Abstract
This article presents a small community of High Arctic hunters (the Inughuit in North West Greenland) who have always had to negotiate climatic changes with great impact on their living conditions. This points us toward the natural-social entanglements implied in the notion of the Anthropocene, and to the new intellectual challenges that both natural and social scientists are facing in relation to the current climatic changes. These challenges are discussed through the case of the Inughuit with whom the author has worked over many years. Departing from their dire situation in the 19th century, when they were first described and became known to outsiders, it is shown how flexibility and mobility were always preconditions for survival in this environment. Then, they were trapped in too much ice, while now they have to negotiate a rapidly melting environment. In both cases their response is deeply implicated in their sense of who they were and are, also in relation to a larger world.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Basso KH (1996) Wisdom sits in places: notes on a western Apache landscape. In: Feld S, Basso KH (eds) Senses of place. School of American Research, Santa Fé, pp. 53–90
Bravo MT (1998) The anti-anthropology of highlanders and islanders. Stud Hist Phil Sci 29(3):369–389
Bravo MT (2010) Epilogue: the humanism of sea ice. In: Krupnik I, Aporta C, Gearhead S, Laidler G, Holm LK (eds) SIKU: knowing our ice. Documenting Inuit sea-ice knowledge and use. Springer, New York, pp. 445–452
Crate SA, Nuttall M (eds) (2009) Anthropology & climate change. From encounters to actions. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek
Crutzen PJ (2002) Geology of mankind: the anthropocene. Nature 415:25
Gardiner S (2008) A perfect moral storm: climate change, intergenerational ethics, and the problem of corruption. In: Vanderheiden S (ed) Political theory and global climate change. The MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 25–42
Gilberg R (1976) The Polar Eskimo Population. Thule District, North Greenland. Nyt Nordisk Forlag, Copenhagen (Meddelelser om Grønland, vol. 203, no. 2)
Greschke H, Tischler J (eds) (2015) Grounding global climate change. Contributions from the social and cultural sciences. Springer, New York
Gulløv HC (2004) Nunarput. Vort land: Thulekulturen. In: Gulløv HC (ed) Grønlands Forhistorie. Gyldendal, København, pp. 281–343
Hastrup K (1985) Culture and history in medieval Iceland. An anthropological analysis of structure and change. Clarendon, Oxford
Hastrup K (1990) Nature and policy in Iceland 1400–1800. An anthropological analysis of history and mentality. Clarendon, Oxford
Hastrup K (1998) A place apart. An anthropological study of the Icelandic world. Clarendon, Oxford
Hastrup K (2009) Arctic hunters, climate variability and social flexibility. In: Hastrup K (ed) The Question of Resilience. Social Responses to Climate Change. The Royal Danish Academy of Letters and Sciences, Copenhagen, pp. 245–270
Hastrup K (2013) Anticipation on thin ice. Diagrammatic reasoning in the High Arctic. In: Hastrup K, Skrydstrup M (eds) The social life of climage change models. Anticipating nature. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 77–99
Hastrup K (ed) (2014) Anthropology and nature. Routledge, London and New York
Hayes II (1866) The Open Polar Sea. A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States. Sampson Low, Son and Marston London (Digital reprint by Cambridge University Press)
Henshaw A (2009) Sea ice: the sociocultural dimensions of a melting environment in the Arctic. In: Crate SA, Nuttall M (eds) Anthropology and climate change. From encounters to actions. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp. 153–165
Holtved E (1967) Contributions to Polar Eskimo Ethnography. C.A. Reitzels Forlag, Copenhagen (Meddelelser om Grønland, vol 182, no. 2)
Hulme M (2009) Why we disagree about climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Huntington H, Fox (2005) The changing Arctic: indigenous perspectives. In: Arctic climate impact assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 51–98
Kane EK (1856) Arctic Explorations. The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853–55, vol I & II. Childs & Peterson, Philadelphia; Trübner & Co. London (Digital reprint by Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Krauss W (2015) Anthropology in the anthropocene: sustainable development, climate change and interdisciplinary research. In: Greschke H, Tischler J (eds) Grounding global climate change. Springer, Dordrecht and New York, pp. 59–76
Krupnik I, Aporta C, Gearhead S, Laidler GJ, Holm LK (eds) (2010) SIKU: knowing our ice. Documenting Inuit sea-ice knowledge and use. Springer Press, New York
Latour B (2004) Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern. Crit Inq 30:225–248
Mauss M (1979 [1906]) Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo. A Study in Social Morphology (in collaboration with H. Beuchat; transl. by J. J. Fox), Routledge & Kegan Paul, London
Nuttall M (2009) Living in a world of movement: human resilience to environmental instability in Greenland. In: Crate A, Nuttall M (eds) Anthropology and climate change. From encounters to actions. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp. 292–310
Nuttall M (2010) Anticipation, climate change, and movement in Greenland. Études/Inuit/Studies 34(1):21–37
Nuttall M, Berkes F, Forbes B, Kofinas G, Vlassova T, Wenzel G (2005) Hunting, herding, fishing, and gathering: indigenous peoples and renewable resource use in the Arctic’. In: Arctic climate impact assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 649–690
Peary RE (1898) Northward over the “Great Ice”. A Narrative of Life and Work along the Shores and upon the Interior Ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891–1897, Methuen & Co, London
Putnam H (1990) Realism with a human face. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Putnam H (2004) Ethics without ontology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Rasmussen K (1908) The people of the polar north. A record. G Herring (ed and transl), Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd. London
Rasmussen K (1925) Myter og Sagn fra Grønland III: Kap York Distriktet og Nordgrønland. Gyldendal, Copenhagen
Ross J (1819) Voyage of Discovery, made under the orders of Admiralty, in his Majesty’s ships Isabelle and Alexander, for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin’s Bay, and inquiring into the probability of a North-West Passage. John Murray, London Albemarle-Street (Digital reprint by Cambridge University Press)
Sörlin S, Warde P (2009) Making the environment historical: an introduction. In: Sörlin S, Warde P (eds) Nature’s end. History and the environment. Palgrave/Macmillan, New York, pp. 1–22
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our common future, New York
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the European Research Council for an Advanced Grant (ERC 2008-AdG 229459) that made recurrent fieldwork in North West Greenland possible. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and to the editors of the Special Issue whose valuable comments contributed importantly to the improvement of the article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is part of a Special Issue on “Historicizing Climate Change” edited by Melissa Lane, John R. McNeill, Robert H. Socolow, Sverker Sörlin.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hastrup, K. A history of climate change: Inughuit responses to changing ice conditions in North-West Greenland. Climatic Change 151, 67–78 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1628-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1628-y