News Archive
"Inuit Cultural Dependency on Hunting, - Animal Protectionists and Global Ethics"
A presentation given by
Ingmar Egede, Chair and Director,
International Training Center of Indigenous Peoples,
Nuuk, Greenland
In this presentation I want to give you some insight in our culture and livingonditions,
and how the traditional dimension in our food production is influenced by
the animal protectionists. At the end, I will talk about the concept of global
ethics, which I consider being a deceptive concept, which, from my point of
view, does not bring clarity but confusion to our thinking.
Most Inuit (singular Inuk) live in coastal areas. Only in Central Canada some
of us have specialized in inland life based on the takes of the caribou and
the Arctic char. Basically, the rest of the Inuit still make their living
from the ocean. Today, at least in Greenland, the traditional hunting is supplemented
by industrial fishing.
More than 95% of Inuit live North of the tree line, which means that the average summer temperature never raises above +10C°. The winter temperature can go down to below -50C°. The winter is also dominated by the lack of sunshine - in the Thule area of Greenland people experience four month without a glimpse of the sun.
The summers are short and hectic, while winter is long. To outsiders both are overwhelming, the summers because of their intense light, the winters because of the dark and the cold. Outsiders will, when away from the communities, only survive these extreme physical conditions with high-tech equipment or with native support.
The Inuit culture is based on hunting. Across the Arctic, the main game is the ringed seal, which is stationary and found in abundance all over. Another relatively stationary seal is the bearded seal. In all areas migratory sea mammals as the walrus, the narwhal, the beluga, the polar bear represent important supplements to the diet, to dog food and clothing. In some areas the bowhead whale is, or used to be, the most important resource. In the past, the distribution of these animals forced our people to be nomadic. The food from these game animals has always been supplemented by takes of migratory birds (guillemot, eider duck, goose and sea gulls to name a few), arctic char, arctic cod, polar hare, ptarmigan and caribou.
The dog sledge, the kayak, the umiaq and the hunting equipment are all developed to the extreme, using the quality of driftwood, and the qualities of the bone, ivory and skin of the game to the outmost. These tools are fundamentally developed from ancient concepts, and each design reflects the purpose and the environment in which they are used, and they would seldom be useful in other areas. You see kayaks developed for the open sea, while other types fit better to use in lakes or protected waters. Some sledges, long and narrow in shape, are adapted to travel on ice, while you in mountainous and snowy areas see short toboggan-like types, and they are all able to carry heavy loads. Harpoon points also differ whether they are made for small seals, beluga walrus or the large whales. One sees mixed items, and normally one will immediately be able to see for what purpose and where a certain tool is designed.
In all areas, whales, mostly beluga, narwhal, bowhead, grey and to some extend humpback have been important sources of food. Today, the takes of beluga and narwhal are locally managed, while the takes of bigger cetaceans, bowhead, grey, fin and minke whales in Alaska, Chukotka and Greenland are regulated through the IWC. Canada, not being member of the IWC, has federal regulations managing these whales.
Having lived from marine mammals for thousands of years our metabolism has
adapted to this kind of food. The change to Western lifestyle has caused different
metabolic disorders as lactose and sucrose malabsorbtion in infants and intestinal
and immune system problems for all age groups.