240510 SE Cultures of Northern Fennoscandia (P3, P4) (2019W)

Participation at the first session is obligatory. This course is a regular seminar AND a preparation for a field practicum to Northern Fennoscandia in the summer semester 2020. The field practicum will consist of a trip through northern Finland, Sweden and Norway in the course of which students will carry out minor fieldwork. Potential participants in the field practicum are strongly encouraged to participate. At the same time, you can participate in the course without planning to join the field practicum.

Aims, contents and method of the course
Firstly, this course aims to provide an overview over the basic social, cultural and economic features of Northern Fennoscandia and how these have been dealt with in the anthropological literature. This will be accomplished mainly through lectures during the first part of the course. The second and main part of the course, which has a seminar character, will deal with current environmental, socio-economic and cultural issues and developments such as resource extraction, infrastructure development, indigenous issues, tourism, and climate change. Students will choose one of the suggested or a self-chosen topic, and present and discuss anthropological perspectives on how to approach it.