Hunters, Predators and Prey Inuit Perceptions of Animals [Hardcover]

Inuit hunting traditions are rich in perceptions, practices and stories relating to animals and human beings. The authors examine key figures such as the raven, an animal that has a central place in Inuit culture as a creator and a trickster, andqupirruit, a category consisting of insects and other small life forms. After these non-social and inedible animals, they discuss the dog, the companion of the hunter, and the fellow hunter, the bear, considered to resemble a human being. A discussion of the renewal of whale hunting accompanies the chapters about animals considered prey par excellence: the caribou, the seals and the whale, symbol of the whole. By giving precedence to Inuit categories such as inua (owner) and tarniq (shade) over European concepts such as spirit and soul, the book compares and contrasts human beings and animals to provide a better understanding of human-animal relationships in a hunting society.

Fr?d?ric Laugrandis Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Universit? Laval and Director of the journalAnthropologie et Soci?t?s. He is the author ofMourir et Rena?tre. La R?ception du Christianisme par les Inuit de lArctique de lEst Canadien(PUL, 2002) andco-author with Jarich Oosten ofInuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the XXth Century(MQUP, 2009),The Ethnographical Recordings of Inuit Oral Traditions by Father Guy. Mary-Rousseli?re(2010),Between Heaven and Earth. The Recollections of Felix Kupak(2012).

Jarich Oosten was Emeritus Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He was author ofThe War of the Gods: The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology(Routledge and Kegan, 1985). He and Fr?d?ric Laugrand co-edited books in three different series at the Nunavut Arctic College. The two co-authoredApostle to the Inuit(University of Toronto Press,l#