Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay
"Accounts of the adaptive responses of northern aboriginal peoples include examples of purposive modification and management of ecologically favorable areas to increase resource productivity. Practices include clearing of trees, burning of berry patches and construction of fish weirs. This pape...
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ftdlc:oai:http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu:10535/7441 2023-05-15T18:43:25+02:00 Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay Sayles, Jesse S. Mulrennan, Monica North America Canada 2010 http://hdl.handle.net/10535/7441 English eng http://hdl.handle.net/10535/7441 Ecology and Society 15 4 December adaptation Cree (North American people) environmental change indigenous institutions landscape change resilience Social Organization Journal Article published Case Study 2010 ftdlc 2021-03-11T16:18:19Z "Accounts of the adaptive responses of northern aboriginal peoples include examples of purposive modification and management of ecologically favorable areas to increase resource productivity. Practices include clearing of trees, burning of berry patches and construction of fish weirs. This paper examines the adaptive capacity of the northern aboriginal community of Wemindji, east coast James Bay, in relation to long term landscape changes induced by coastal uplift processes. Associated changes are noticeable within a human lifetime and include the infilling of bays, the merger of islands with the mainland, as well as shifts in vegetative and wildlife communities. In response, generations of Cree hunters have actively modified the landscape using a variety of practices that include the construction of mud dykes and the cutting of tuuhiikaan, which are corridors in the coastal forest, to retain and enhance desirable conditions for goose hunting. We provide an account of the history, construction, and design of these features as well as the motivations and social learning that inform them. We reveal a complex and underappreciated dynamic between human resistance and adaptation to environmental change. While landscape modifications are motivated by a desire to increase resource productivity and predictability, they also reflect an intergenerational commitment to the maintenance of established hunting places as important connections with the past. Our findings support a revised perspective on aboriginal human agency in northern landscape modification and an enhanced role for aboriginal communities in adaptive planning for environmental change." Article in Journal/Newspaper Wemindji James Bay Indiana University: Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) Canada Wemindji ENVELOPE(-78.816,-78.816,53.000,53.000) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Indiana University: Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) |
op_collection_id |
ftdlc |
language |
English |
topic |
adaptation Cree (North American people) environmental change indigenous institutions landscape change resilience Social Organization |
spellingShingle |
adaptation Cree (North American people) environmental change indigenous institutions landscape change resilience Social Organization Sayles, Jesse S. Mulrennan, Monica Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
topic_facet |
adaptation Cree (North American people) environmental change indigenous institutions landscape change resilience Social Organization |
description |
"Accounts of the adaptive responses of northern aboriginal peoples include examples of purposive modification and management of ecologically favorable areas to increase resource productivity. Practices include clearing of trees, burning of berry patches and construction of fish weirs. This paper examines the adaptive capacity of the northern aboriginal community of Wemindji, east coast James Bay, in relation to long term landscape changes induced by coastal uplift processes. Associated changes are noticeable within a human lifetime and include the infilling of bays, the merger of islands with the mainland, as well as shifts in vegetative and wildlife communities. In response, generations of Cree hunters have actively modified the landscape using a variety of practices that include the construction of mud dykes and the cutting of tuuhiikaan, which are corridors in the coastal forest, to retain and enhance desirable conditions for goose hunting. We provide an account of the history, construction, and design of these features as well as the motivations and social learning that inform them. We reveal a complex and underappreciated dynamic between human resistance and adaptation to environmental change. While landscape modifications are motivated by a desire to increase resource productivity and predictability, they also reflect an intergenerational commitment to the maintenance of established hunting places as important connections with the past. Our findings support a revised perspective on aboriginal human agency in northern landscape modification and an enhanced role for aboriginal communities in adaptive planning for environmental change." |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sayles, Jesse S. Mulrennan, Monica |
author_facet |
Sayles, Jesse S. Mulrennan, Monica |
author_sort |
Sayles, Jesse S. |
title |
Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
title_short |
Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
title_full |
Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
title_fullStr |
Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
title_full_unstemmed |
Securing a Future: Cree Hunters' Resistance and Flexibility to Environmental Changes, Wemindji, James Bay |
title_sort |
securing a future: cree hunters' resistance and flexibility to environmental changes, wemindji, james bay |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10535/7441 |
op_coverage |
North America Canada |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-78.816,-78.816,53.000,53.000) |
geographic |
Canada Wemindji |
geographic_facet |
Canada Wemindji |
genre |
Wemindji James Bay |
genre_facet |
Wemindji James Bay |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10535/7441 Ecology and Society 15 4 December |
_version_ |
1766233818032766976 |