![Dr Robert Wishart Dr Robert Wishart](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/anp025/avatar/e6kWpzG8gNlrXqMysHgO0dUT8L56KSosUIey50Lk.jpeg)
Lecturer
- About
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- Email Address
- r.p.wishart@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 273408
- Office Address
Department of Anthropology
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire
AB24 3QY
Office: Edward Wright G16
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
Research Areas
Sub-Arctic Canada, Gwich'in, Ojibwe, Scottish Fur Traders, Scottish Fishers, Development Alternatives, Mining, Energy Development, Oral History, Identity, Wildlife Management, Continuities in Hunting Traditions, Ethnohistory, Landscape, Human Animal Relationships, Colonialism, Arctic Domestication.
Academic History
BA Anthropology - Concordia University, Canada
MA Symbolic Anthropology - University of Western
Ontario, Canada
PhD Anthropology - University of Alberta, Canada - Research
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Research Overview
Research Areas
Sub-Arctic Canada, Gwich'in, Ojibwe, Scottish Fur Traders, Scottish Fishers, Development Alternatives, Mining, Energy Development, Oral History, Identity, Wildlife Management, Continuities in Hunting Traditions, Ethnohistory, Landscape, Human Animal Relationships, Colonialism, Arctic Domestication.
Arctic Domestication (2012-2018)
As a member of the ERC Arctic Domus Project (http://www.arcticdomus.org/) I am conducting ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and history of science research on human-animal relations in the Canadian North. I am particularly interested in how the Canadian government represented the animals in the north as wildlife and how this lead to policy implications for Indigenous rights, land management, missionary activity, and policing. An alternative view allowing for the sensibilities of northerners who insist that they cultivate multiple relations as evidenced by their stories, actions, and political negotiations is adding to our circumpolar reformulation of the idea of the Domus.
The Franz Boas Papers (2013-2018)
As a team member and editorial board member for The Franz Boas Papers: Editorial Editions (http://www.franzboaspapers.uwo.ca/) I am managing and conducting research on Boas' thoughts on the environment and domestication. The Franz Boas Papers: Documentary Edition is major new research initiative that aims to reassess and re-contextualize the papers of preeminent anthropologist Franz Boas. Boas’ ideas about race, language, culture and ethnography were pivotal in the development of American anthropology, however his Canadian fieldwork has largely been ignored by scholars. This documentary edition will highlight the importance of Boas’ fieldwork on Baffin Island and the Northwest Coast while also serving as comprehensive and essential resource for Boas researchers.
Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (2014-2019)
As a team member for CICADA (Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives http://cicada.world/) I am continuing my research on mining, petroleum development, and wildlife management in the Western Canadian sub-Arctic looking for new ways to have impact on development policy. CICADA is a multidisciplinary research centre that targets the conceptual and practical potential of indigenous peoples’ collective ‘life projects’ to generate innovative regimes of environmental protection and alternative visions of development in the Americas, East Africa, and Australia.
Circumpolar Architecture (2006-2012).
As a team member of the Home, House, and Household project funded by ESF Eurocores Boreas programme (http://site.uit.no/boreas/) I conducted ethnographic and ethnohistorical research on vernacular architecture in the Western Canadian Arctic. I became particularly interested in the adoption and development of log cabins in the Mackenzie River Delta and how their construction is tied to Indigenous life ways and to on-going struggles with government and development interests.
Scottish Diaspora in "Gwich'in Country," Northwest Territories, Canada. (2003- 2010)
Building on my doctoral research, I was researching cultural exchanges between Gwich'in and Scottish fur traders during the height of the Fur Trade in Gwich'in Country (approximately 1800-1920). This period was characterized by an increased level of contact between the fur traders and the Gwich'in and resulted in many marriages between Scots and Gwich'in women. The children of these marriages (often referred to as Métis) went on to live a way of life thought to be desirable by the Gwich'in. They became examples of the core Gwich'in ethos of living on the land and brought new cultural forms of food, dance, music and language from their Scottish relatives. Scottish fur traders are often described in historical accounts as being a fairly homogeneous group shifting between being the other in a strange land or being the dominator. What is apparent in Gwich'in country is that Scots fur traders are not a homogeneous group, at least some of these Scots shared an affinity with Gwich'in practice and with their position vis-à-vis colonial expansion and were willing to perceive Gwich'in country not as a wilderness needing conquest but as a place of dwelling.
"Living on the Land" in Gwich'in Country (1998-2003)
I conducted my doctoral research at Fort McPherson (Tetlit-zheh), Northwest Territories, a Dene (Gwich'in) community. My dissertation explores how Tetlit Gwich'in human-animal and human-land relationships have been maintained throughout the history of First Nations-European contact and the way these relationships continue to be maintained in the face of programs now presented by the State as sustainable natural resource management. During my fieldwork, I participated in all of the hunting and gathering activities of a seasonal round while paying particular attention to personal narratives of place and wider issues to do with oral history. Many of the personal narratives and historical accounts are set against the history, policies and actions of representatives of the state, including current "co-management" boards, and serve to instruct on issues of cultural maintenance and proper ways of behaving in relation to Tetlit Gwich'in constructions of the environment.
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Undergraduate Courses Currently and Recently being Taught
AT1003 Introduction to Anthropology: Peoples of the World
AT2510 Anthropology and Imperialism
AT2511 Colonialism Re-Imagined
AT3518 Society and Nature
AT4509 Anthropology of the North
SX1015 Oceans and Society
Postgraduate
I teach on the core courses for the MRes in Social Anthropology and on the Msc People and Environment Programme
Current Postgraduate Supervisees
Tara Joly Encountering wetlands: oil sands reclamation in western subarctic Canada
Catherine Munro Historic and contemporary relationships between people and ponies in Shetland Alexander Oehler Hunting and herding in the Saian Mountains of South Siberia
Zoe Todd Lands, lakes and livelihoods: women’s subsistence fishing in Paulatuk, NT
Paula Schiefer
Jordan Gavin
Tamara Ranspot
Gioia Barnbrook
Erin Consigllio
Completed PhD
Candice Roze: Re-thinking environmental knowledge through an anthropological approach to people’s understanding of the forest in Vanuatu
Cesar Giraldo Herrera: Sweet dreams rocking Viking boats: Biocultural animic perspectivism through Nordic seamanship.
Pelle Tejsner: 'It is windier nowadays': Coastal livelihoods and changing weather in Qeqertarsuaq
Darrin Russell: Becoming related: The performance of ‘savagery’ and sociality in 17th century New France
Kamal Adhirkari: Ethnobotany and Corruption in Nepal
- Publications
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Page 1 of 1 Results 1 to 42 of 42
Fishing for pearls, restoring a presence: Nawken perspectives on a banned practice.
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsNoggins Lellum:: The inter-relations between Nawken food harvesting and belonging
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsRevitalizing Crabgrass Collective:: Traditions and Trajectories
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsNawken Food Sovereignty: Restoring a recognised presence through collaborative research
Contributions to Conferences: Oral Presentations'They work for me, I work for them': Investigatory attunements and partnerships between dogs and Gwich'in in Northern Canada.
Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas:: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes, and Arctic. Bolton, M., Loovers, P. (eds.). Brill, pp. 118-134, 16 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Subarctic: Accommodation and resistance since 1970
Handbook of North American Indians: Introduction. Krupnik, I. (ed.). 1 edition. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, pp. 320-337, 17 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersWhere is the real trap? Domination and mutualism in Teetl’it Gwich’in sensibilities about trapping
Journal of Material Culture, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 437-452Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183518820365
'Hard Times are Coming': Architectures of Cultural Revitalization
Contributions to Conferences: Oral PresentationsConclusion - Dogs in the North
Dogs in the North: Stories of Cooperation and Co-Domestication. Losey, R., Wishart, R., Loovers, J. P. L. (eds.). Oxbow Books, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersTelling Stories of Co-Domestication and Cooperation, an Introduction
Dogs in the North: Stories of Cooperation and Co-Domestication. Losey, R., Wishart, R., Loovers, J. P. L. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 1-7, 7 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315437736-1
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
The police and dogs during the early patrol years in the Western Canadian Subarctic: An inter-species colonial cooperation?
Dogs in the North: Stories of Cooperation and Co-Domestication. Losey, R. J., Wishart, R. P., Loovers, J. P. L. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 152-171, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersDogs in the North: Stories of Cooperation and Co-Domestication
Routledge. 344 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksArchitectures of domestication: on emplacing human-animal relations in the North
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 398-416Contributions to Journals: ArticlesProstranstvennye arkhitektury v otnoshenii͡akh mezhdu li͡ud'mi, zhivotnym mirom i landshaftom na severe
Arkheologii͡a Arktiki. Tupakhin, D., Fedorova, N. (eds.). ROS-DOAFK, pp. 5-24, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)“No One Would Take Our Fish”: Anthropology and an Honourable Recognition of All the Partners
Contributions to Conferences: PapersFish and Development in the GSA: CICADA conference
Contributions to Conferences: PapersAn Overview of Arctic Domus
Contributions to Conferences: PapersDevelopment Alternatives: Cicada conference
Other Contributions: Other Contributions"We have a contract with them": Gwich'in articulations about helpful animals in their life world
Contributions to Conferences: PapersRelationships of no small significance: Invisibility, animals, and the Domus. CHAGS conference
Other Contributions: Other ContributionsHumans, Animals, Environment: Beyond Perception conference
Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResearch Overview North America: Arctic Domus conference
Contributions to Conferences: Papers'We ate lots of fish back then': The forgotten importance of fishing in Gwich’in country
Polar Record, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 343-353Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247413000715
The Mackenzie Valley Dene: The Continuing Relevance of Asch’s Ethnohistory to Development
Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience. Wilson, C. R. (ed.). 4 edition. Oxford University Press, pp. 200-219, 20 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersAbout the Hearth: Perspectives on the Home, Hearth and Household in the Circumpolar North
Berghahn Books, New York. 324 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksRelating with Dogs, Fish, and Caribou: An alternative exploration of human-animal engagements in the Circumpolar North
Contributions to Conferences: PapersBuilding a home for circumpolar architecture: an introduction
About the Hearth: Perspectives on the Home, Hearth and Household in the Circumpolar North. Anderson, D. G., Wishart, R. P., Vate, V. (eds.). Berghahn BooksChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersBuilding Log Cabins in Teetl’it Gwich’in Country: Vernacular Architecture and Articulations of Presence
About the Hearth: Perspectives on the Home, Hearth and Household in the Circumpolar North. Anderson, D., Wishart, R., Vate, V. (eds.). Berghahn Books, pp. 54-68, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Building Log Cabins in Teetl'it Gwich'in Country: Vernacular Architecture, Local History, and Continuities
Contributions to Conferences: PapersInscribing the Circumpolar North: Scientific and Local Ways of Knowing
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsBuilding Log Cabin Homes in Teetl'it Gwich‟in Country: Vernacular Architecture, Local History, and Continuities
Contributions to Conferences: PapersWriting Against the Grain of Materialist Orthodoxy: Richard Slobodin and the Teetl'it Gwich'in
A Kindly Scrutiny of Human Nature: Essays in Honour of Richard Slobodin. Preston, R. J. (ed.). Wilfrid Laurier University Press, pp. 33-43, 11 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersRichard Slobodin and the Teetl’it Gwich’in
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsWildlife Management, Colonialism and the Scottish Enlightenment in Canada’s North
Non-textual Forms: PerformancesThe Gwich’in and Scottish Fur-traders: Cultural Exchange and Resistance
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsGwich'in Discourse about Climate Change in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsA Story About a Muskox: Some Implications of Tetlit Gwich’in Human-Animal Relationships
Cultivating Arctic Landscapes, pp. 79-92, 13 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersLanguage, Power, Resistance and Scots-Gwich’in English
Non-textual Forms: PerformancesThe Slavey Indians: The Relevance of Ethnohistory to Development
Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience. Oxford University Press, pp. 178-197, 19 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersWestern Subarctic Aboriginals
Oxford Companion to Canadian History, pp. 658-659, 1 pageChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersThe Discourse of Wildlife Management Regimes and Tetl’it Gwich’in Resistance
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsReport on Driftwood Use Prepared for the Gwich’in Renewable Resource Board and Dr. Ross Wein, University of Alberta
Edmonton: Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta. 22 pagesBooks and Reports: Commissioned Reports- [ONLINE] Link to the original report