Anthropology research seminar with Sigrid Wibe (Aarhus University):
Lake, ice, ocean: Living, moving and remembering in Qasigiannguit
In academia the Arctic is often framed as a place where the much-debated nature/culture divide never took place. Greenland, maybe in particular, has been portrayed as a harsh environment that local people learned to overcome and live in and from. In my research, based in Qasigiannguit in the Disko Bay area, I am interested in what it means to be deeply connected to the landscape and the activities that takes place here, while at the same time living a globally connected life.
At this seminar I want to present some of the ethnographic material I have gathered at this point in my PhD. I will show some of the ways my friends in Qasigiannguit interact with the landscape and maintain the relationships they have developed in and with the nature surrounding their town. Learning to see and understand these relationships is often a matter of developing similar relationships along the way. Therefore, I will also present my own position in the field as a ‘green’ anthropologist with the ups and downs that follow when going to the field.