Akadémiai Kiadó

Questions with universal significance are encapsulated in the Arctic, and may become magnified here, at the cap of the world. How do ecological relationships influence social and personal identity? How have traditional identities, in turn, been affected by rapid contemporary changes, particularly during the twentieth century; and reciprocally, how does a traditional sense of identity shape a response towards future development?       Addressing such questions, this volume provides a circumpolar view. Herding societies as well as hunting-gathering societies are represented, and administrative approaches have been combined with academic approaches, from various societies in the lands around the North Pole, where the natural habitat can be so severe and where the changes, affecting the physical as well as the social environments alike, have been so rapid.       The editor is an affiliate of Oxford University and a fellow of Edinburgh University.