The world of polar depravities : Jan Welzl among the Eskimos

Jan Welzl (1868-1948) was Czech traveler, globetrotter, polar explorer, hunter, gold prospector and writer who lived on the New Siberian Islands for about 30 years. His memoirs and autobiographical accounts were written down with a help of the professional writers and journalist (R. Těsnohlídek, B. Golombek, E. Valenta) and became very popular in Czechoslovakia. The paper will be an attempt to reconstruct and analyze on the basis of Welzl’s literary work his way of seeing the polar regions as a space where the biding social standards and regulations has been changed or suspended. Especially the Eskimo people are seen by Welzl as a social group in which the European behavioral patterns and European social norms (moral, ethical, sexual etc.) are undermined or non-biding.