders to a larger circumpolar perspective on the human dimensions of hunting and herding Rangifer. We want to discuss the implications deer have for social relations as well as the social relationships humans have with deer. We particularly welcome comparative papers, as well as case studies that test a theoretical paradigm connecting a broad range of cultures.

Historical Archaeology in Arctic/Sub-Arctic Social Systems: Exploring Connections between the Local and the Global
James Whitney < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Robin Mills < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Historical archaeology conducted in the Arctic offers an excellent opportunity for exploring connections between local and global social systems. As a region, the northern latitudes have been in part insulated from larger global systems more so in the past than the present, owing to vagaries of climate, environment, and lack of infrastructure development. Regardless, local systems that have and continue to operate on a small scale in such regions both affect, and are affected by, external global systems operating on larger scales. Social systems have always operated on a continuous spectrum of spatial and temporal scales, but the spatial scale of direct and indirect interaction accelerated in most, if not all, indigenous areas as a result of continuing interaction with Euroamericans, and integration into large economic systems. By combining written documents, oral sources, and material culture, historical archaeology allows a multifaceted perspective of these social systems. With such diverse data sets, researchers can look at various aspects of these systems, from economies to ideologies. Papers in this session will analyze one or more aspects of such systems in the Arctic/Sub-Arctic on the local scale and how they relate to larger regional, national, and even global systems.

Histories Shared, Parallel and Divergent - the North Pacific East and West
David Koester < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
People of salmon, vital indigenous movement, rich mythological traditions, vibrant musical and dance traditions, critical questions of indigenous rights and environmental conservation-these and other characteristics could be used to describe indigenous/First Nations peoples on both sides of the North Pacific. While these characteristics have attracted the interest of many researchers and native revitalization movements alike, there has been relatively little work done comparing, contrasting and linking the histories, cultures and struggles of these peoples. This panel is intended to bring together researchers and others to begin this conversation.

Indigenous Media and the Circumpolar North
Nancy Wachowich < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This session will explore the history, politics and practice of indigenous media in the north. Media technologies, once seen as purveyors of ethnographic truths, are increasingly recognized for their ability to stimulate and foster new types of social relationships between individuals and communities. Yet, as northern peoples take greater control of their cultural productions, new ethical and political concerns emerge. Most pertinently, what roles do different forms of media have in facilitating, mediating, but also complicating cross-cultural encounters? This question opens out several themes to be addressed during this session: the compatibility and interplay between anthropology and media technology; the politics and practice of knowledge production and visuality; the power and authority of media forms; image politics and social activism; transnational and circumpolar circuits; and cross-cultural ideas of value and aesthetics. Ethnographic case studies are invited from regions across the circumpolar north and could relate to a variety of media forms including: art; film; video; television; museums; music; the internet; and others.

Indigenous Resistance in the North
Art Leete < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Resistance against the states' invasion has been widespread among the northern peoples throughout the history of contacts between hegemonic state power and local indigenous communities. Northern peoples have developed multiple forms of protest, most of which are local and situational. But in some cases their resistance has been more organized and took the form of several movements and uprisings. The form of resistance depended upon diverse issues, most of all on the aftermath of the state policy towards indigenous communities. This policy had a direct impact on native resistance, sometimes allowing more tribal sovereignty, but sometimes abandoning all achievements in this field. Characteristic of the indigenous resistance, external oppression has been combined with native ideas about social change within the northern peoples' communities. Hopefully, papers of this session will analyse different ways of northern peoples' resistance from a variety of perspectives to create a better basis of understanding of this extremely important issue.

Information Technologies Working for Indigenous Study
Victoria Churikova < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Working for a big IT company, I know that many projects deal with natural language processing (NLP), a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with analyzing, understanding and generating the languages humans use naturally in order to interface with computers in both written and spoken contexts. For this purpose we usually use English and Russian. It's time to use IT achievements for the purposes of indigenous peoples generally and for collecting databases and research in the field of minor languages. I am sure many prominent linguists of the North share my opinion. We should also join forces with programmers, who have a quite different mentality. The first step is simple: collect vocabularies and grammars of the certain languages, make good programs to process them and use in teaching purposes. We may begin with launching this process in the Novosoft company as a student (free) project. I will invite others from our company to submit papers.

Integrating Indigenous Knowledge, Ways of Knowing and World Views into the Educational Systems in the Arctic
Ray Barnhardt < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
The symposium will provide participants with examples of work that is currently underway in the circumpolar region to assist schools in integrating indigenous knowledge, ways of knowing and world views into all aspects of education, with a particular emphasis on using the local cultural and physical environment as a laboratory for learning. Presentations from each participating country/initiative will include a description of the epistemological basis for the initiative, the organizational structure being utilized, the role of Elders, and the cultural documentation process involved, as well as the implications of place-based education for curriculum development, teaching practices and support structures for schools serving indigenous peoples.

International Perspectives and Arctic Governance
Karen Erickson < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
The session has a threefold focus: (1) international perspectives as they relate to arctic interests and policies; (2) the linkage between science and alternative policy outcomes; and (3) future policy directions. Papers of the session consider the following issues:

Circumpolar affairs and the perceived mainstream of global politics make up a two-way street. How do transatlantic, Northern Eurasian, and hemispheric relations relate to circumpolar concerns? In what critical ways do the conditions and policies of the North affect current global developments? How does science address societal needs and how does research engage to improve the human condition? Special attention is given to community social and political dynamics; impact of federal fiscal policies on the Russian Far North; and new security paradigms. The rise of panarctic institutions and the proliferation of regimes occasion questions about the need, numbers, redundancy, and relevance of the initiatives that abound. On the other hand, where are the gaps? What remains to be addressed? What are the problems and challenges that require institutional responses? Does the policy and research activity of the Arctic respond to the critical issues of the times? Do the alignments, partnerships and discourse of the circumpolar community meet the needs of the primary constituents and stakeholders? In short, who creates the future of the circumpolar north, and on what basis?

Locating Circumpolar Environmental Change: From Global to Local
Anne Henshaw < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Susan Crate < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Environmental change discourse is often framed in global terms. One of the effects of a globalist perspective is that it privileges an ideology of environmental detachment over local ways of experiencing the world and negotiating daily survival in the Arctic. The papers in this panel will address the degree to which differences in worldview effect policy in the realm of renewable and non-renewable resource management, climate change, and environmental degradation. How do these dynamics play out on the local, national and international stage across the arctic? To what extent is indigenous knowledge being integrated into environmental policy-making decisions in different cultural contexts? What are the historical roots that underlie any inequities that exist? What are the challenges involved in integrating different ways of knowing and approaching environmental problems at different spatial and temporal scales? Case studies will be circumpolar in coverage and will examine: 1) the roots of international policy regulating marine mammal and the growth of regional and community level self-regulation networks; 2) approaches to understanding global climate change at the scale of human activity; 3) local environmental and indigenous issues due to the impact of mining, hydroelectric dam projects, and chemical pollutants in the Arctic.

Media and Telecommunications: Crossing the Barriers Between Circumpolar Peoples
Jane George < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This session would include a panel discussion of the impact of telecommunications on the northern peoples and our understanding of the issues facing them, featuring journalists, communications staff and others. Presenters could explore how media has been able to bring information to circumpolar residents and from them in a timely and informative way and how this new flow of information has been impacted on northern residents and researchers. It would also be interesting to have presenters discuss any aspect of media or telecommunications or even communications in a broader way in the context of this session.

Order and Instability: Local and Global Connections in Arctic Subsistence Economies
Jesse Dizard < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Twenty-five years ago, state and federal subsistence laws gave subsistence hunting and fishing in Alaska a priority over other consumptive uses of fish and wildlife. The laws generated much research, prompted many regulatory changes, invited numerous lawsuits, stalemated Alaska's legislature, and divided Alaska's management system. Some positive changes have occurred. Spring waterfowl hunting is finally legal. Halibut now can be taken legally for subsistence. These two examples, though, illustrate that subsistence management often involves not just local subsistence users, but regional, state, national, and even international interests. Many challenges remain. Declines in salmon stocks have severely impacted salmon-dependent communities, highlighting interconnections between small commercial fisheries and subsistence fisheries. Dual state-federal management is confusing to the public and extremely inefficient for managers, but has empowered rural users. This session invites papers that explore: What we have learned about subsistence during 25 years of "priority" management. How has the management system responded to subsistence needs? What can state and federal subsistence managers learn from subsistence users, from managers and researchers in other states or nations, and from each other? What improvements to Alaska's subsistence management are suggested by socio-economic research?

Paleolithic and Mesolithic Prehistory: Recent Advances in the Russian Arctic
Dan Odess < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Vladimir Pitulko < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Over the past fifteen years, political changes, international collaboration and developments in fields allied with archaeology have led to advances in our understanding of Mesolithic and Paleolithic prehistory in the Russian Arctic. Improved precision and accuracy in dating, greater access to comparative collections, the development of paleo-genetic techniques, and improved understanding of past environments have all contributed to these advances. Scholarly exchanges and the translation of key works have also improved the dissemination of ideas and information. This session is intended to further that trend and provides an opportunity for those working on Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures in arctic Russia to share the results of recent research.

Perceiving and Constructing Community: Community Festivities in Present Day Arctic Settlements
Nicole Stuckenberger < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This session invites contributions on community festivities, such as the Fishing Derby, Christmas, Easter, and sport tournaments, in present day Arctic settlements. Communal festivities represent and express the significance and high value associated with community. At the same time, for example in case of Inuit settlements, the notion of community is problematic in people's perception, seen against the background of social and religious transitions, as introduced by national as well as global agents. Around the 1960s, the Canadian government constructed settlements in the Arctic, modeled on western community life. Inuit camps, not always on congenial terms with each other, moved there, some voluntarily but most after experiencing forced relocation, giving up their nomadic for a semi-sedentary life. In the 1980s, Pentecostal beliefs and practices were introduced to the North, contributing to a diversification in the religious as well as in the social domains. In this session we would like to explore how community festivities relate in various ways to recollections and feelings associated with experiences of relocation, the tensions arising from the social composition of the community, social problems, and the discourses on proper ways of Christianity, and their historical developments.

Protecting and Restoring the Relationships Between Traditional Users and Wilderness Places
Alan Watson < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Lil Alessa < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
During the autumn of 2004, a celebration is planned to acknowledge the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Wilderness Act. Although over half of the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System is in Alaska (58 of 105 million acres), there has been little acknowledgement of the unique direction established for protection or restoration of the relationship between rural people and wilderness lands in Alaska through passage in 1980 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. This session in May of 2004 at the Arctic Social Sciences Conference will provide an opportunity to build understanding, cooperation, and strategy for presenting this unique challenge to the larger wilderness advocacy, stewardship, and academic community during a likely September celebration. Focus will be on including native people with strong relationships to wilderness resources, federal agency planners with the challenge of developing land management plans that consider all values of these places (including economic, recreation, biological and traditional), and nongovernmental organizations with a stake in conservation and community values. Looking beyond Alaska, the circumpolar north community is taking a more in-depth look at wilderness protection as a way to ensure traditional methods of livelihood, and specific effort would be made to involve scientists, planners and native people from Finland, Canada, Russia, Iceland and Greenland in planning and participation in this session. A current initiative between the Leopold Institute and the University of Alaska provides focus and an active network of participants on research and education topics that create understanding of the relationship between evolving native cultures and wilderness protection.

Quantitative Research in Arctic Social Science
Jack Hicks < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Ailsa Henderson < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
This session will bring together individuals conducting quantitative research in the field of Arctic social science to discuss challenges and solutions. The demography and cultures of the north requires innovative adaptations to southern quantitative research practices. Election studies often exclude northern participants and existing studies of global opinion, such as the World Values Survey, contain little information from northern respondents. The collection of comprehensive statistical data is sometimes hampered by issues of cost, training and organization. This session will focus on the major challenges facing quantitative research, the impact of these challenges on Artic social science and possible solutions to commonly-perceived problems.

Resilience and Vulnerability: Understanding Cross-scale, Human-Environment Interactions in the Arctic
Grete Hovelsrud-Broda < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Marybeth Long Martello < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Increasing interconnections between global processes and arctic natural and social systems pose important challenges for the sciences. Researchers and others interested in understanding and furthering the sustainability of arctic peoples and environments require concepts and methods that facilitate cross-scale analysis of human-environment systems based on varied ways of knowing. Research approaches centered on notions of resilience and vulnerability hold promise in this regard. They necessitate interdisciplinary, participatory studies with attention to local, regional, and global-scale interactions. Based on research experiences throughout the Arctic, the papers in this panel explore the opportunities and pitfalls of vulnerability and resilience analysis. Papers will address, inter alia: "place-based" research in a global context, participation of arctic residents in the research process, integration of natural and social sciences, and the utility of resilience and vulnerability analyses in supporting policymaking and informing responses to global and other forms of change.

Science and Society in the Arctic
Amy Lovecraft < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
In the tradition of northern hemisphere governance science has become the backbone of policymaking. Competing constellations of interests use scientific data and methods to claim authority for making policy decisions in a variety of ecological, economic, and cultural arenas of conflict. Science has become the key component of what causes agencies, universities, politicians, or the public to make certain decisions or support certain lines of research. However, this causal mechanism has become subject to political interpretation by a wider audience and in a more public manner than ever before. What impact does this have on scientific research, policymaking, and public dialogue on the local, state, and national levels?

This session would focus on how science is used in the arctic in order to make policy decisions for natural resources, public health, international policies, indigenous claims, and other areas of public decisionmaking. It would address both social and natural sciences and among its questions asks "is there an arctic science?" "if so, what does it look like?" Anticipated key issues could be the struggles between western and indigeneous worldviews, social and natural science disagreements, questions of equity and efficiency, whether the public understands the role of science in decisionmaking and whose science is used - as many arctic countries are both arctic and subararctic there is often a center-periphery divide to problem definitions.

Sites of Memory: Place Names, Keeping Places, Landscapes
Jonathan Bordo < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Ludger Müller-Wille < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
We invite papers and other discursive contributions addressing place names, keeping places and landscapes as repositories, media or labors of memory, mostly of and in the circumpolar north. Presentations might address specific locations, memno technologies, problematizations concerning the burden or social memory. We invite a plurality of interdisciplinary contributions, both theoretical and empirical as well as narratives, poetic records and demonstrations illuminating the labor of small communities to make contemporary and present immemorial pasts in the face of homogenizing and fragmenting collective forces that would deny the very need to remember. Seeking comparative perspectives, we welcome initiatives from elsewhere that would strengthen the practices of social memory in and of the Circumpolar North.

Social Conditions in the Arctic
Heather Myers < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Gerard Duhaime < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
The Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLICA) was initiated several years ago by a consortium of circumpolar researchers and aboriginal organizations. The survey has been completed in Canada, and should be completed soon in other circumpolar countries. Now, the challenge is to see that the data are used and that they benefit circumpolar communities as well as circumpolar research. This workshop will be the first of several, it is hoped, which will work through the data, bringing out both necessary and novel interpretations of the results.

This session is intended to focus on discussion of SLICA, both its achievements to date and potential new directions, but it is open to colleagues that are interested with other foci, such as psychological distress, social problems, economic balance, specific conditions such as housing crises, and so on. Participants are invited to present papers using the data generated by SLICA, commenting on the survey/data analysis process, or proposing needs for future surveys and analyses.

Social Science in Human Dimensions Research: Issues and Potential
Gary Kofinas < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Human Dimensions of Arctic Environmental Change research is increasingly becoming of interest to government, indigenous, and academic organizations. Several large funding agencies are expanding their research programs in this area and calling for social scientists to partner with natural science researchers in interdisciplinary endeavors that view humans as endogenous to the Arctic System. Some Human Dimension funding opportunities are tied to the requirement that participatory research be crafted to involve local communities as co-investigators. As a result, traditional ecological knowledge studies, integrated assessments, and the study of coupled human-ecological systems have become a growth industry for scholars of the North.

What are the issues that are associated with this area of research? What are the conditions that lead to its successful execution? This session explores the contributions of social science and the role of social scientists in this emergent genre of research. We call for papers that focus on theoretical issues and case study analyses of "Human Dimensions research," addressing the potential success and associated challenges of this area of work.

Sustainability: Beyond Ecology and Environment
Henry Huntington < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
The current debate about sustainability focuses primarily on environmental and ecological sustainability. For example, much research examines whether current animal harvests, fisheries takes, or land use patterns are within or beyond the capacity of the natural environment. But sustainability is more than a simple calculation of whether harvests are above or below ecological productivity. Societal dynamics are also a critical factor in determining whether patterns of resource use can be sustained. Assessing sustainability must take into account cultural, social, legal, political, economic, psychological, and other factors. These factors all contribute to the ways in which a society sees itself and its activities, degree to which that society is flexible and adaptable to internal and external changes, and the ways in which sustainability is conceived and put into practice through social negotiation. This session will examine sustainability from a broad perspective, with the goal of expanding the debate to encompass all of the major factors that contribute to achieving a more comprehensive and realistic approach to sustainability. Several papers will provide examples from field research around the Arctic to set the stage for an open discussion about future directions for research on sustainability.

The Ties That Bind: Interaction and Adaptation in the Arctic Small Tool Tradition
Dan Odess < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Some time around 4500 years ago, the first groups of coastal foragers to occupy the North American Arctic migrated from northern Alaska across Canada to Greenland. Although the cultures comprising this tradition are known by different names - Denbigh in Alaska, Pre-Dorset and Independence I in Canada, and Independence I and Saqqaq in Greenland - these early pioneers were members of a common cultural tradition characterized by small social groups, high mobility, an (apparently) very broad diet, and extreme miniaturization of lithic tools. With an emphasis on the social rather than the technological, this session will explore what is known about these peoples and their descendants, their economic adaptations, and the relationships between them and neighboring peoples.

Tradition and Western Democracy: What Road for Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic?
Kathrin Wessendorf < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Jens Dahl < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Since the 1970s, a number of self-government models have emanated in the Circumpolar North. From the sovereignty movement in Alaska over Nunavut in Canada to the Saami Parliaments in the Nordic countries, these models are based on different realities and diverse conceptions of development. They all have in common a genuine wish to strengthen traditional cultures and languages, but the paths to reach these aims are different. In spite of some common understanding of the need and wish to strengthen and develop traditional cultures based on history as well as today's realities, indigenous peoples have very diverse conceptions of how indigenous democracy diverges from Western types of democracy. Whereas a global concept of democracy and rights influences negotiations and concepts of self-government, local ideas and tradition are just as strongly voiced and as important for the developments in the regions. Furthermore, options available depend on the de facto conditions under which indigenous peoples and their non-indigenous neighbours live. The options of choosing between traditional or Western types of democracy should not only be analysed as alternatives, but the implications of choosing one path instead of another, or the attempts of finding a compromise solution, should be considered. At the same time, indigenous peoples are not always internally in agreement in their aspiration for self-government, and focus should also be upon the indigenous groups as consisting as more than homogenous units.

This session encourages a discussion on these many layers that comprise the notion of self-government and ultimately self-determination. The session organisers particularly encourage indigenous presenters and hope for a wide circumpolar participation.

"The White Arctic": When Does Exile Become Home?
Niobe Thompson < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Peter Schweitzer < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
In contrast with a historical neglect of northern native peoples in public policy and the media, current social science investigations often overlook the historical links and cultural identities of settler populations in the circumpolar Far North. The non-indigenous "white" or "newcomer" is presumed to be a transient figure in northern life, the bearer of a distant culture unlikely to make long-term commitments to northern communities. The articulation of doctrines of indigenous rights to land and compensation only reinforces the image and reality of the transient non-native in the North. This tendency extends in some cases to the exclusion of settlers from programs of northern development, regardless of the imbedded and permanent roles they often assume in their communities. The creole or metis populations that result from prolonged settler presence in aboriginal territory, although locally rooted, are particularly vulnerable to erasure in discussions of native belonging. Presentations in this session will focus on non-indigenous and mixed populations in the North, addressing the question of their claims to authority and entitlement based on local knowledge and long-term residence. The moral legitimacy of such claims, with regard to indigenous rights and precedence in the North will also be examined. Papers on settler identity, the emergence of creole and ethnically mixed populations, the appearance of new "southern" groups in the North, and on indigenous/non-indigenous relations in the Arctic will be welcomed.

Who Knows Best: How to Balance Research-Based Best Practices and Culturally Based Best Practices in Prevention, Treatment and Healing?
Susan Soule < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > and Chris Aquino < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
The session would focus on the search for a respectful and effective balance between research-based best practices and culturally-based practices in health and behavioral health programs for indigenous people. Possible questions to examine: "Do research-based practices cross cultural lines?" "Does the best-practice have to be validated in all cultures?" "Is the requirement of faithful replication cultural imperialism?"

About IASSA
IASSA was founded in 1990 in Fairbanks, Alaska at a meeting held in conjunction with the 7th Inuit Studies Conference. Its creation follows the suggestion made at the Conference on Coordination of Research in the Arctic held in Leningrad in 1988 to establish an international association to represent arctic social scientists.
IASSA's objectives are:

-to promote and stimulate international cooperation and to increase the participation of social scientists in national and international arctic research;
-to promote communication and coordination with other research organizations;
-to promote the active collection, exchange, dissemination, and archiving of scientific information in the arctic social sciences;
-to promote mutual respect, communication, and collaboration between social scientists and northern people;
-to facilitate culturally, developmentally, and linguistically appropriate education in the North;
-to follow the IASSA statement of ethical principles for the conduct of research in the Arctic.

Council Members
Following are the council members elected at the IASSA General Assembly held May 20, 2001 in Quebec City:
Peter Schweitzer (President) < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Noel Broadbent < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Galina Diatchkova < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Gérard Duhaime (Past President, ex officio) < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Murielle Nagy < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Birger Poppel < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Gordon Pullar < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Nancy Wachowich < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

IASSA.Net
This listserv is designed for use by members and others interested in IASSA. Communications on it will deal broadly with issues affecting arctic social sciences.

As of February, 2002, only subscribers may post a message and subscribers may be added only with the approval of listowners.

To subscribe to this list, send an email message to Anne Sudkamp < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >.

For more information about IASSA, please see our website at http://www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/index.html



Conferences and Meetings
See also ICASS V-Third Announcement and Call for Papers in this issue, as well as the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)'s Survey of Arctic Meetings (SAM): www.iasc.no/SAM/samtext.htm and the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS)' Arctic Calendar of Events: www.arcus.org/misc/fr_calendar.html

February 25-28, 2004
Western Regional Science Association (WRSA) Forty-Third Annual Meeting. Wailea, Maui, Hawaii. The WRSA meeting includes a series of Remote Regions/ Northern Development sessions to accommodate social scientists who have a special interest in research on economic, social, political, and cultural issues in remote, sparsely settled regions in the circumpolar North and elsewhere. Abstract deadline was November 1, 2003. Contact: Lee Huskey: email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; web: http://geog.arizona.edu/wrsa

February 25-29, 2004
5th Circumpolar Ecosystems International Workshop and Symposium. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Entitled Northern Margins: Changing Transition Zones in Time, this workshop and symposium will be hosted by the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. The focus will be on the physical, chemical, biological and socio-economic processes operating in northern environments where minor changes can result in major responses in ecosystems. Abstract deadline is December 5, 2003. Contact: LeeAnn Fishback: email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; web: www.churchillmb.net/~cnsc

March 28-31, 2004
Second International Winter Academy. Rovaniemi, Finland. The University of Lapland is hosting this academy for researchers and PhD students addressing the issues of tourism, travelling, mobility and international relations in social, political, economic, environmental, legal, and art and design studies. The academy theme is Hostilities and Hospitalities: Encounters With the Strange in the International Relations of Tourism and Travel. Abstract deadline is December 15, 2003. Contact: Soile Veijola: email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; web: www.urova.fi/winteracademy2

April 30 - May 1, 2004
The Society for Cultural Anthropology (SCA) biannual spring meeting. Portland, Oregon, USA. The focus will be on sovereignty. SCA is a section of the American Anthropological Association. Paper and panel proposal deadline is December 15, 2003. For information and registration, see www.aaanet.org/sca/meetings/sca/2004/intro.htm

May 10-14, 2004
Dynamics of Northern Societies. Copenhagen, Denmark. A joint conference of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) and the SILA Arctic Center. The conference will bring together North Atlantic and Arctic researchers interested in long term human interactions with environment and early inter-cultural interactions. It will draw on the entire circumpolar zone for a wide ranging four day meeting involving zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, human osteology, geoarchaeology, history, ethnography, and archaeology. Student papers and posters are encouraged. Paper and poster abstract deadline is January 1, 2004. Contact: Thomas H. McGovern: email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; tel.: 212-772-5410; web: www.dpc.dk/dynamics/

August 11-14, 2004
14th International Inuit Studies Conference. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hosted by the Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, this conference's theme is Bringing Knowledge Home: Communicating Research to the Inuit. Abstract deadline was November 28, 2003. Contact: Karla Jessen Williamson: email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; tel.: 403-220-7515; web: www.ucalgary.ca/aina/inuit/inuit_studies.html



For Students
See also Conference and Meetings

Center for Northern Studies
The Center for Northern Studies in Wolcott, Vermont is pleased to announce its merger with nearby Sterling College. With its long-established program focusing on ecological and cultural studies in the North, the Center invites inquiries from students interested in a northern studies major. Students from indigenous and remote backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply. The interdisciplinary program couples classroom experience with field experience in all disciplines, and has been a valuable learning experience for hundreds of students since the early 1970s. More information and application materials are available at www.sterlingcollege.edu/cns

Money Line
 

IASC's Arctic Funding Guide
The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) has launched a new website dedicated to funding opportunities in arctic-related research and organizations. The site offers funding news, funding opportunities and assistance for writing proposals. The guide is at: http://www.arcticsciencefunding.org/

Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowships
The fellowships will support research visits of one to two years in a host research organization in either a European Union Member State or an Associated Country. Deadline is February 12, 2004. For more information, see: http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=30

Bookshelf: New Books, Reports and CDs
See also On the Web

A Review
Indigenous Peoples. Resource Management and Global Rights
Edited by Svein Jentoft, Henry Minde & Ragnar Nilsen
ISBN 90 5166 978 X, 2003, 328pp, Delft, The Netherlands. Order from Eburon Academic Publishers: http://www.eburon.nl/
In this extensive compendium the editors have brought together contributions from a large number of knowledgeable authors from around the world who address issues and concerns of indigenous peoples globally related to sustainable development (fisheries, herding and hunting), biodiversity, land rights, cultural loss and emergent identities. Geographically, the book is divided into three sections - the World, the Sea and the Land - allowing for the attention to specific spatial foci and realms in which indigenous peoples live. Case studies from the circumpolar north (Sámi, Inuit), the Americas, and the Pacific are included. All contributions are well edited and documented. The editors' introduction and conclusion bring together the various strands of the discussions around today's predicament of indigenous people in the world.
Ludger Müller-Wille, McGill University < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Books

Canada's Changing North, Revised edition
William C. Wonders
ISBN 0773526404 paper, 2003, $29.95, ISBN 0773525904 cloth, 2003, $85, 472pp. Order from McGill-Queen's University Press: www.mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=1658
This revised edition provides an introduction to the Canadian North and outlines how this region has become increasingly integrated into both the Canadian national fabric and the world.

Hunting, fishing and animal husbandry at The Farm Beneath The Sand, Western Greenland: An archaeozoological analysis of a Norse Farm in the Western Settlement
Inge Bødker Enghoff
ISSN 0106-1062, ISBN 87-90369-59-9, Meddelelser om Groenland, Man & Society 28, Copenhagen 2003, 104pp, 50 figs, export price DKK 208. Order from the Danish Polar Center: www.dpc.dk/PolarPubs/MoG/MSAbstracts/MS28Abst.html

This book presents an analysis of a large and well-preserved sample of animal bones, which was excavated from this site in the Norse Western Settlement in Greenland. The analysis covers the entire period of occupation of the farm, from c. AD 1000-1400, and illustrates how the Norse exploited the wild fauna but also kept domestic animals, and how the latter adopted to living in the new environment.

Inuit in Cyberspace: Embedding Offline Identities Online
Neil Blair Christensen
ISBN 87-7289-723-6, 2003, 135pp, $19. Order from Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen: www.mtp.dk/catalogue?m=bi&id=684
In this cyber-ethnography, Neil Blair Christensen explores the processes by which a wide selection of personal, local, cultural and national identities are expressed and understood on the Internet.

Native Voices In Research
Edited by Jill Oakes, Rick Riewe, Kimberley Wilde, Alison Edmunds and Alison Dubois
Aboriginal Issues Press, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, $35 CND. Order from Rick Riewe, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
This refereed publication explores innovative ways of learning based on traditional Aboriginal Peoples' ways of knowing. Authors include Aboriginal practitioners, academics, and community leaders.

Settlements, kinship and hunting grounds in traditional Greenland
Robert Petersen
ISSN 0106-1062, ISBN 87-90369-58-0, Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society 27, Copenhagen 2003, 324pp, export price DKK 240 (app. $32) plus postage. Order from the Danish Polar Center: www.dpc.dk/PolarPubs/MoG/MSAbstracts/MS27Abst.html
This book is a comparative study of the geographical mobility of hunters in the Upernavik and Ammassalik districts. The periods dealt with are c. 1860 to 1970 for the Upernavik district and 1894 to 1970 for the Ammassalik district.

Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property: A Handbook on Issues and Options for Traditional Knowledge Holders in Protecting their Intellectual Property and Maintaining Biological Diversity
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Available on the web in pdf format at: http://shr.aaas.org/tek/handbook/
Realizing that defensive disclosure is not the only option for traditional knowledge holders, AAAS has created a handbook that attempts to make intellectual property protection options more understandable and readily available for traditional knowledge holders.

Reports

Arctic Research Support and Logistics: Strategies and Recommendations for System-scale Studies in a Changing Environment
Edited by Schlosser, P., W. Tucker, W. Warnick, and A. York
2003, 81pp, Fairbanks, Alaska: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS). Order from ARCUS < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > or download as a PDF from www.arcus.org/Logistics/logistics03.html

This report sponsored by the National Science Foundation updates Logistics Recommendations for an Improved U.S. Arctic Research Capability, published in 1997. It summarizes the progress made in improving research support since 1997 and responds to changing needs for arctic logistics and research support since the earlier report was published.

CDs

History of the Austrian Polar Exploration
Hermann F. Koerbel
$60 shipping included. Order from the Arctic Research Consortium Austria: www.arctic.at/castaway/
This CD-Rom in German and English with information back to 1761 includes 61 explorer bios; 34 expeditions, 17 research vessels, 242 pictures & maps, comprehensive source directory & online links.



On the Web
See also Money Line

Arctic Blue Books (British Parliamentary Papers on Arctic Exploration)
University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections. Available on the web at: www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/arcticbb/index.shtml
These books are a searchable, World-Wide Web version of Andrew Taylor's unique index to the 19th Century British Parliamentary Papers concerned with the Canadian Arctic.

Arctic Health
This website, sponsored by the National Library of Medicine's Division of Specialized Information Services, provides a source of information on the arctic environment and health of northern peoples. Web: http://www.arctichealth.org/

Forum for Development Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples
This forum is a meeting-place for researchers, development workers and Sámi organisations engaged in cooperation with indigenous peoples in the South. Web: www.sami.uit.no/forum/index.html

VECO Polar Resources
VECO Polar Resources (VPR) has developed an interactive map interface for viewing project information about National Science Foundation-funded projects in the Arctic. Select "GIS Maps/Reports." VPR also includes a weekly newsletter with updates about projects it supports. Select "Newsletter." Web: http://www.vecopolar.com/

Remembering . . .
Rachel Craig
Rachel Craig passed away on October 16 as a result of a stroke she had suffered on September 21 while out on a Sunday drive with her husband David near Shelton, WA. She was 72. The funeral service in her home town of Kotzebue was attended by more than 600 people. (Kotzebue having a population of about 3000.)

Rachel is well known throughout Alaska for her work on recording and preserving Native culture. In the seventies she was instrumental in starting the Elders Conferences and since then Rachel has done numerous interviews and conferences on Inupiat history and became an expert on Inupiat history herself. The Elders made her an Honorary Elder much in advance of her age, something which amused her very much and at the same time made her proud. She gathered the genealogies of the Kotzebue area sometimes going back six generations, a work which was important to her. She helped start the alcohol rehabilitation camp near Kotzebue and the Heritage Program of Maniilaq, the Native corporation of Kotzebue. She also taught how to work with Elders and how to research and maintain Native culture. Her influence extended even to Australia. After a talk given at the World Indigenous People in Albuquerque she was asked to repeat it to be videotaped. This tape was then distributed to all the aboriginal communities.

Already in 1972 she had started the northwest chapter of the Alaskan Federation of Natives, and served as a member on quite a few boards.

At the age of 52 she decided to get a degree in history and education and graduated with a M.A. from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks in the top part of her class.

The most difficult task and one which was very dear to her heart was the translation of 52 hymns into Inupiaq requested by her church. Just a few days after finishing the project she suffered a stroke and did not recover. Her task was done.

Karin Berning < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >