Histories of the early modern Arctic often centre on routes and exploration in the periphery of the known and habitated world. This talk, however, reconstructs the region as a multispecies contact zone during the Little Ice Age, where Dutch and other European humans, dogs, foxes, bears, whales and birds co-produced survival and knowledge. Drawing on travel journals, atlases, paintings, and archeological finds from Barentsz’ Nova Zembla and 17th century Spitsbergen, I want to trace how animals were monster, companion, commodity and curiosity. By foregrounding the entangled relations between humans and non-human animals in these “North Indies”, I reconsider the Arctic’s place in early modern colonial history and invite debate on animal histories of empire. Jim van der Meulen will comment on the paper.

Dr. Djoeke van Netten is associate professor Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam. She has an interest in animal history and human-animal encounters, maritime history, travel journals and the cartography of oceans, coastlines and ice.

Dr. Jim van der Meulen is a social historian who works as a senior researcher at the Huygens Institute. Recently, he has been focusing on the historical relationship between power, the environment, and ecology. He is interested to see how and why people in the past exercised power over non-human nature, and how that nature, conversely, influenced human power relations.