Hunters, Predators and Prey: Inuit Perceptions of Animals (Paperback or Softback)

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, and qupirruit, 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.

Frédéric Laugrand is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Université Laval and Director of the journal Anthropologie et Sociétés. He is the author of Mourir et Renaître. La Réception du Christianisme par les Inuit de l’Arctique de l’Est Canadien (PUL, 2002) andco-author with Jarich Oosten of Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the XXth Century (MQUP, 2009), The Ethnographical Recordings of Inuit Oral Traditions by Father Guy. Mary-Rousselière (2010), Between Heaven and Earth. The Recollections of Felix Kupak (2012).

Jarich Oosten (1945-2016) was Emeritus Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He was author of The War of the Gods: The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology (Routledge and Kegan, 1985). He and Frédéric Laugrand co-edited books in three different series at the Nunavut Arctic College. The two co-authored Apostle to the Inuit (University of Toronto Press, 2006), The Sea Woman (Alaska University Press, 2009) and Hardships of the Past: Recollections of Arviat Elders (2011).