Résumés
Abstract
Global warming and climate change are important topics of debate in Greenland. This paper examines how the Tunumiit of East Greenland perceive the weather, the changing climate, and the local environment. It also discusses how their perceptions have been influenced by political debates on global warming, sustainable development, and wildlife management since the 1950s. In the past, if some animal species disappeared from a specific area, or if the weather turned bad, the Tunumiit would attribute this misfortune to human transgressions of rules of respect. Today, they often connect the increasingly unpredictable weather to their reduced access to natural resources and greater difficulties in travelling. Some hunters speak of a shift from seal hunting to cod fishing in East Greenland, although fishing is still perceived as a vulnerable source of income with low status. Nowadays, older methods of navigation and orientation coexist with such new technologies as GPS and mobile telephones. Some local hunters and villagers feel unfairly accused of increases in CO2 emissions and pollution from their motorboats and generators. Tunumiit hunting communities are facing increasing uncertainty on all levels of their existence, and their hunters are turning to the growing tourism industry—a side effect of global warming—and other coping strategies to maintain their local subsistence activities and to reinforce their own culture.
Résumé
Le réchauffement planétaire et le changement climatique font l’objet d’importantes discussions au Groenland. Cet article examine de quelle manière les Tunumiit de l’Est du Groenland perçoivent les conditions atmosphériques, le changement climatique et l’environnement local. On y discute aussi de la façon dont leurs perceptions ont été influencées par les débats politiques sur le changement climatique, le développement durable et la gestion de la faune depuis les années 1950. Autrefois, si une espèce animale disparaissait d’un lieu particulier, ou si le mauvais temps durait trop, les Tunumiit attribuaient ces phénomènes à des transgressions des règles de respect par les humains. Aujourd’hui, l’accès limité aux ressources naturelles et les difficultés de déplacement sont souvent mentionnés en relation avec des conditions atmosphériques de plus en plus imprévisibles. Certains chasseurs pensent que la pêche à la morue a remplacé la chasse au phoque dans l’Est du Groenland, bien que la pêche soit toujours perçue comme une source de revenus fragile et une activité déconsidérée. De nos jours, les anciennes méthodes de navigation et d’orientation coexistent avec de nouvelles technologies telles que le GPS et les téléphones portables. Certains chasseurs et villageois locaux se sentent injustement accusés de produire des émissions de CO2 à cause de leurs bateaux à moteur et de leurs génératrices. Les communautés de chasseurs tunumiit sont confrontées à une incertitude grandissante dans tous les aspects de leur existence. Elles intègrent un tourisme en forte croissance — effet secondaire du réchauffement planétaire — et d’autres stratégies d’adaptation afin de perpétuer leurs activités locales de subsistance et de renforcer leur propre culture.
Parties annexes
References
- APORTA, Claudio, 2005 From map to horizon; from trail to journey: Documenting Inuit geographic knowledge, Études/Inuit/Studies, 29(1-2): 221-231.
- BERKES, Fikret and Dyanna JOLLY, 2001 Adaptation to Climate Change: Social-Ecological Resilience in a Canadian Western Arctic Community, Conservation Ecology, 5(2) (online at: http:// www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art18).
- BOX, Jason, E., 2002 Survey of Greenland instrumental temperature records: 1873-2001, International Journal of Climatology, 22(15): 1829-1847.
- BUIJS, Cunera, 2004 Furs and Fabrics. Transformation, Clothing and Identity in East Greenland, Leiden, Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, CNWS Publications, Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, 32.
- BUIJS, Cunera and Aartjan NOOTER, 1987 Skindboykottens konsekvenser for et fangersamfund i Østgrønland (‘The consequences of a sealskin boycott for a hunting community in East Greenland’), unpublished report translated into Danish by Bente Straatman-Cortsen.
- DAHL, Jens, 2000 Saqqaq: An Inuit hunting community in the modern world, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
- EISTRUP, Jette, 1989 Baggrunden for østgrønlands kolonisering, gennemførelse konsekvenser – Et bidrag til en analyse (‘An analysis of the background and consequences of East Greenland’s colonisation’), unpublished report.
- GLAHDER, Christian, 1995 Hunting in Kangerlussuaq, East Greenland, 1951-1991, An assessment of local knowledge, Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society, 19.
- GRØNLAND KALAALLIT NUNAAT, 1996-2003 Statistisk Årbog (’Statistical Yearbook’) Nuuk, Atuakkiorfik.
- HOVELSRUD-BRODA, Grete, 1997 The Seal: Integration of an East Greenlandic Economy. Waltham: Brandeis University.
- HOVELSRUD-BRODA, Grete, 2000 The Isertormeeq of East Greenland, in Milton M.R. Freeman (ed.), Endangered Peoples of the Arctic, Struggle to Survive and Thrive, London, Greenwood Press: 151-167.
- KRUPNIK, Igor and Dyanna JOLLY (eds), 2002 The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change, Fairbanks, Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution.
- LYNGE, Finn, 1992 Arctic Wars, Animal Rights, Endangered Peoples, London, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England.
- MacDONALD, John, 1998 The Arctic Sky, Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and Legend, Iqaluit, Nunavut Research Institute.
- NOOTER, G.W., 1976 Leadership and headship: Changing authority patterns in an East Greenland hunting community, Leiden, E.J. Brill, Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, 20.
- PETERSEN, Robert, 2003 Settlements, Kinship and Hunting Grounds in Traditional Greenland. A Comparative Study of Local Experiences from Upernavik and Ammassalik, Meddelelser om Grønland, 27.
- PILERSUISOQ, 2001 Statistical and archival information about Pilersuisoq in Tasiilaq consulted there in the summer 2001 with permission of the store manager.
- POORT, Lars Oksen, 2007 The Impact of Climate Change on Society and Education in Greenland, Ph.D. dissertation, Inerisaavik, Institute of Arctic Education, University of Greenland, Nuuk.
- ROBBE, Bernadette, 1975 Le traitement des peaux de phoque chez les Ammassalimiut, observé en 1972 dans le village de Tîleqilaq, Objets et Mondes, 15(2): 199-208.
- ROBBE, Pierre, 1977 Orientation et perpérage chez les Tileqilamiut, côte est du Groenland, Études/Inuit/Studies, 3(2):73-84.
- ROBBE, Pierre, 1994 Les Inuit d' Ammassalik, Chasseurs de l' Arctique, Paris, Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 159.
- ROBBE, Pierre and Louis-Jacques DORAIS, 1986 Tunumiit Oraasiat. The East Greenlandic Inuit Language, Sainte-Foy, Université Laval, Centre d’études nordiques.
- ROBERT-LAMBLIN, Joëlle, 1986 Ammassalik, East Greenland - end or persistence of an isolate? Anthropological and demographical study on change, Meddelelser om Grønland, Man & Society, 10.
- SEJERSEN, Frank, 2002 Local Knowledge, Sustainability and Visionscapes in Greenland, Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Eskimologiske Skrifter, 17.
- SEJERSEN, Frank, 2003 Grønlands Naturforvaltning, resourcer og fangstrettigheder (‘Greenland’s Nature conservation, recources and hunting rights’), København, Akademisk Forlag A/G.
- SJOUWERMAN, Petra, 2009 Jager en prooi zakken door het ijs (‘Hunter and pray fall through the ice’), Trouw, November 21.
- SMIT, B., G. HOVELSRUD and J. WANDEL, 2008 CAVIAR: Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions, Guelph, University of Guelph, Occasional Paper, 28.
- THALBITZER, William (ed.), 1914 The Ammassalik Eskimo, Contributions to the Ethnology of the East Greenland Natives. First Part, containing the Ethnographical and Anthropological Results of G. Holm's Expedition in 1883-85 and G. Amdrup's Expedition in 1998-1900, Meddelelser om Grønland, 39.
- VOORST, Roanne Van, 2008 An anthropological exploration of Inuit adaptation strategies to climate changes and the implications for the power balance between males and females in Greenland, Master’s thesis, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
- WENZEL, George, 1991 Animal rights, human rights, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.