In the last two decades, there has been an increased awareness of the traditions and issues that link aboriginal people across the circumpolar North. One of the key aspects of the lives of circumpolar peoples, be they in Scandinavia, Alaska, Russia, or Canada, is their relationship to the wild animals that support them. Although divided for most of the 20th Century by various national trading blocks, and the Cold War, aboriginal people in each region share common stories about the various capitalist and socialist states that claimed control over their lands and animals. Now, aboriginal peoples throughout the region are reclaiming their rights.

This volume is the first to give a well-rounded portrait of wildlife management, aboriginal rights, and politics in the circumpolar north. The book reveals unexpected continuities between socialist and capitalist ecological styles, as well as addressing the problems facing a new era of cultural exchanges between aboriginal peoples in each region.

David G. Anderson is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen.

List of Figures

Foreword byTim Ingold

Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Reindeer, Caribou and Fairy Stories of State PowerDavid G. Anderson

Chapter 2. Uses and Abuses of Traditional Knowledge: Perspectives from the Yukon TerritoryJulie Cruikshank

Chapter 3. Local Knowledge in Greenland: Arctic Perspectives and Contextual DifferencesFrank Sejersen

Chapter 4. Codifying Knowledge about Caribou: The History ofInuit Qaujimajatuqangit in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, CanadaNatasha Thorpe

Chapter 5. A Story about a Muskox: Some Implications of Tetlit Gwichin HumanAnimal RelationshipsRobert P.Wishart

Chapter 6. We did not want the muskox to increase: Inuvialuit Knowledge about Muskox and Caribou Populations on Banks Island, CanadaMurielle Nagy

Chapter 7. Political Ecology in Swedish SaamilandHugh Beach

Chapter 8. Saami Pastoral Society in Northern Norway: The National Integration of an Indigenous Management SystemIvar Bjørklund

Chapter 9. Chukotkan Reindeer Husbandry in the Twentieth Century: In the Image of the Soviet EconomyPatty A. Gray

Chapter 10. A Genealogy of the Concept of Wanton Slaughter in Canadian Wildlife BiologyCraig Campbell

Chapter 11. Caribou Crisis or Administrative Crisis? Wildlife and Aboriginal Policies on the Barren Grounds of Canada, 194760Peter J. Usher

Chapter 12. Epilogue: Cultivating Arctic LandscapesMark Nuttall

Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index