Topic: Health and Wellbeing in Circumpolar Communities

The health and wellbeing of communities across the world can tell us much about how they once lived, and how their cultural practices have evolved over time. The health of Arctic and circumpolar communities is often viewed through a lens of curiosity, but also of concern. The medical history of the circumpolar world has been reported from early twentieth-century expeditions that documented the physical condition of remote Indigenous peoples to reports on the consequences of modern environmental and social change. Information on Arctic health is now available from most regions of the circumpolar north including, until recently, from Russia, shedding light on how Indigenous communities adapted biologically and culturally to life in the Arctic.

Early studies were directed at the physiology of Arctic peoples—at adaptations that enabled them to function effectively in extremely low temperatures. Bergman’s rule that animal bodies and appendages become shorter and stouter in cold regions helped explain Arctic peoples’ body proportions, while ice-water immersion tests showed Arctic people maintained hand function better than southerners, while psychological data seemed to demonstrate less adverse reaction to physical hardship, trauma, and emotional stress.

Population centralization and modernization brought major changes in the diet and infrastructure of Arctic communities. The International Union of Circumpolar Health links regional groups to study and improve health in Arctic and Antarctic areas. Its main members are the American, Canadian, Danish/Greenlandic, Nordic, and Russian circumpolar health societies. Scholars such as those involved in Health Consequences of Modernization examine how the transition from traditional subsistence practices reshapes the physical and mental wellbeing of circumpolar people across multiple generations. Alongside these studies, reports from organizations like the Alaska Native Medical Center and firsthand accounts from teachers and field researchers in remote villages like Savoonga document the lived realities of health access, nutrition, and education for Indigenous Alaskans throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Today, we are increasingly informed about the physical and mental health challenges facing Arctic peoples as climate transforms their environment from the isolated and frigid conditions of earlier centuries to near ice-free summer conditions by the middle of the 21st century. The growth of medical anthropology and its multidisciplinary approach offer techniques that should aid the understanding of Arctic wellbeing beyond just medicine, to encompass the social, cultural, and environmental conditions that shape health. The ancient spiritual culture that persists among Arctic peoples connecting them physically and emotionally to animals and the land will be a strong element for Arctic wellbeing and resilience in a rapidly changing world.