Principal investigator: Dr Joanna Kodzik
This research project is funded by ANR (French National Research Agency) for the period 2022-2025. It is dedicated to the cultural mobility and constructions of the Arctic in handwritten and published German sources from the 17th and 18th century. On the one hand, the little-known parts of the history of Greenland, Iceland, Sápmi, and the Faroe Islands will be investigated thanks to the analysis of mostly unpublished source material written by German-speaking missionaries from the Moravian Church at their mission stations and during their travels. On the other hand, research on the question of reception of knowledge about humans, nature and the climate of the Arctic provided by this material and discussed by scholars will be performed. Indeed, the interest in the Arctic was as keen as the attention given to these issues by scientists today, in the age of climate change. This project takes into account the approaches of cultural mobility, history of knowledge, historical spatial research, ethno-history and historical cultural anthropology. Based on these theories and discourses, the constructions of the European Arctic created in a continuous change of mental fractures or conflicts between the Protestant mindset of the missionaries, the political interests of decision-makers and the tradition-, language- and "representation communities" in the Far North will be discussed.
© Morvian Archives in Herrnhut
