Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada
For Inuit in the subarctic transition zone of northeastern Canada, an intimate knowledge of the environment and local biodiversity is crucial for successful traditional activities. This study examines what kinds of landscape features and habitats Inuit of Nunatsiavut recognize and name. During inter...
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ftunivtoronto:oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/109944 2023-05-15T15:53:33+02:00 Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada Cuerrier, Alain Clark, Courtenay Dwyer-Samuel, Frdric Rapinski, Michel 2021-07-26 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1807/109944 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjb-2021-0112 unknown University of Toronto 1916-2790 http://hdl.handle.net/1807/109944 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjb-2021-0112 Article Article Post-Print 2021 ftunivtoronto 2022-01-30T18:20:35Z For Inuit in the subarctic transition zone of northeastern Canada, an intimate knowledge of the environment and local biodiversity is crucial for successful traditional activities. This study examines what kinds of landscape features and habitats Inuit of Nunatsiavut recognize and name. During interviews, community members (mostly Elders) were shown photographs from the region, and were asked to describe and name salient types of places in Labrador Inuttitut. The most frequently reported geographical units dealt with the region’s topography (e.g., ‘mountain’, ‘island’, ‘flat-place’), hydrology (e.g., ‘river’, ‘bay’), and superficial characteristics (e.g., ‘bedrock’, ‘permanent snow patch’). Ecological considerations were also prominent, such as plant associations and animal habitats (e.g., ‘shrubby-place’, wetland’, ‘caribou-return-to-place’). Areas were often characterized by a dominant species or substrate type, being named using the plural form of the species/substrate (e.g., napttuk ‘tree’/ napttuit ‘forest’, siugak ‘sand’/siugalak ‘sandy-area’). Some types of places reported by Inuit were significant mainly for traditional activities (e.g., ‘berry-patch’, ‘seal-place’, ‘dry-wood-place’, ‘danger-place’), aiding navigation and resource finding. Integrating Inuit conceptions of ecosystems and their component landscape units with those of contemporary science can improve our understanding of subarctic ecology, benefit climate change adaptation strategies and Inuit language/culture conservation initiatives. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author. Article in Journal/Newspaper caribou inuit Subarctic University of Toronto: Research Repository T-Space Canada River Bay ENVELOPE(-55.881,-55.881,51.600,51.600) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Toronto: Research Repository T-Space |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtoronto |
language |
unknown |
description |
For Inuit in the subarctic transition zone of northeastern Canada, an intimate knowledge of the environment and local biodiversity is crucial for successful traditional activities. This study examines what kinds of landscape features and habitats Inuit of Nunatsiavut recognize and name. During interviews, community members (mostly Elders) were shown photographs from the region, and were asked to describe and name salient types of places in Labrador Inuttitut. The most frequently reported geographical units dealt with the region’s topography (e.g., ‘mountain’, ‘island’, ‘flat-place’), hydrology (e.g., ‘river’, ‘bay’), and superficial characteristics (e.g., ‘bedrock’, ‘permanent snow patch’). Ecological considerations were also prominent, such as plant associations and animal habitats (e.g., ‘shrubby-place’, wetland’, ‘caribou-return-to-place’). Areas were often characterized by a dominant species or substrate type, being named using the plural form of the species/substrate (e.g., napttuk ‘tree’/ napttuit ‘forest’, siugak ‘sand’/siugalak ‘sandy-area’). Some types of places reported by Inuit were significant mainly for traditional activities (e.g., ‘berry-patch’, ‘seal-place’, ‘dry-wood-place’, ‘danger-place’), aiding navigation and resource finding. Integrating Inuit conceptions of ecosystems and their component landscape units with those of contemporary science can improve our understanding of subarctic ecology, benefit climate change adaptation strategies and Inuit language/culture conservation initiatives. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cuerrier, Alain Clark, Courtenay Dwyer-Samuel, Frdric Rapinski, Michel |
spellingShingle |
Cuerrier, Alain Clark, Courtenay Dwyer-Samuel, Frdric Rapinski, Michel Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
author_facet |
Cuerrier, Alain Clark, Courtenay Dwyer-Samuel, Frdric Rapinski, Michel |
author_sort |
Cuerrier, Alain |
title |
Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
title_short |
Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
title_full |
Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada |
title_sort |
nunatsiavut, ‘our beautiful land’: inuit landscape ethnoecology in labrador, canada |
publisher |
University of Toronto |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1807/109944 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjb-2021-0112 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-55.881,-55.881,51.600,51.600) |
geographic |
Canada River Bay |
geographic_facet |
Canada River Bay |
genre |
caribou inuit Subarctic |
genre_facet |
caribou inuit Subarctic |
op_relation |
1916-2790 http://hdl.handle.net/1807/109944 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjb-2021-0112 |
_version_ |
1766388646332596224 |