Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North

This article is from World Archaeology issue 125

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REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH

When we think about the history and archaeology of the north, we are immediately drawn to the Inuit or Sami peoples. We forget the vastness of the polar region, which covers at least 20% of the surface of the globe but is inhabited only by around four million people. This population is divided into nine ethnolinguistic groups, which are subdivided into a further 41 distinct subcultures, each with their own subsistence strategies, dialects, languages, and traditions. These groups occupy the harsh environments of Alaska, Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, northern Japan, northern Scandinavia, and Russia (Siberia). 

Based on archaeological and ethnographic evidence, circumpolar communities have roamed these vast icy landscapes since 3000 to 2500 BC.  These peoples were, again, diverse in tradition, but were manufacturing a generic toolbox that included microblade technology, referred to in the Canadian High Arctic as the Arctic Small Tool (AST) tradition, along with decorative bone and antler work that is usually attributed to later Pre-Dorset and Dorset cultures. The most prominent of all the Arctic peoples is the Dorset Culture, which appears to have flourished for more than 2,500 years (between 1100 BC and AD 1500). This tradition is succeeded by the Thule peoples, who pre-date the Inuit, and occupied Greenland. Elsewhere, earlier settlement is recorded in the Alaskan and the Siberian Arctic (recognised by specialised lithic and bone toolkits).

Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North is a welcome addition to this area of the world and the various research agendas that are current. The book is organised into eight chapters, with a focus on the relationship between animals and people. Despite the limited number of chapters, the book fulfils its aims in terms of a broad ethnographic and theoretical approach to this relationship. Although the volume does not cover all areas of the circumpolar region, Alaska, Greenland, northern Fennoscandia, Nunavut, and western Siberia are adequately covered. What is made clear throughout each chapter is the connection between economy (hunting and fishing) and embedded ritual actions and processes. Many of the animals that are hunted and procured, such as bear (Chapter 2), birds (Chapter 8), reindeer (Chapter 7), and fish and whale (Chapters 4 to 6) also are included in local and regional performance traditions, such as enactment and rock art, as well as the politik associated with folklore. Arguably, evidence for the relationship between humans and animals can be found in the archaeological record by means of focused research using ethnographic approaches. Of particular interest to me was Chapter 6, by Anja Mansrud, who explores the relationship between humans and fish in the Norwegian Mesolithic. In this chapter, employing an ethnographic approach, Mansrud uses rock art from the period to show that fish are not just an economic resource.

Despite the bland cover and the poor reproduction of images and figures (as with other Routledge books in this series), Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North is a much-needed addition to the bookshelf, taking the archaeological and ethnographic records to new boundaries where the evidence can be integrated into the realms of folklore, legend, myths, ritual, and storytelling – the very attributes that make us human.

Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North 
Peter Whitridge and Erica Hill (eds) 
Routledge, £130 
ISBN 978-1138482784