Inuit and Whalers on Baffin Island Through German Eyes: Wilhelm Weike's Arctic Journal and Letters

by Ludger Müller-Wille (Editor), Bernd Gieseking (Editor), Wilhelm Weike

Told from an ordinary man’s perspective, these are the journal and letters of Wilhelm Weike as he accompanied Franz Boas—the father of modern anthropology—on his journey to the arctic from 1883 to 1884. This extraordinary document of early arctic history provides a plain, direct view of the Inuit and the whalers in their arctic environment at the end of the 19th century. With invaluable contextual and complementary information, this book contributes key insights during the recent wave of scientific assessment of Franz Boas’s legacy in all social sciences.

286 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2011

About the author

Ludger Müller-Wille is a Montreal anthropologist and geographer who taught Geography & Northern Studies at McGill University for thirty years. Author and editor of books and articles on Franz Boas, he has conducted extensive research in the Arctic and Subarctic among Sámi and Finns in Finland and Inuit, Dene, and Naskapi in Canada.


Dr. phil. in Ethnology with Geography and European Prehistory, Westfälische Wilhelms-
Universität, Münster i. W., Germany, 1971