"A Sense of Seal" in Greenland

Kalaallit Seal Pluralities and Anti-Sealing Contentions

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3801136
AutoresNaja Dyrendom Graugaard (0000-0003-4255-8822, The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment, Department of Planning, Aalborg Universit, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen44
Número1-2
Páginas373-397
Fecha de publicación2021-09-27
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaÉtudes/Inuit/Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0701-1008 • E-ISSN: 1708-5268
EditorialConsortium Erudit (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.7202/1081810ar
OpenAlexW3025659589
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas20

This article questions the conceptual terms upon which Inuit hunting practices are deemed acceptable in current international seal regimes. Specifically, the article examines how Kalaallit-seal relations in Greenland unsettle Euro-American seal regimes. It argues that the current narratives of Inuit seal hunting as a "sustainable, subsistence" practice (e.g., European Commission 2016) risk coopting Indigenous worldviews to suit Western interpretations. While narratives of sustainability and subsistence may soothe European anti-sealing sentiments, they may not resonate with Inuit knowledges and practices. By engaging with fieldwork interviews with hunters in Greenland, this article suggests that Kalaallit ways of sensing, knowing, and engaging with seals reflect reciprocal, as well as complex, human-animal relations. Utilizing Métis/otipemisiw scholar Zoe Todd's analytical framework of "fish pluralities" (2014), the article considers how seals may exist in Greenland in a "plurality of ways" that extend beyond a simple needs-based use of a natural resource

Archaeology · Art · Environmental ethics · Indigenous · Narrative · Political science · Seal (emblem · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Philosophy · Ecology