History of Greenland

Lill-Ann Körber & Ebbe Volquardsen (eds.): The Postcolonial North Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands (= Berliner Beiträge zur Skandinavistik; 20) Berlin: Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt Universität 2014,  422 p., ISBN 978-3-932406-35-5, € 49,80.  Order your copy here: [email protected] //
Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have in common their history as Danish dependencies within a historically and geographically coherent region. The complex aftermaths of Denmark’s sovereignty over its North Atlantic territories and their ongoing nation building processes lie at the core of this book. Today, we are witnessing region building processes beyond bilateral links to Denmark. How do the countries position themselves, individually and collectively, vis-à-vis the European metropolitan centres, a larger transcontinental North Atlantic region, the »hot« Arctic, and global histories of colonialism and decolonisation? By examining the region from cultural, literary, historical, political, anthropological and linguistic perspectives, the articles in this book shed light on Nordic colonialism and its understanding as »exceptional«, and challenge and modify established notions of postcolonialism. Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands are shown to be both the (former) subjects as well as the producers of cultural hierarchisations in an entangled world.

The women of northwestern Greenland experienced contact with Euro-American men in multiple ways and in a variety of geographical contexts. Together the archaeological record and unpublished historical documents reveal the complexities of these situations and women's responses to them. Archaeological and documentary data from two early 20th-century contact situations at Iita in northwestern Greenland and Floeberg Beach on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, highlight the varied nature of women's responses to contact and the ways in which interaction with newcomers affected them individually and collectively. The women's responses varied over time and across space. They responded to both the stresses and the opportunities of contact with resilience and resistance, acceptance and rejection, depending on circumstances. RÉSUMÉ. Les femmes du nord-ouest du Groenland sont entrées en contact avec les hommes euroaméricains de plusieurs manières et dans divers contextes géographiques. Ensemble, des dossiers archéologiques et des documents historiques inédits révèlent les complexités de ces situations et la réaction des femmes vis-à-vis de celles-ci. Les données archéologiques et documentaires de deux situations de contact datant du début du XX e siècle à Iita, dans le nord-ouest du Groenland et à Floeberg Beach sur l'île d'Ellesmere, au Nunavut jettent la lumière sur la nature variée des réactions des femmes face au contact et sur la façon dont l'interaction avec les nouveaux venus les ont touchées, individuellement et collectivement. La réaction des femmes variait en fonction du temps et de l'espace. Elles ont réagi au stress et aux opportunités avec résilience et résistance, acceptation et rejet, selon les circonstances.