Nordenskiöld's research focused on the ethnography and prehistory of South America.

[1] From these journeys he brought home large collections to Gothenburg where he was head of the Ethnographical Museum.

In 1912 he was awarded the Loubat Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Wahlberg gold medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.

He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1932.

[2] Besides numerous articles in scientific periodicals Nordenskiöld published: