Monday, April 16, 2007

Tertiary Societies: Circumpolar Societies in Transition and Self-determination

  • What are Tertiary Societies?
  • The result of a desire for self-determination “rejection of colonialism”
  • Characterized by: Rejection of previous dependence, which made it difficult or impossible to foster development of political and other institutions
  • Attempts to build autonomous and effective local institutions
  • Healthier, more balanced societies; outward looking
  • Social capacity for criticism; increasing self-sufficiency in research.
Indigenous Self-Determination:
· Land- authority over its use
· Supports traditional activities; economic base for government
· Participation- as equals in economy and life of the state
· To ensure indigenous perspectives taken into account; to work toward self-sufficiency
· Money- to fund government; compensation; enable development

Limits to Self-determination:
· Indigenous peoples and sub–national units remain within the notion-state- subject to absolute limits
· Southern environment has limited carrying capacity
· Not inexhaustible; sustainable requires voluntary limits
· Constitutions reserve certain powers to federal governments.



Saami still fighting for land rights in Norway



  • The Saami Parliament, which represents the estimated 80,000 Saami who live in Norway, was shocked when the Norwegian government presented its proposals on how to deal with land management in Finnmark - the region Saami know as Sapmi.
  • The Finnmark Act was to be the result of a process that started when Saami protested the construction of a hydroelectric project in Alta, Norway more than 20 years ago. A Saami Rights Committee presented proposals for new land management legislation in 1997 that would recognize their traditional land rights and ownership.

  • Saami fear the present Finnmark Act, if adopted, would open their region to more industrial development and militarization.

  • That's because the act doesn't recognize any traditional Saami ownership of the land - and expands the land rights of non-Saami in the region to all European Union citizens.
    The new law would also safeguard the rights of the Norwegian government to expropriate land for public purposes without compensation, and establish a review committee on which Saami wouldn't even hold the deciding vote

Friday, April 13, 2007

Secondary Societies: Colonialism and Collectivisation in the North

Indigenous People of Northern Russia
  • Approximately 20 million people living in Northern Russia, are mainly concentrated in towns and settlements along the rivers and in the industrial centres. Only about 180,000 of them belong to approximately 30 small-numbered, aboriginal groups - the indigenous peoples of the North. Their majority live in small villages close to their subsistence areas, where they pursue traditional occupations like reindeer-herding, hunting and fishing. But the reality these people face today is anything but an idyllic carryover from the past.

  • Since the colonisation of the North, large expanses have gradually been converted into areas for alien settlement, transportation routes, industry, forestry, mining and oil production, and have been devastated by pollution, irresponsibly managed oil and mineral prospecting, and military activity.

  • In tandem with the environmental disaster went the social decay of the indigenous societies since the early Soviet era, with collectivisation of subsistence activities, forced relocations, spiritual oppression, and destruction of traditional social patterns and values. The result was the well-known minority syndrome marked by loss of ethnic identity, unemployment, alcoholism, diseases, etc.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Secondary Socities: War in the Circumpolar

Battle of the Aleutian Islands

  • For fifteen arduous months, American forces in the Aleutians suffered through Arctic gales, bitter cold, and painful isolation as they fought to eject the Japanese from Attu and Kiska islands. The Aleutian Campaign claimed thousands of lives and culminated in one of the deadliest battles in the Pacific.
  • In a tragic and shameful episode, the U.S. government forcibly removed nearly 900 Unangan (Aleut) people from their homes in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands in 1942. These innocent civilians were taken to Southeast Alaska and placed in internment camps, where they spent the next three years in squalid and appalling conditions.
  • The islands had very little strategic value for either side, but control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U.S. attack across the Northern Pacific
  • Similarly, the U.S. feared that the islands would be used as bases from which to launch aerial assaults against the West Coast, and it became a matter of national pride to expel the first invaders to set foot on American soil since the War of 1812
  • But Japan lacked both a long-range bomber and the resources to establish and operate an air base in the Aleutians.

The DEWLine

  • The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line began on 15 February 1954 when President Eisenhower signed the bill approving the construction. It, was designed and built during the "Cold War" as the primary line of air defence warning of "Over the Pole" invasion of the North American Continent.

  • The actual construction of the 58 sites took place between 1955 and 1957. Many tons of supplies and equipment were moved to the Arctic by air, sea and river barge. One such carrier, the USAF 62nd Airlift Wing, moved over 13 million pounds of materiel in this monumental effort. The DEW Line was declared fully operational on 31 Jul 1957, (ref: USAF Museum "This week in Airforce History), and remained in operation for better than 30 years.

Arms Race

  • The term arms race in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation.
    Perhaps the most prominent instance of such a competition was the rapid development by the United States and the Soviet Union of more and better nuclear weapons during the Cold War

  • The Soviet Union devoted their command economy to the arms race and, with the deployment of the SS-18 in the late 1970s, achieved first strike parity. However, the strain of competition against the great spending power of the United States created enormous economic problems
  • Another prime example of an arms race is during the period leading up to World War I. Several European nations competed to build up their military capacities, and this arms race is thought to be one of the many causes of the war.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

North American Fur Trade and Industrialization of the North

  • The fur trade in North America began almost as soon as Europeans began their explorations of the North American mainland. This is a brief description of the most significant events in the 250 years during which the fur trade flourished. This period of time can be roughly divided into three sections, the "French Era" from 1600 to 1760. The "British Era" from 1760 to 1816. And the "American Era" from 1816 to 1850.

  • The North American fur trade was a central part of the early history of contact in The New World (North America) between European-Americans and American Indians. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland and sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives' well worn pelts. The worn pelt was always highly desired by the Europeans as the outer coarse guard hair was worn off and the addition of human oils combined to make a particularly soft and beautiful result.
  • Fur (especially beaver) was prized and very expensive in European markets
  • At first, fur was not the most important thing that was traded. Then, around the year 1600, something happened: hats made from beaver felt became very fashionable. Everybody wanted one! At the same time, beavers were becoming extinct in Europe.
  • Explorers continued to look for the Northwest Passage. In 1576 Martin Frobisher sailed on the first of his three voyages. John Davis continued the search, and Henry Hudson discovered the bay that was named after him.
    These men and others began mapping the land and the waterways. This would become important for both the fur trade and the exploration and settlement of Canada.
  • the first commercial corporation in North America and largest fur trading company in the world, The Hudson's Bay Company.
(Student Note: I chose the region of Finland to discover the settlement and idustrilization of this country because I know little information on this country, and it is an interesting place in the circumpolar world.)

Settlements and Industrialization of Finland

Population trends in Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by powerful fluctuations. The birth rate was close to 40 per 1000 inhabitants and the death rate about 25 per 1000. The development of agriculture and the expansion of urban trades accelerated population growth, while wars between Sweden and Russia, and disease and food shortages reduced the rate. It has been said that the last natural disaster to befall a European people took place in Finland at the end of the 1860s. The reasons for the disaster in question are to be found in the climate; summers were wintry and frosts destroyed the harvests in two consecutive years. Widespread famine ensued and the death rate rose temporarily to almost 80 per 1000.

Increased industrialization in Finland has steadily raised the proportion of the population living in urban areas; by the late 20th century about three-fifths of the total population lived in cities and towns. Farms are most commonly located in the meadowland regions of the southwest, where the fertile land is suitable for mixed farming. In the north farmers usually concentrate on small dairy herds and forestry. In Finnish Lapland there is some nomadic life based mainly on the reindeer industry. The major urban settlements are all in the southern third of the country, with a large number of cities and towns concentrated on the coast, either on the Gulf of Finland, as is the capital, Helsinki or on the Gulf of Bothnia, as are Vaasa and Oulu (Uleåborg). The only town of any size in the north is Rovaniemi, capital of the lääni of Lappi. Helsinki is the largest city, with a population about three times that of Tampere (Tammerfors) and of Turku, the country's capital until 1812.

Secondary Societies: European Contact and Theories of Change

Expeditions and Explorers
  • The first known Europeans to contact the Americas were the Vikings ("Norse"), who established several colonies in the Americas.
  • Leif Erikson established a short-lived settlement in Vinland, present day Newfoundland. Settlements in Greenland survived for several centuries, during which the Greenland Norse and the Inuit people experienced a mostly hostile contact. By the 15th century the Norse Greenland settlements had collapsed.
  • In 1492 Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which European exploration
    and colonization rapidly expanded. The post-1492 era is known as the Columbian Exchange period.

  • The European lifestyle included a long history of sharing close quarters with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and various domesticated fowl, which had resulted in epidemic diseases unknown in the Americas.
  • Thus the large-scale contact after 1492 introduced novel germs to the indigenous people of the Americas. Smallpox (1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) epidemics swept ahead of initial European contact killing between 10 million and 112 million people, about 95% to 98% of the indigenous population.
  • The population loss and the cultural chaos and political collapses it caused greatly facilitated both colonization of the land and conquest of the native civilizations.

European Encounter with Inuit
Inuit and Norse encounters are known through Norse legends and archaeological evidence. The Norse crossed Greenland to reach the Arctic and there they traded with the Inuit whom they called skraelings, Norse for heathen. In Newfoundland, considered part of the Arctic region because of the Beothuk who inhabited the island, the Norse built a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. Norse documentation indicates that they settled there around 1,000 years ago to facilitate trade with the Natives. According to Norse legend, the Beothuk were open to trade and enjoyed the iron goods they received in exchange for furs. The L'Anse aux Meadows site was abandoned shortly thereafter, but the Norse continued to trade with First Nations peoples along the Atlantic coast. Timber, fish, walrus, and polar bear meat were sought after by the Norse traders, but this trade declined after the fourteenth century.
European explorers captured or lured Inuit, and later, First Nations, onto their ships and brought them back with them to Europe

Sub-Arctic: Chippewyan and Dene
The various peoples of the Sub-Arctic region had either relatively early or relatively late contact with Europeans, some as late as the twentieth century. Those bands that occupied territories in coastal regions were more likely to come into earlier contact. Athapaskans participated in the fur trade, and in the whaling and fishing industries. For the interior bands, sustained contact often did not occur until the nineteenth century.

Short Time Line
waterborne exploration and expansion

1450-1559 Laying the foundation of early modern Europe

  • Rise of modern science
  • Portuguese’s voyages of exploration
  • Discovery of the new world Development of industrial capitalism
  • Humanism and new learning Revolution and reformation of the church
  • 1450-1499
  • 1473-6 Christian 1 of Denmark sends an expedition to Greenland to resume contact with Norse there; also looking for NW Passage
  • 1480- Bristol merchants send out ships to prospect across the Atlantic (the Iceland trade lay behind this, and the knowledge of Greenland)
  • 1480- Alphonse V of Denmark sends another expeditions west
  • 1488- Cape of good hope is rounded
  • 1492- Christopher Columbus reaches the west Indies
  • 1492-Arctic thought to consist of four large land masses around the North Pole; two are extensions of Lapland and Greenland 1493-John Cabot to Newfoundland
  • 1494-Treaty of Tordesillas
  • 16TH CENTURY: Sailing the World
  • 1500-Brazil is described
  • 1504-First Breton fishers on Grand Banks
  • 1513- America is recognized as a separate continent
  • 1516- Proposal for a search for NWP fails for lack of willing crew
  • 1517- Martin Luthers 95 Thesis signal beginning of reformation
  • 1520-Magellan sails discovers straits of Magellan
  • 1527- First English proposal for projects to reach china via north given to Henry 7th rejected
  • A hundred Years:
  • 1689-1789 New forms of government emerging From wars for control in Europe
  • 1688-1721 From decline of some monarchies (Holland and Sweden) From new ideas about human and states Origin of enlightenment
  • 1687-1715 Early enlightenment
  • 1715-1748 Mature enlightenment
  • 18th century
  • 1712- American vessel takes a sperm whale: inaugurates American deep-water whaling treaty of Utrecht
  • 1721- Hans Egede colonizes Greenland and establishes community; trade expands Bering
  • 1725-42: Vitus Bering explores the bring strait and north cost of Siberia Russian GNEX led by Bering, Chirikov, Khariton, and Dmitri, Laptev, Cheelyuskin and others to the Bering sea and Arctic Siberia.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

First Colonies: Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland



Norse Vikings


Time Table of Norse History in Greenland
982-985
Erik the Red explores and names Greenland, after being outlawed for three years on account of manslaughter in Iceland.
986
Southern Greenland is settled by Erik the Red as he leads the first settlers from Iceland. Erik the Red settles in Brattahlid (today's Qassiarsuk) which becomes the center of the Eastern Settlement.
1000
Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, returns to Greenland from Norway, bringing along the first Christian missionary. Soon hereafter, the first Christian church on the North American continent, Thjódhildur's Church, is built at Brattahlid.
1124-26
Greenland becomes a diocese of its own.
1480-1500
The Norse population of Greenland disappears.


Friday, March 23, 2007

Peoples of the Reindeer


REINDEER

  • The reindeer is a deer living in flocks in the northernmost parts of Europe, Asia and North America.The reindeer are a ruminant and both the male and female reindeer carry antlers. It does not take to heat very well and tends instead to seek the high mountains during hot summer days.In the summer the main food is grass, leaves, herbs and fungae, of which the reindeer builds its fat to last the poor grazing of the winter. Then it feeds largely on various lichens and shrubs, continuously using the fat saved up during summer.
  • The reindeer is well adapted to snow and cold. The winter fur is thick, consisting of a layer of wool close to the skin and long hairs covering it, filled with air. The reindeer can save both water and energy when it is cold. The supply of winter grazing depends not only on the size of the grazing land and its supply of lichens but even more so on the availability of the food. Ice crusts on the ground or a hard ice surface on the snow are among the greatest problems for reindeer herding. The grazing conditions on large clear cuts are worsened due to unfavourable snow quality and damaged lichens. The lack of tree pendent lichen is a serious risk for malnutrition for the reindeer when the grazing from the ground is inavailable on large areas.

REINDEER RESOURCES

  • The reindeer have been a valuable resource for the Sami and other herding cultures. It is difficult to imagine the Sami surviving without the reindeer. In traditional herding, reindeer were used for food, clothing, trade (reindeer as a form of money), and for labor. Even before reindeer herding began the Sami lived on wild reindeer.
  • Before the 17th century the Sami were able to live on wild reindeer for clothing and meat. They would have a few tame reindeer as draft animals.
  • The Sámi people do not own any land. The right to free access to grazing for the reindeer is based on old customary rights.
  • Like the Sami many other traditional Reindeer herders do not own any land, and they must migrate with the herds in order to obtain the substance of the reindeer.

HERDING SEASONAL ROUND


Spring Winter (March-April)

  • In March and April the movement from the winter grazing land to the summer and calving lands in the mountains takes place.
  • The mountain reindeer seeks out its calving place on the south slopes of the low mountains or in the sparse mountain birch region where bare spots on the ground show early.
  • The food consists mostly of lichens.

Spring (April-May)

  • In May the reindeer calves are born in the low mountains and in some regions in the forest land.
  • The reindeer cows ordinarily have their calves on the same time and place each year
  • The reindeer cow has one calf per year, weighing 4-6 kilos.
  • The calf from the previous year is rejected before or during the calving. During this time the grazing consists of lichens, grass, herbs and leaves.
  • The calving time is very sensitive to disturbances since the reindeer cow easily might abandon the new-born calf due to too much disturbance.

Beginning of Summer (June)

  • After the calving time a calm period arrives for both the reindeer and the herders. The reindeer now seeks out birch forests, marshes and brooks where the fresh vegetation comes quickly.
  • Fine grazing in the beginning of summer gives the grown reindeer the opportunity to gain whatever weight they might have lost during winter.
  • For the reindeer herder this is a time of building and repair of enclosures, buildings and other facilities for reindeer herding.

Summer (June-July)

  • This is the time when the reindeer go high up into the mountains or on the wide ranges where the heat and the insects are less bothering. The reindeer are especially sensitive to parasite flies with reindeer as hosts.
  • This is an extremely hectic time for the reindeer herder, working evenings and nights for several summer weeks, taking advantage of the cooler climate at night. The collecting of the reindeer can take many days, according to the weather conditions.
  • In the enclosure the calf follow the reindeer cow. This makes it easy to spot the ownership of the calf. With the lasso one catches the calf and marks it. The mark is a combination of cuts made in the calf’s ears. Each owner has his special mark.

Autumn (September-October)

  • The reindeer are mostly in the low mountain region. The early frost nights in late summer lessens the nutrients of the grazing.The reindeer dig up roots and plant parts.
  • The first snow influences the reindeer’s choice of grazing plants, and they mostly eat various ground lichens. In the latter half of September the bull slaughter is completed.
  • It is a calm period for the reindeer herder, who now has time for fishing for household needs and other things needing tending to in a reindeer herding enterprise.

Beginning of Winter (November-December)

  • This period begins when frost and snow stays permanently. The reindeer look for grazing land with remainders of green vegetation, grassy forest areas and marshes.
  • During the beginning of winter the reindeer are gathered for separation into winter groups and for slaughter. The main part of the autum slaughter is done in November-December.
  • After the slaughter the winter herd consists of some 75 per cent female animals. This is also the time to divide the reindeer into their respective winter grazing group.

Winter ( December-March)

  • In the winter land the various winter groups graze in the coniferous forest belt mainly. The grazing mostly consists of lichens and berry plants. The reindeer is well adapted to an arctic climate.
  • Winter grazing is the limiting factor in reindeer herding. The great problems are icing of the grazing land or hard ice crusts on the snow. Snow conditions for the reindeer deteriorate due to large clear cuts with unfavourable snow conditions and destroyed or damaged lichen cover.
  • Winter groups therefore have to move between different grazing lands. The task of the reindeer herder in winter is to guard the edges of the herd and protect it from predators.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Peoples of the Tundras and Sea Shores

  • Four main marine regions: Artic, Northwest Atlantic, Northwest Pacific or “Northwest Coast”
  • Four Primary Culture Areas: Yupik/Inupiat/Inuit: Northwest Atlantic, Artic. Aleut: Northwest and northeast pacific, Northwest coast Northeast pacific.

ARCTIC

  • Tundra is the coldest of all the biomes. Tundra comes from the Finnish word tunturi, meaning treeless plain. It is noted for its frost-molded landscapes, extremely low temperatures, little precipitation, poor nutrients, and short growing seasons. Dead organic material functions as a nutrient pool. The two major nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen is created by biological fixation, and phosphorus is created by precipitation. Characteristics of tundra include:

  • Extremely cold climate
  • Low biotic diversity
  • Simple vegetation structure
  • Limitation of drainage
  • Short season of growth and reproduction
  • Energy and nutrients in the form of dead organic material
  • Large population oscillations

VERSUS.

Sub-Arctic Coastal Regions

  • The harsh climate of North America's Subarctic region, which covers most of Canada, inhibited population growth. Agriculture was impossible due to short summers and extended annual freeze periods. Indigenous communities survived as nomads, hunting moose and caribou and fishing for needed food and living resources.

  • The Subarctic culture area stretches from the Labrador Sea to within a few miles of the Bering Sea, and encompasses six Canadian Provinces, two Territories, as well as much of Alaska. The northern boundary between Arctic and Subarctic shows up in the vegetation change from treeless tundra (Arctic) to forests (evergreens in the west and evergreens mixed with deciduous species in the southeast). The area is a vast, harsh one within which to live, a land of physiographic and seasonal climatic extremes. The climate is characterized by short, warm, bright summers, low percipitation, and long, exceedingly cold winters.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Peoples of the Forests, Lakes, and Rivers

A group’s total way of life reflects an accommodation to environmental constraints enables individuals to meet their needs.
Climate:


  • Sub-arctic climatic features:
  • pronounced summer-winter cycle
  • Long severe winters; moderately warm summers
  • Powdery snow, deeper in some places in forests where wind does not pack it
  • Affects fauna
  • Spring thaw/fall freeze up limits travel and subsistence activities
The Annual Round:
  • Movement between suitable locations in a territory to harvest a variety of resources
  • Usually involves fairly small groups of people ca. 10-15
  • Limited carrying capacity of sub arctic lands
  • Larger congregations at fishing spots take advantage of peak spawning runs.
  • Summer: travel difficult overland; mosquitoes people gathered along shores of lakes and rivers; fished
  • Fall: dispersed to hunt animals for fat, hides and winter food migrating caribou, moose, small game
  • Winter: freeze-up limited mobility
  • After freeze-up people were mobile again, winter camps, often lake shore for fishing hunters would range to brush camps the area
  • Spring: before thaw hard times until birds arrive
  • After thaw people good be mobile again in boats etc.
Subsistence:
  • Big-game hunters
  • Barren ground caribou migrations
  • Chutes and snare corrals, spread at river crossings, and spear and bow and arrow when herd dispersed Moose and woodland caribou tend to be solitary. Hunters tracked them, even when forced into deep snow
  • Other animals:
  • Bear: not a major resource but important for fat; specially respected by some people
  • Beaver: important resource for some people, lodges open in winter
  • Small animals: caught in snares and deadfalls
  • Dog: domesticated; hunting animal; pack animal among Chipewayan
  • Birds: seasonal resource; limited use in shield area; became more used after guns and twine nets
  • Fish: important to some shield peoples; important to most Cordilleran peoples
  • Hooked, netted in water, trapped, speared, and dip net


  • Housing:
  • variety of shapes and sizes for various uses
  • Hide or brush over a wood frame where a group moved frequently
  • Tipi-shaped, domed (more efficient for heat)
  • Wood, in some parts of the southern sub arctic of Eurasia mostly after contact.

    Clothing and bedding:

  • Severe winters required insulating clothing and bedding furs; also high caloric intake, fire and continuous movement while outside
  • Women prepared hides and sewed clothing
  • Ng: shirts, dresses, leggings, furred robes, parkas, and specialized footwear


Western Subarctic Culture

These peoples live in the boreal forest in what are now Canada's western provinces and territories. They were originally hunter-gatherers dependent on caribou, moose and the fur trade. Most spoke Athapaskan languages except the Crees and Inland Tlingit. Major ethnicities in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and the northern parts of the western provinces.

"Hän Hwëch'in", which in the language means "people who live along the river", the river being the Yukon.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Great Journey


Prehistory of Humanity:

A long long time ago... there was a species not yet man, but may have began the evolution of humaity. The species known as homo habilis lived from about 2.3 to 1.6 million year ago. Shortly after this homo habilis lived a newer species called homo erectus which became widespread from about 2 to 0.4 million year ago. Then from 500 to 200 thousand years ago Homo Sapiens branched off from the homo erectus species and started becomming more and more evolved. About 30 years after Homo Sapiens became the neandertalensis which lived from 230 to 30 thousand years ago. The neanderthal was more evolved and had the knowledge to use mousterian tools. Last but not least was the evolution on homo sapiens sapiens also known as the modern form of "man" became around 120 thousand years ago.

Stages of settlement:
  • During Eurasia time people began living in warmer climates such as Africa and Asia, and as people began to move north with development.
  • 45-35,000 years ago: Ice covered north, Humans spread from Africa up through Europe.

  • Deglaciation begins 17 kya.
  • Ca.15 kya. Siberia and far East widely populated with peoples of several distinct cultures

  • People beginning to move into North America
  • 3 to 4 “waves” of people at different times
People of the Circumpolar World

First people in southern Siberia Altai and Sayan mountains:
  • Angara region
  • Amur River system
    Pleistocene Epoch: 1.806 mya-5,000 years to 11,430 years ago to 103 years ago

  • Upper pleistonce: 130-11 kya

  • Lower Palaeolithic (old stone age): ends roughly 126 kya Middle Palaeolithic 126 to 40 kya

  • Upper Paleolithic: 42 to ll kya
  1. early: 42-30 kya
  2. middle: 26-19 kya
  3. late: 17-11 kya
  • Middle Palaeolithic: 130 to 70 kya: several well-dated sites establish presence of middle Palaeolithic hominids in southern Siberia
  • Early Upper Paleolithic:42-30 kya: represents the spread of anatomically modern humans into Siberia
  • Populations don’t go beyond 55 degrees north
  • Tools are a lot more advanced from middle palaeolithic period
  • Middle upper Palaeolithic: 30-19 kya: represent successful adaptation to emerging mammoth steppe

  • Large base camps connected to smaller activity-specific camps and resource extraction or kill sites
  • Possible continued ties between Siberia and Western Eurasia
  • Successfully colonized Sub-arctic Siberia as far as 60 degrees latitude and possible further.
  • Middle Upper Palaeolithic:
    tools: Palaeolithic style
    Semi-subterranean dwellings made of Mammoth bone walls,Caribou antler roofs, and hide coverings, mosses.
  • Skin tents
  • Skin/fur clothing
  • Carved artwork
  • Upper Palaeolithic: 17 to 11 kya
  • Higher mobility than prevailed during earlier phases of the upper Palaeolithic
  • Characterised by wedge-shaped core and microblade technologies
  • Earliest microblade sites in Baikal region (18 kya)
  • Single mammal species dominate faunal assemblages (bison, reindeer, horse)

  • Small game but no fish until about 12 kya
  • Mesolithic (middle Stone Age):
  • More sophisticated technologies (micro blade) ca. 20,000 BCE (22kya)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Lands and Landscapes of the Circumpolar


ALASKA (U.S): Northern Alaska,Western Alaska,Interior Alaska, South-Central & Southeast Alaska

Northern Alaska:

  • Arctic slope covers a sixth of Alaska area.
  • True Arctic climate, with light snow and little precipitation, with high winds.
  • Tundra vegetation over permafrost

"This area above the Arctic Circle -- without large summer runs of salmon and facing months of twilight and bitter cold every winter -- is alive in the summer with millions of migratory waterfowl."










http://www.alaska.com/
1.http://www.nomealaska.org/vc/ 2.http://www.nps.gov/bela 3.http://www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/commdb/CF_CIS.cfm 4.http://www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/commdb/CF_CIS.cfm 5.http://www.nps.gov/gaar 6.http://www.ak.blm.gov/interest.html 7.http://www.r7.fws.gov/nwr/arctic/index.html 8.http://www.kingeider.net/king5.html

Western Alaska:

  • Western Alaska is a crossroads of continents, where North American and Asian cultures meet and sometimes collide.
  • Western Alaska -- from the coast of the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean inland to a line from Kodiak Island north to the Arctic Circle -- has for millennia been the home of Inupiat, Yupik, Aleuts and Athabascans.
  • Nome, in the northern part of Western Alaska, has a drier, colder climate, but northwest Alaska suffers each October and November as big storms wash ashore off the Bering Sea.

Interior Alaska:

  • Denali National Park, containing North America's tallest peak, sprawls along the Alaska Range south of Fairbanks.
  • The great Yukon River flows westward across the region from Canada toward the Bering Sea.
  • The Interior is the area south of the Arctic Circle, north of the Alaska Range, west of Canada and (arbitrarily) east of 154 degrees west longitude.


(Photo taken by: Bob Hallinen)

South-Central Alaska

  • Southcentral Alaska, the home of most of Alaska's population.
  • This diverse region includes rugged coast with fertile bays and fjords.
  • The region runs from Canada to the western shore of Cook Inlet and from the Alaska Range south to the Gulf of Alaska.
  • The largest city is Anchorage, with a population of 260,000, which is about 40 percent of the state's population.
  • South of Anchorage is the Kenai Peninsula, where the popular destinations of Homer and Seward sit. The Matanuska-Susitna Valley, including Palmer, Wasilla and Talkeetna, is to the north of Anchorage.
  • Prince William Sound and its towns of Cordova, Valdez and Whittier are along the Gulf of Alaska coast.

http://www.toursaver.com/alaska-map.php.

Southeast Alaska

  • Southeast Alaska is a spectacular region of glacier-cut fjords and islands covered with dense rainforest. Its primary industries are tourism, fishing, and logging.
  • There are few roads through the region, and travel is primarily by boat and float plane.
  • It is also the home to Tlingit and Haida native groups, famous for their totems and their marine and forest adaptations.






CANADA

Yukon Territories


  • The Yukon is important for it's Cordillera mountain region, Arctic coastal plain, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, Innuitian region, Arctic Lowlands.

  • Canadian Ecoregions consist of: Boreal Forest landscapes and arctic northern and southern landscapes.

  • There are Eight tourism regions in te Yukon: North Yukon, Klondike, silver trail, Campbell, Whitehorse, Kluane, Southern Lakes, South Alaska Highway.

  • Permafrost Extends through sporadic discontinuous region

Northwest Territories

  • NWT Eight Tourism regions: Arctic coast, Mackenzie, Nahanni, waterfall route, Great Slave Lake.

  • 33 communities throughout the NWT

  • 1.2 million sq. km of land

  • Population about 41,000 people



Nunavut:

  • Area:2 million sq. km
  • 4 regions: high arctic, Kitikmeot, Qikiqtaaluk,kivalliq.

  • 28 communities with no roads joining any communities.
  • Iqaluit ca. 6,000
  • Barthurst Inlet ca. 25
  • Grise fjord at 78degrees north



Greenland: North, West, South, East


Northern Greenland:

  • (Population: 17,800)
  • 8 municipalities
    Avanersuaq/Qaanaaq (800)
    Upernavik (2400)
    Uummannaq (2600)

    Seal hunting is the most important source of income for a large part of the population, and this is why the settlements here are different from those in the rest of Greenland. There are many settlements in the region, and as a visitor you will be able to experience a different Greenland from the one you will find in the busy towns. During the winter, when the fjords freeze over, the dog sled is an indispensable means of transport for the fishermen and hunters.
  • West Greenland:

  • (population: 26,550)
  • 5 municipalities
  • 10 settlements

  • Houses enormous fjord systems and one of the world's smallest capitals. About half of Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants live in the large towns along the country's west coast, including Nuuk the capital. Enormous fjord systems and skerries are typical of the whole region.
  • South Greenland:

  • (population: 4,503)
  • 4 municipalities
  • The field ice is a remarkable phenomenon of South Greenland. This ice is formed in the Arctic Ocean north of Greenland and carried by the current down the east coast, round Cape Farewell and up into South Greenland's bays and fjords. Unlike the icebergs, the field ice consists of enormous sheets of frozen salt water, up to three metres thick, which are in constant motion.
  • Due to the field ice towns and settlements in South Greenland can be cut off from visiting boats for periods during the spring and summer.

  • East Greenland:

  • (population:3440)
  • 2 municipalities
  • 8 settlements
  • Stretched on the 2,700 kilometre long East Coast are only two towns and the world's largest national park. There are both historical and natural reasons for this very sparse settlement. People have indeed lived in East Greenland for certain periods during the last several thousand years, but the period when the area is ice-bound and the wide belt of field ice that lasts throughout the spring and summer have made this area very isolated

  • Ice sheet 1, 833,900 sq. km (85% total)
  • Ice free area: 350,000 sq. km (Size of France)
  • High Arctic and low temperatures


Iceland

  • 7 Regions: Capital: Reykjavik, West Iceland, West Fjords, Northern Iceland, East Iceland, South Iceland, Highlands
  • Area:103,548 sq. km
  • Population: 307,261
  • Cool temp & ocean climate: cool in summer and fairly mid winter

  • Iceland Boreal Birch forests and Alpine Tundra eco-regions, marine and permanent ice fields
  • Iceland is very volcanic and there is steam everywhere (heat and power run of this free heat)
  • 11% of the country is covered by glaciers
  • Iceland is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge


Faeroe Islands (DK):

  • 18 Islands, 1,399 sq. km.113 km long by 75km wide
  • Population: 46,345
  • Capital: Torshavn
  • Highest mountain: 882 m
  • Maritime climate temps from 3 degrees Celsius in winter 11 degrees Celsius in summer
  • Thin soils and survive on fishing and whaling.
  • Jan Mayen Island: no population accept paid scientist
    873 sq. km

  • 950 km west belonging to Norway and 600 km north of Iceland
  • Volcanic island and glaciers
  • Active volcano, Beerenberg (2277m) which last erupted in 1985
  • Arctic maritime climate with frequent storms and persistent fog

Northern Norway:

North Cape is located at 71 N 10’21”N

Interior Highlands: Arctic climate in winter with snow,strong winds, and severe frosts

Coastal areas: mild conditions in winter because of the Gulf Stream

Mountains, moors, deep valleys, and sheltered fjords

Three counties: (Fylker, singular fylke(from north to south)). Nordland-cap. Bodo, Troms-cap.Tromso, Finnmark.



Northern Sweden: Lappland, Norrbotten, Vasterbotten

  • Norrland is north most 2/3 of the country
  • Continental climate (Jokkmokk Jan. avg. -13.7 C)
  • Mosses, lichens and stunted birch and willow in arctic areas
  • Sub arctic forests of firs, pines, and birches
  • Two provinces (lanskape: Lapland & Norrbotten)

Northern Finland:

  • Lapland’s is 98,937 km sq., 30% of Finland’s total land area
  • 186,917 pop. 7000 Saami

Russia:

  • 4 major Federal districts
  • White sea region: Murmansk region encompasses the Kola Peninsula, Archangel’sk
  • Nenetskiy AO: reindeer herders

Khanty-Mansi AO:

  • Area:523,000 sq. km
  • Population: 13 million
  • Economy: Oil, natural gas
  • Worlds second largest oil producer

Yamalo-Nenets AO:
Capital: Salekhard
Population: 469,000
Economy: 90% of Russia’s natural gas





Krasnoyarsk Kray (Territory):

  • 10% of Russia
  • 3 main climates zones: Arctic sub arctic, temperate
  • 2.34 million sq.km (4.5 times of france)
  • Very varied climate
  • 2.942 million people most in the south 6.7% in Norilsk (mining)
  • Economy: industry, minin, agrigculture, forestry

Sakha Republic:

  • Capital: Yakutsk (population: 194,000)
  • Area: 3,103, 200 sq. km
  • (25% of Russia)
  • 2,000 km N to S, 2,500 km E to W
  • 40% within the Arctic Circle
  • Lena River (4,000 km long) for transportation by barges that carry supplies to ULUS
  • Population: 976,400- 40% indigenous Yakut people
  • Economy: Mining (84% national diamond reserves) oil/gas, forestry

Magadan:

  • Capital: Magadan
  • Area: 461,00 sq. km
  • Population: 200,000
  • Economy: mining (goolod period developed gold mining by prisoner labour), fisheries
  • Kamchatka peninsula:
  • Capital: Petropavlovisk-Kamchatke (population: 56,000)
  • Area: 70,800 sq.km
  • Climate: moderated by ocean constantly moving and in the pacific “ring of fire”
  • (volcanic and earthquake prone)
  • Population: 384,200


Chutkotka AO:

  • Capital: Anadyr (13,000)
  • Impoverished place
  • Area: 737,000 sq. km
  • Climate: extreme, windy, cold, cool summers
  • Landscapes: mountainous, Anadyr is largest river
  • Population: 75,3000
  • Economy: gold and tin mining