Inuit, Whaling, and Sustainability (Contemporary Native American Communities)

Rating:
Summary: Topical ethnography at its best
Review: I stumbled across this book while researching the Makah Whaling controversy. It has one page on the Makah and whaling, offering comparative perspectives on a story set further north. While the Makah are trying to revive a tradition of whaling that ceased more than sixty years ago, Inuit peoples across the Arctic are struggling to maintain their way of life. The hurdles they must overcome to continue on their way include a declining resource base that results from an extraction-based economy, and the environmentalist opponents of these extractive industries who want to "save the whales". This book is the story of the Inuit and whaling told in their words. The authors include an international interdisciplinary team brought together by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

This book is ground-breaking ethnography that is put together by the people it is about. It is presented for the purpose of opening dialogue with those in far away places whose political priorities have consequences for Inuit peoples. It is a story of a region that spans three continents, and which is of growing importance to those of us who live in the south. No one interested in economic development of natural resources, whatever the point of view, can afford to ignore this book.