From Placelessness to Place: An Ethnographer's Experience of Growing to Know Places at Sea

Abstract How do we come to know the places we inhabit? What do places mean to us? What associations do we make with them? As an ethnographer and outsider I have grown, in a small way, to know places at sea along the northwest coast of Hudson Bay. In this paper I explore my growth into that knowledge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Main Author: Tyrrell, Martina
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Brill 2006
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853506777965785
https://brill.com/view/journals/wo/10/2/article-p220_5.xml
https://data.brill.com/files/journals/15685357_010_02_s005_text.pdf
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Summary:Abstract How do we come to know the places we inhabit? What do places mean to us? What associations do we make with them? As an ethnographer and outsider I have grown, in a small way, to know places at sea along the northwest coast of Hudson Bay. In this paper I explore my growth into that knowledge, and how the sea became transformed from a blank space to a place filled with memory and association. I compare my short experience with that of local Inuit, who make use of the sea on a daily basis. Where and how do Inuit learn about places at sea? And how important are those places in their use of and movement through their marine environment?