Encyclopedia of the Arctic

(Note: Preface is taken from uncorrected proofs. Changes may be made prior to publication.)

The Encyclopedia of the Arctic offers a rich and dynamic view of, and introduction to, an enormous, incredibly diverse and rapidly changing part of the world. Its three volumes comprise overviews of hundreds of topics, events, places, people, human cultures, animals and environments, ranging from geological history, exploration, the cultures and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, geopolitics, international environmental co-operation, natural history, physical processes, life sciences and environmental change. This unique work is the result of over 375 international scholars and writers in all fields, many of whom live and work in Arctic countries.

The Arctic is a vast area occupying the northern end of the Earth. Characterized by cold and seasonal extremes of light and darkness, it is a place where people, animals and plants have survived and flourished, adapting to harsh environments and unforgiving conditions. It encompasses large regional variations in climate, geography and ecology, as well as many cultures with different social, economic and political systems. Arctic lands are found in eight countries: Alaska, Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Indigenous peoples have lived in this immense area for millennia, thriving in their homelands by hunting marine mammals and terrestrial animals, herding reindeer and fishing the cold coastal waters. They possess complex and detailed knowledge of Arctic animals and ecosystems, and their traditional activities link them inextricably to their histories, their contemporary cultural and economic settings, and provide a way forward for thinking about sustainable livelihoods in the future.

The Arctic is not an isolated, remote part of the world. The climate of the Arctic is influenced and governed by many complex interactions which are part of the global climate system; Arctic ecosystems are linked to the ecosystems of warmer southern regions; winds from the south bring warm air- and contaminants and pollutants- to northern regions; migratory mammals, birds and fish move to the Arctic in summer to feed and breed before returning south for the winter; the headwaters of major rivers, such as the Ob, Lena and Mackenzie, are far to the south and provide a further connection between global and Arctic climates and ecosystems; and northern regions, societies and economies are tightly tied to the mainstream of the nation states of which they are part.

The Arctic has long been prized as a place containing rich resources, attracting explorers, whalers, sealers, fur traders, gold miners and other adventurers in a steady stream from the sixteenth century onwards. Visits to the Arctic by these adventurers and sojourners, especially in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, resulted in more frequent contact between indigenous peoples and outsiders. Whalers, traders, explorers, missionaries and other seasonal visitors brought diseases to which indigenous peoples had no immunity, as well as far-reaching social, economic, cultural and religious changes. World War II brought increased activity in the Arctic as the region was militarized. During the Cold War, the region became a zone of hostile, tense military confrontation with the Arctic divided into two sectors - the Soviet Arctic and Western Arctic. More recently, economic developers searching for oil, gas, gold, diamonds and other marketable products see the Arctic as an economic and industrial frontier.

Arctic lands and seas have played a significant part in the development of several nations, with colonization and settlement often taking place primarily with resource extraction in mind. Arctic resources will continue to be vital to the development of Arctic states for many decades to come, but other countries look increasingly to the northern regions for fisheries development, hydrocarbons, timber and minerals. The Russian North, for example, has about 40% of the world's coniferous forests, with some 20% of the world's forested areas overall, the Bering Sea is one of the richest fisheries on Earth, and the Canadian Arctic contains vast reserves of oil, gas and diamonds. The United States eyes northern Canadian oil and gas hungrily, while countries such as Japan, Korea, and European Union member states constitute markets for valuable Arctic resources, such as deep-water shrimp from Greenland, Alaskan salmon, and timber from Canadian and Siberian forests. Arctic communities and regions are thus firmly tied to the global economy, while the effects and influences of globalisation processes are increasingly felt in all aspects of social, economic and cultural life throughout the Arctic today.

Such processes have their social and environmental impacts. The Arctic regions are under growing pressure from natural resource development, including that for gas, oil, timber, fish and diamonds. The exploitation of northern resources and industrial activity both outside and within the Arctic has serious consequences for the environment, for traditional livelihoods and for human health. Industry, resource development, pipeline construction, urbanisation, changes in land use and demographic transitions all pose threats by degrading ecosystems, destroying biodiversity and animal habitat, and infringing on indigenous lands, resource harvesting activities and traditional knowledge systems. Similarly, global environmental issues, including climate change, transboundary pollutants, and ozone depletion are having detrimental impacts on the peoples and environments of the Arctic.

The indigenous peoples of the Arctic have strong views on the future of the circumpolar North and their place in it. Traditional practices of marine mammal hunting, trapping, fishing, reindeer herding, and gathering remain critically important to Northern peoples, but they also wish to participate in and benefit from non-renewable resource development. At the same time, they are concerned with the loss of traditional livelihoods, cultures and languages, the negative impacts of globalization and the threat of irreversible changes that climate change may bring. Indigenous peoples have experienced tremendous rapid social and cultural change, especially in the last few decades, yet are reasserting cultural identity and their rights. Many indigenous peoples have achieved varying degrees of land claims settlements and significant forms of self-government, most notably the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, the Inuvialuit Final Agreement of 1984, Home Rule in Greenland in1979, and the creation of Nunavut Territory in 1999. These settlements and agreements have given indigenous peoples a significant base to build political and cultural identity. Other peoples have considerably less control over their lands, resources and their lives, although the establishment of Saami parliaments in Fennoscandia have allowed Saami limited powers to decide on issues relating to language and culture. The most complex and unresolved issues relating to the autonomy and self-determination of the Arctic's indigenous peoples are found in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Movements for land claims and self-government are embedded within indigenous discourses about the protection of indigenous political, cultural and environmental interests, but they also centre on rights to resources and access to the profits of resource development.
The inhabitants, scientists, and researchers of the Arctic share a deep concern over unsustainable development, environmental change and loss of biodiversity, and the irreversible impacts on the future viability of northern ecosystems and peoples' livelihoods and health. The increasing political salience of environmental and conservation issues, together with the increasing articulation of indigenous rights, has led to the emergence of the Arctic as an international political region and the design of several frameworks for collaboration on the environment and sustainable development in the Arctic.

Since the mid-1980s, there have been major initiatives in international co-operation on Arctic environmental and sustainable development issues. The turning point is seen by many to have come in October 1987 when Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking in Murmansk, outlined proposals for how international co-operation in the Arctic could proceed. This speech was the most significant indication for many years of how the Soviet Union viewed Arctic policy, and among the most important points raised by Gorbachev was the need to establish the Arctic as a zone of peace, the utilization of the resources of the Arctic, scientific activity and environmental protection. Gorbachev's speech, which must be seen within a context of wider concern about environmental degradation and environmental security in the Soviet Union during an era of <i>glasnost</i> and <i>perestroika</i>, led to a series of Soviet proposals for international cooperation in the Arctic, and since 1987 there have been a number of bilateral and multilateral scientific and environmental agreements.

A Finnish initiative in 1989 led to the so-called Rovaniemi Process between the eight Arctic states which resulted in the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) of 1991. In 1990 the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) was formed to identify, promote and coordinate international scientific research priorities. Also in 1991, regional governments in the Arctic established the Northern Forum, which has a remit to focus on economic development, and the Canadian government announced plans to set up an Arctic Council which would draw its membership from the eight Arctic rim countries. In 1993 the foreign ministers of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the EU Commission signed the Kirkenes Declaration which established the Barents Council and inaugurated the Barents Euro-Arctic Region (BEAR). The Arctic Council was inaugurated in Ottawa on 19 September 1996, a mandate to take cooperation on Arctic issues beyond the environment. The Arctic Council was established to provide a high level regional forum for sustainable development, mandated to address all three of its main pillars: the environmental, social and economic. Its membership comprises the eight Arctic states, six indigenous peoples' organisations as Permanent Participants, and Observers made up of non-Arctic states, international organisations and NGOs.

This is a unique forum for a unique region: from the beginning, Arctic governments and indigenous peoples joined together to make environmental monitoring and assessment a key element of the Arctic Council's agenda. Major reports with policy recommendations have been produced, notably on the extent of Arctic pollution and the impact of climate change, drawing global attention to the state of the Arctic environment and the situations of its peoples. The Arctic Council allows for unprecedented dialogue and collaboration among scientists, policy planners, Arctic residents and political level decision-makers. Out of this dialogue, and out of the Arctic, possibilities are emerging for a critical rethinking and reassessment of the concept of sustainability and the development of new approaches to biodiversity conservation, not only for the Arctic but for the entire globe.

The Arctic: a region of diversity
There are many definitions of the Arctic, some of which are discussed in a separate entry in this Encyclopedia (see Arctic: Definitions and Boundaries). No one way of defining the Arctic is satisfactory for all purposes, and more often than not a practical definition becomes necessary in research projects, reports, assessments, scientific monographs and university and college courses in order to determine and delimit what physical, ecological, political, social and cultural processes are to be covered. The Encyclopedia of the Arctic does not impose a single definition on contributors. To do so would detract from an understanding of the diversity of this complex and vast part of the globe, in all its environmental, cultural, political, historical and economic aspects. Contributors to the Encyclopedia have been encouraged to follow the conventions of their respective disciplines and perspectives. Various definitions illuminate the fact that understandings of the Arctic are, in part, based on particular scientific, political and disciplinary concerns, and that specific definitional criteria are far too restrictive and cannot always be applied across disciplines. For example, while natural scientists most commonly draw boundaries based on climate, mean monthly temperature, the extent of sea ice, the dominance of tundra vegetation, the southern extent of permafrost, the northernmost treeline, or the Arctic Circle, social and political scientists may be thinking in terms of culture areas or geopolitical boundaries.

The entries in the Encyclopedia reveal that precise boundaries are not always possible to draw (whether between physical environments or between human cultures) and that there may be some variability in, for instance, usage of such terms as the 'Russian North' or 'northern Scandinavia'. Many contributors also use 'Arctic', 'circumpolar North' and 'the North' as interchangeable terms. The extent of the Arctic is, in a sense, totally dependent on its definition. Whatever definition of the Arctic is used, it is clear that it is a large, multifaceted and important area of the Earth's surface, encompassing a range of landscapes and seascapes, climate differences, rich biodiversity and vibrant cultural diversity. Rather than resulting in a confused definition of the Arctic, the material presented in the Encyclopedia of the Arctic demonstrates the beauty, power and incredible diversity of the northern regions of the globe.

A collaborative project
A project of this magnitude, dealing as it does with an enormous region, must have a starting point. This was an initial A-Z headword list drawn up by the editors and the Advisory Board. We aimed to be as comprehensive and wide as possible, although we recognized that many gaps remained in the first list. We then sent out the headword list to hundreds of individuals and dozens of research institutes, university departments and organisations that focus on Arctic issues, together with letters of invitation to contribute entries to the Encyclopedia. The information and call for contributors was also posted on the project's website and distributed widely. The hope was that people would not only respond with offers to write entries, but would comment upon and criticize the A-Z list of entries. We received countless suggestions for improving the content, many from people who live and work in the Arctic, as well as people living in more southerly climes. As a result, the list of entries has been continuously revised, with new entries added, almost up to publication. The Encyclopedia has thus taken shape as a result of this process.

Yet, even in three volumes, it is impossible to cover every topic, or to include entries on every town and political figure, every aspect of ecology and environmental change, or every river, mountain range or aspect of human culture. We have aimed to be as thorough as possible, yet we acknowledge that this is a beginning. No similar work exists. Our hope is that the Encyclopedia of the Arctic will be used as an indispensable, up-to-date, in-depth guide to a region that is changing dramatically- socially, economically, politically and environmentally. Providing rich and detailed essays on the Arctic's environment, wildlife, climate, history, exploration, resources, economics, politics, indigenous cultures and languages, conservation initiatives, and many other topics, the Encyclopedia of the Arctic is the only major work and comprehensive reference source to have yet been produced on this vast, complex, changing, and increasingly important part of the globe. The book is not only an up-to-date interdisciplinary work of reference for all those involved in teaching or researching Arctic issues, but a fascinating and comprehensive resource for residents of the Arctic, and all those concerned with global environmental issues, sustainability, science, and human interactions with the environment.

Entries and Structure
The entries, over 1,200, appear in alphabetical order and are of several kinds (for the complete Entry List, see page [TK]). Longer overview entries on major themes (such as Anthropology of the Arctic) are supported by shorter entries on specific areas of study (such as Kinship), peoples (Greenland Inuit), customs (Bear Ceremonialism), or individual anthropologists.

Although each entry is self-contained, the links between entries can be explored in a number of ways. The Thematic List on page [TK] groups the entries within broad and more specific categories and provides a useful summary of related entries. Almost all of the entries have cross references ("see also") at the end of the entry, so the reader is encouraged to browse outwards from a starting node. All entries have a list for Further Reading, also allowing the reader to pursue other scholarship on a particular topic. Finally, the Index provides a detailed listing of topics that do not have their own entry, but that are discussed within the context of broader entries.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference for providing the Foreword.

I should like to express my thanks to the members of the Advisory Board for their unfailing guidance, advice and criticism. All have drawn on their experiences and their extensive knowledge of the Arctic, its peoples and environments, histories and politics. Their support has been crucial to the success of this enormous project.

It has been a privilege to read and work with the material submitted by the hundreds of contributors whose writings fill these three volumes. I was especially pleased to receive opinions and suggestions from many of them as this project developed.

At Routledge special thanks go to Acquisitions Editor Gillian Lindsey, Development Editor Lynn Somers-Davis, and Editorial Assistant Mary Funchion for their professionalism, their courtesy and their support. I have tremendous admiration for their commitment to this Encyclopedia, especially their tenacity in maintaining momentum (and keeping the pressure on me) at a difficult time when both publisher and editor were in the throes of moving from the United Kingdom to North America. They kept track of the progress (and whereabouts) of more than 300 contributors, and have overseen the process of pulling together the several thousand pages of writing that moved between London, Aberdeen, New York and Edmonton. I am especially grateful to the team of production assistants, researchers, copy-editors and cartographer at Taylor and Francis / Routledge who helped with the text, graphics and illustrations. I am enormously grateful to Jonathan Dore, under whose supervision the Advisory Board and the initial headword list was formed, the first contributors were signed up, and the Encyclopedia began to take shape. The project would not have been possible without him in the first place. During the editing process I have been fortunate to have worked in two fine universities, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Alberta and I am thankful for their institutional support.

Last, but by no means least, I thank Anita and Rohan for being patient, for being encouraging, and for being there.

Mark Nuttall
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada