Arctic Heritage: Commodification, Identity, and Revitilisation in the Anthropocene

这是一个探索北极地区三种标志性文物的商品链的项目：驯鹿角、圆锥形帐篷、猛犸象和海象象牙。该项目将在Sápmi、加拿大和格陵兰岛的几个地点追踪这些人工制品的口述历史、新的市场和社会关系，将它们与历史上的牧民和狩猎生活方式及其随时间的变化联系起来。近年来，每件文物在遗产和旅游产业中都以新的形式出现：1)驯鹿角作为传统中药；2)锥形帐篷作为旅游固定居所；3)和象牙作为纪念品雕刻。因此，它们讲述了一个更广泛的关于北极遗产的故事，以及土著生产者、消费者和市场之间的关系。我们的目标是研究人工制品转化为遗产的过程，以及它们在国内和国际商品链上的流动。我们将通过历史和新兴的收获、生产、商业化和消费网络，跟随他们的物质和象征之旅。我们将使用人种学田野调查、深度访谈和动物考古学分析来调查古代和当代的贸易。我们假设人工制品的商业化与其在技能、实践社区和基于经验的知识方面的非实用价值之间存在差距。我们预计这将引发关于传统、生态可持续性和文化流失的辩论，并再次呼吁文化保护、振兴和立法。因此，该项目将解决围绕遗产和民族旅游的伦理问题，工艺生产的可行性和可持续性，所谓的土著文化的“遗产化”，以及北极背景下遗产的文化政治。我们将出版多部作品，包括跨学科出版物、一本编辑集，并组织三次博物馆展览。

This is a project to explore the commodity chains of three iconic heritage artefacts in the Arctic: reindeer antler, the conical tent, and mammoth and walrus ivory. The project will trace the oral histories and new market and social entanglements of these artefacts across several sites in Sápmi, Canada, and Greenland, linking them to historical pastoralist and hunting lifeways and their transformation over time. In recent years, each artefact has taken a new form within the heritage and tourism industries: 1) reindeer antler as Traditional Chinese Medicine; 2) the conical tent as a fixed tourism dwelling; 3) and ivory as souvenir carvings. They thus tell a wider story of Arctic heritage and the relationship between indigenous producers, consumers, and the market. Our objectives are to research the transformation of the artefacts into heritage objects and their movement across national and international commodity chains. We will follow their material and symbolic journeys through historical and emergent networks of harvesting, production, commercialisation, and consumption. We will use ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and zooarchaeological analysis to investigate ancient and contemporary trade. We hypothesise a gap between the commercialisation of the artefacts and their non-utilitarian value in terms of skills, communities of practice, and experience-based knowledge. We anticipate this to feed into debates about tradition, ecological sustainability, and cultural loss, as well as renewed calls for cultural protection, revitalisation, and legislation. The project will thus tackle questions surrounding the ethics of heritage and ethnic tourism, the viability and sustainability of craft production, so-called 'heritage-isation' of indigenous culture, and the cultural politics of heritage in the context of the Arctic. We will publish several works including interdisciplinary publications, an edited volume, and organise three museum exhibitions.