'A People of Tractable Conversation': A Reappraisal of Davis's Contribution to Arctic Scholarship (1585-1587)

• Main Authors: Mahieu, Marc-Antoine, Popelard, Mickaël
• Other Authors: Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco), Langues et civilisations à tradition orale (LACITO), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3-Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Équipe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la Grande-Bretagne, l'Irlande et l'Amérique du Nord (ERIBIA), Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU), Frédéric Regard
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: John Davis (English explorer) + Northwest Passage + Arctic pre-ethnography + Davis's wordlist + historical description of the Inuit language; John Davis (explorateur anglais) + Passage du Nord-Ouest + pré-ethnographie arctique + liste de mots de Davis + description historique de la langue inuit; [SHS.HISPHILSO]Humanities and Social Sciences/History; Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences; [SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics; [SHS.LITT]Humanities and Social Sciences/Literature; Arctique*; inuit; Northwest passage; Passage du Nord-Ouest
• Online Access: https://inalco.hal.science/hal-01384539; https://inalco.hal.science/hal-01384539/document; https://inalco.hal.science/hal-01384539/file/Mahieu%20M.-A.%20%26%20Popelard%20M.%20-%20%27A%20People%20of%20Tractable%20Conversation%27.pdf

International audience Compared to other Elizabethan mariners, John Davis has received surprisingly little attention in recent years. This paper aims at suggesting that Davis should be brought back to the center of the narrative, if only to restore some historical balance with Frobisher. We argue that his detached and comparatively unbiased description of the Inuit and (some of) their customs sets him apart from Frobisher. But we also believe that Davis approached their language with remarkable linguistic acuity. One of our main contentions in this paper, which we base on a detailed linguistic analysis of the forty words compiled by Davis, is that the attention he paid to their language provides strong grounds for a revaluation of his role in the history of the quest for the Northwest Passage.