The anthropologist in the Arctic, between collaboration and exhibition

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The anthropologist in the Arctic, between collaboration and exhibition
The anthropologist in the Arctic, between collaboration and exhibition
The anthropologist in the eye of the reindeer. If researchers are observers, they are also observed in their own research field, as well as outside of it. An article on an ethnographic photography exhibition held in Japan in 2008 reminds us of this. Photo: Hiroki Takakura

With two articles published last month in Science Direct, anthropologists reiterate the importance of participatory research collaboration with Arctic Indigenous populations, as well as exchanges with the Indigenous and non-Indigenous public.

“You, researchers, took the blood samples from our women, but where are the results?” Anna Stammler-Gossmann, an anthropologist at the University of Lapland in Finland, was asked this blunt and direct question while doing fieldwork in a reindeer-herding village.

It’s a situation that doesn’t just concern social scientists. Any scientist can find themself – and sometimes has found themself – confronted with questions and remarks from local populations frankly annoyed by the presence of these foreigners who have come to study their environment or their people. Even when the field of research doesn’t really concern the scientist.

“In the same village, locals expected I would know about the findings of one archaeological expedition in the 1990s in the area.”, notes Stammler-Gossmann.

The lack of access to research results and transparency on the part of researchers – which is not always possible during fieldwork anyway – can generate mistrust on the part of local inhabitants, who do not always look kindly on the image that scientists might give of them, when they do not perceive their presence as a form of colonialism. Far from being exaggerated, this perception is often reinforced by the representations of these populations that can be found in certain museums or exhibitions, sometimes integrated into tourist infrastructures, giving an exotic or altered image of Indigenous populations, or even portraying them in a negative light: “[…], there has been certain general suspicion among residents that any media or research reports would represent only ‘negative stories’ about Indigenous peoples and contribute to further ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ othering.”

As research subjects, Indigenous populations are also partners in the advancement of scientific knowledge, in which they actively collaborate. This dual role is central to Arctic anthropology. Disseminating research results through stories or visual material can be an interesting way of doing this. Here, an interactive exhibition on reindeer husbandry in a community in Finnish Lapland. Photo: Anna Stammler-Gossmann

At a time when climate change is profoundly altering the face of the Arctic, the representation of Indigenous populations may well decontextualize their experiences, while relegating socio-political factors to the background, as well as the discourse of Indigenous populations in the face of these changes.

To overcome these problems and build a bridge between researchers and local populations, the author recommends paying particular attention to the relevance of research, in particular to avoid “research fatigue”. In some communities, scientists often arrive on the scene, and research results are not always communicated. Yet thinking about the relevance of research for local people, taking into account their aspirations and concerns, could make a difference, particularly in the field of human sciences.

Involving researchers and Indigenous communities on an equal footing in the research project should also be a prerequisite that may seem self-evident, especially when it comes to taking traditional knowledge into account as much as more conventional scientific knowledge. However, according to the author, this approach comes up against the question of funding: “None of my studies conducted within EU projects between 2005 and 2022 could integrate community-engaged scholarship.”

However, sharing work through exhibitions can be an interesting tool for exchanging knowledge, while leaving room for creativity and experimentation.

The exhibition that showcases the researcher

While exhibitions and museums run the risk of museumizing Indigenous populations, their anthropological and social importance is not negligible. In an article published in the same journal on July 26, Hiroki Takakura of Japan’s Tohoku University and Vanda Ignatyeva of the Russian Academy of Sciences document their photographic exhibitions of fieldwork in Siberia. Shown in Japan in 2008 and in Russia in 2012, these exhibitions will have enabled the authors to reflect on how to show a crucial research material in ethnological work: photography.

Featuring photographs taken during fieldwork among the Evens and Nenets of Siberia, this participatory exhibition presented images of these reindeer herders of the Great Siberian North.

Conceived as a journey back and forth between the researcher’s laboratory (shown on the right of the photo) and the actual field, reconstructed here with branches and field photographs, the exhibition’s creators not only immerse the public in the world of the Evens and Nenets, but also provide an insight into the anthropologist’s work. Photo: Saito Shuichi

With its large-format photographs and recreated Siberian forest, the Japanese exhibition showcased these Indigenous populations, while at the same time providing an opportunity to see and share in a unique experience: the anthropologist’s fieldwork. While spending a year and a half among the Siberian Indigenous communities would be almost routine for an anthropologist, it’s something totally unheard of for the vast majority of people.

Using the same research material, the 2008 exhibition was repeated four years later in the village of Sakkyryr in the Russian Republic of Sakha. Like the 2008 exhibition, the 2012 version also aimed to interact with an audience that, this time, was not at all unfamiliar with the research. The exhibition consisted in sharing research material at the research site itself, but with a time-lag of almost 20 years. While the Japanese public discovered a culture foreign to them through the eyes of the anthropologist, visitors to Sakkyryr rediscovered their own culture and history. “After viewing the exhibition, I felt as if I had traveled back in time 15 years. I discovered a photograph of my late father and a photograph of my nephew, who currently works with the reindeer herd,” noted one visitor to the exhibition.

But if ethnographic photographs can once again become testimonies, a memory for the local community, the latter can also discover how “foreigners” (in other words, scientists) study and analyze their culture. This can lead to a form of social recycling of these photographs, in the image of local teachers. Using the material donated by the researchers to the village’s cultural center, the teachers included it in their school curriculum for pupils who produced a report on… the modernization of the reindeer herding economy.

Or when exhibitions redefine research material and its meaning, while promoting social interactions.

Links to studies : Anna Stammler-Gossmann, Knowledge exchange in the arctic environmental studies: Bridging science and the local community in dialogue, Polar Science, 2024, 101103, ISSN 1873-9652,

Hiroki Takakura, Vanda Ignatyeva, Cross-cultural visual anthropology: Beyond repatriation, exploring indigenous and non-indigenous exchanges, Polar Science, 2024, 101105, ISSN 1873-9652,

Mirjana Binggeli, Polar Journal AG

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