“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces
In this article I examine the enlistment of Arctic ice to tell grand, universal stories about humanity’s origins and endings. Specifically, I analyze 18th century Natural History musings that linked Arctic climate to race and human difference. I demonstrate that these musings are constitutive to an...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0263775820950745 2024-10-13T14:04:11+00:00 “Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces Smith, Jen Rose Ford Foundation University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263775820950745 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0263775820950745 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0263775820950745 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Environment and Planning D: Society and Space volume 39, issue 1, page 158-175 ISSN 0263-7758 1472-3433 journal-article 2020 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775820950745 2024-09-17T04:40:42Z In this article I examine the enlistment of Arctic ice to tell grand, universal stories about humanity’s origins and endings. Specifically, I analyze 18th century Natural History musings that linked Arctic climate to race and human difference. I demonstrate that these musings are constitutive to an invention of pathologized migrancy across Arctic spaces that emerge as a consequence of the inability of ice to foster agricultural settlement. I call this phenomenon temperate-normativity, in which Arctic spaces of ice are produced as inferior, not meaningful on their own but read as where transit to temperate locales occurs and those who linger are consequentially rendered as aberrant. To upend temperate-normative ideals of landscape and livelihood, I analyze a poem titled “Exceeding Beringia” by Joan Naviyuk Kane (Inupiaq) wherein Inupiaq relations to more-than-human kin articulate transit and migration as a mutual, obligatory responsibility. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Inupiaq Beringia SAGE Publications Arctic Kane ENVELOPE(-63.038,-63.038,-73.952,-73.952) Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 39 1 158 175 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications |
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crsagepubl |
language |
English |
description |
In this article I examine the enlistment of Arctic ice to tell grand, universal stories about humanity’s origins and endings. Specifically, I analyze 18th century Natural History musings that linked Arctic climate to race and human difference. I demonstrate that these musings are constitutive to an invention of pathologized migrancy across Arctic spaces that emerge as a consequence of the inability of ice to foster agricultural settlement. I call this phenomenon temperate-normativity, in which Arctic spaces of ice are produced as inferior, not meaningful on their own but read as where transit to temperate locales occurs and those who linger are consequentially rendered as aberrant. To upend temperate-normative ideals of landscape and livelihood, I analyze a poem titled “Exceeding Beringia” by Joan Naviyuk Kane (Inupiaq) wherein Inupiaq relations to more-than-human kin articulate transit and migration as a mutual, obligatory responsibility. |
author2 |
Ford Foundation University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Smith, Jen Rose |
spellingShingle |
Smith, Jen Rose “Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
author_facet |
Smith, Jen Rose |
author_sort |
Smith, Jen Rose |
title |
“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
title_short |
“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
title_full |
“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
title_fullStr |
“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Exceeding Beringia”: Upending universal human events and wayward transits in Arctic spaces |
title_sort |
“exceeding beringia”: upending universal human events and wayward transits in arctic spaces |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263775820950745 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0263775820950745 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0263775820950745 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.038,-63.038,-73.952,-73.952) |
geographic |
Arctic Kane |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Kane |
genre |
Arctic Inupiaq Beringia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Inupiaq Beringia |
op_source |
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space volume 39, issue 1, page 158-175 ISSN 0263-7758 1472-3433 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775820950745 |
container_title |
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
158 |
op_container_end_page |
175 |
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1812809346995716096 |