Books published by University of Alberta Press

In 1925, four Inuit men from the central Canadian Arctic boarded a Revillon Fr?res supply ship bound for the South. Stuck in the ice-pack during the winter of 1924-25, the Jean Revillon needed repair and a crew to make it back to its hauling location at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Some non-Inuit involved in this voyage referred to it as an 'experiment.' Since it was the first time Inuit would man a company ship on such a long journey. Lionel Angutinguaq, Athanasie Angutitaq, Louis Taapatai, and Savikataaq, having brought the ship to save harbour, spent the winter in the South and returned home the next spring. In relating their experience to people on their return they provided first-hand accounts of life in the South. In the 1990s, the story of these Inuit sailors was still a topic of discussion in the North. However, memories about it were fragmented. Archival research and fieldwork provided missing information and a relatively complete account of their round trip is now available. Their story was also adapted as teaching material for Inuit students participating in a university introductory summer program, called NunaScotia. This monograph, based on collaborative ethno-historical research and fieldwork, relates the story, the collaborative process and its outcomes, both scientific (numerous conference presentations) and pedagogical. The trip from Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), in contemporary Nunavut, to southern Canada documents the early relationships between Inuit and Nova Scotians. Various points-of-view contribute to the broadest possible understanding of the journey. Such diverse perspectives are expected since the Inuit sailors, the Revillon family and the people associated with the shipbuilding industry or the fur trade were involved in the trip per se to various degrees. The reasons they were all engaged in this voyage are also, to some extent, quite disparate. Still, Roundtrip is a clear example of how people from very different backgrounds collaborated in the past, when Inuit actually sailed onboard the Jean Revillon, and more recently, when the research was conducted.

Fishing often makes an important contribution to food security in northern regions, where agriculture is impossible or marginal at best, as well as providing important occupational and economic diversification in small and often remote communities. In such locations the high cost and often low nutritional value of imported foods can be offset by fishing, hunting and gathering activities that contribute significantly to peoples' socio-economic circumstances and health. In some societies, fishing is regarded as women's work, but in far more cases it is considered to be men's work. The conventional recognition of the primary role of men in fish harvesting often results in men's knowledge being the principal (or only) source of important local knowledge considered by fisheries' managers and decision-makers. The resulting under-representation of women's knowledge may compromise the quality of management decision-making, suggesting the desirability of including knowledge obtained by women more especially during the processing and food-preparation phases of product use. This book provides the reader with a current accounting of the generally under-recognized role of women in a variety of northern subsistence and industrial fisheries, both aboriginal and non-aboriginal, rural- and urban-based, in Alaska, Arctic Canada, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The authors draw attention to the need for a more critical understanding of the emphasis often placed on hunting and associated male dominance in food production in northern societies. Whereas the representation of men as hunters (and fishers) and women as gatherers and food-preparers is all too commonly encountered in the literature, this collection argues that fishing as an activity may be much more ambiguous and nuanced than previously considered, and increasingly so as modernization further alters customary social roles and attitudes. Today (and almost certainly continuing into the future), the occupational opportunities available to more highly-educated rural residents offer a wider range of choices with respect to work, place of residence, and lifestyle, suggesting that it is unwise to seek to predict how the changing roles of women in fisheries will appear in the future. This volume tests a number of assumptions and prior conclusions in respect to gender and fisheries, and indeed, of gender relations more generally, and in so doing provides useful information and insights that inform current understandings of these northern societies and social identities, as well as very likely stimulating future research. Chapters by: Katherine Reedy-Maschner; Virginia Mulle and Sine Anahita; Martina Nyrrell; Anna Karlsd?ttir; Kerrie-Ann Shannon; Melissa Robinson, Phyllis Morrow, and Darlene Northway; Siri Gerrard; Joanna Kafarowski; Maria ?den; Elina Helander-Renvall; Elisabeth Angell; Gunhild Hoogensen

In this intriguing study, Michael Heazle examines how International Whaling Commission (IWC) policy dramatically shifted from furthering the interests of whaling nations to eventually banning all commercial whaling. Focusing on the internal workings of a single organization, Heazle explores the impact of political and economic imperatives on the projection and interpretation of scientific research and advice. Central to his work are the epistemological problems encountered in the production of "truth." Science does not produce incontestable facts that can be expected to lead to consensus decisions; rather, the problematic nature of knowledge itself allows for various interpretations of data depending on the interests of those at the table. It is precisely the nature of scientific knowledge, Heazle argues, that has made uncertainty a tool in service of political objectives. When scientific advice to whaling nations could not with absolute certainty declare whaling practices a threat to stocks, those IWC members with substantial investments of political and economic capital used this uncertainty to reject a reduction in quotas. As perceptions of whaling changed-with the collapse of Antarctic whaling stocks, further diminishing economic returns, and public opinion turning against commercial whaling-uncertainty switched sides. Nonwhaling members in the IWC, a majority by the 1970s, claimed that because scientific data could not probe that commercial whaling was sustainable, hunting should stop. Uncertainty was used to protect the resource rather than the industry. That science cannot be an impartial determinant in policy-making decisions does not render it useless. But Heazle's analysis does suggest that without understanding the role of scientific uncertainty-and the political purposes for which it is used-international cooperation on wildlife management and broader issues will continue to become bogged down in arguments over whose science is correct.

Offers a perspective of northern native societies that have depended upon whaling for centuries. Alaskan and Western Canadian Arctic coastal residents have pursued these animals as sources of food and fuel, but whaling also serves as a center for cultural traditional and spiritual sustenance. Papers by: Rober K. Harritt, Carol Zane Jolles, and Allen P. McCartney; Owen K. Mason and S. Craig Gerlach; Roger K. Harritt; Don E. Dumond; Linda Finn Yarborough; Allen P. McCartney; T. Max Friesen and Charles D. Arnold; James M. Savelle; David R. Yesner; Hans-Georg Bandi; Glenn W. Sheehan; Mary Ann Larson; Carol Zane Jolles; Stephen R. Braund and Elisabeth L. Moorehead; Howard W. Braham; Carol Zane Jolles; and Herbert O. Anungazuk.

A compilation of highly sought-after research focusing on wolf management and recovery programs in North America. Reviews the status of wolves in Canada, the United States, Greenland, and the Trans-Himalayan region. Specific chapters address several themes: historical perspectives and the evolution of wolf-human relationships; the status, biology, and management of wolves; restoration, reintroduction, and control programs; wolf-prey dynamics and implications of conservation practices; behavior and social interactions; taxonomy; diseases and physiology; and, research and management techniques. Proceedings of the Second North American Symposium on Wolves, 1992. Papers by: L. Boitani; F.F. Gilbert; R.D. Hayes and J.R. Gunson; F.L. Miller; R.O. Stephenson, W.B. Ballard, C.A. Smith, and K. Richardson; U. Marquard-Peterson; R.P. Thiel and R.R. Ream; P. Schullery and L. Whittlesey; C.E. Kay; D. Dekker, W. Bradford, and J.R. Gunson; J.L. Fox and R.S. Chundawat; S.H. Fritts, D.R. Harms, J.A. Fontaine and M.D. Jimenez; D.K. Boyd, P.C. Pacquet, S. Donelon, R.R. Ream, D.H. Pletscher, and C.C. White; D.R. Parsons and J.E. Nicholopoulos; A.P. Wydeven, R.N. Schultz, and R.P. Thiel; M.K. Phillips, R. Smith, V.G. Henry, and C. Lucash; R.P. Thiel and T. Valen; D.R. Seip; F. Messier; M.S. Boyce; D.J. Vales and J.M. Peek; B.W. Dale, L.G. Adams, and R.T. Bowyer; L.D. Mech, T.J. Meier, J.W. Burch, and L.G. Adams; L.G. Adams, B.W. Dale, and L.D. Mech; D.C. Thomas; D.R. Klein; C.S. Asa; C.S. Asa and L.D. Mech; T.J. Meier, J.W. Burch, L.D. Mech, and L.G. Adams; G.J. Forbes and J.B. Theberge; R.O. Peterson; T.K. Fuller; S.G. Fancy and W.B. Ballard; C. Vila, V. Urios, and J. Castroviejo; R.E. Anderson, B.L.C. Hill, J. Ryon, and J.C. Fentress; W.G. Brewster and S.H. Fritts; R.M. Nowak; R.K. Wayne, N. Lehman, and T.K. Fuller; R.M. Nowak, M.K. Phillips, V.G. Henry, W.C. Hunter, and R. Smith; C.J. Brand, M.J. Pybus, W.B. Ballard, and R.O. Peterson; M.R. Johnson, T.N. Bailey, E.E. Bangs, and R.O. Peterson; M.D. Drag, W.B. Ballard, G.M. Matson, and P.R. Krausman. W.B. Ballard, D.J. Reed, S.G. Fancy, and P.R. Krausman; W.B. Ballard, M.E. McNay, C.L. Gardner, and D.J. Reed; D.A. Haggstrom, A.k. Ruggles, C.M. Harms, and R.O. Stephenson; H.D. Cluff and D.L. Murray; R.D. Boertje, D.G. Kelleyhouse, and R.D. Hayes; R. Reid and D. Janz; R. Coppinger and L. Coppinger; P.L. Clarkson; L.D. Mech; Epilogue by M. Hummel