Bringing home methylmercury : the construction of an authoritative object of knowledge for a Cree community in Northern Quebec

• Main Author: Scott, Richard T. (Richard Tolchard)
• Other Authors: Young, A. (advisor)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University 1993
• Subjects: Cree Indians > Health and hygiene > Québec (Province) > Chisasibi; Methylmercury > Toxicology > Québec (Province) > Chisasibi; Mercury > Toxicology > Québec (Province) > Chisasibi; Canada; Chisasibi; Cree indians; James Bay
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=69675

The thesis examines aspects of the construction of methylmercury as an authoritative object of knowledge for Chisasibi, a Cree community on the James Bay coast in northern Quebec. I describe the evolution of a particular set of spheres of exchange which mediate economic relations between the Cree communities, the governments of Quebec and Canada, and state and corporate structures tied to the state. Knowledge claims about mercury can be seen as situated among claims of injury in a moral economy which is based on conflict over the James Bay hydro-electric project. The politicization and subsequent medicalization of these knowledge claims are described. Finally, I trace the emergence of particular concepts of 'normality', 'risk' and 'risk group' in medical and technocratic discourses about the effects of methylmercury on Canadian aboriginal populations.