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Franz Boas among the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883-1884: Journals and Letters PDF

331 Pages·1998·16.04 MB·English
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Franz Boas among the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883-1884: Journals and Letters This page intentionally left blank Franz Boas among the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883-1884 JOURNALS AND LETTERS Edited and introduced by Ludger Muller-Wille Translated by William Barr UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com English translation © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 1998 Toronto Buffalo London Franz Boas's original texts and material © American Philosophical Society. Reproduced in translation with permission. First published as Franz Boas. Bei den Inuit in Baffinland 1883-1884. Tagebiicher und Briefe, arranged, edited, and annotated by Ludger Muller-Wille. (Volume 1 of Ethnologische Beitrdge zur Circumpolarforschung, ed. Erich Kasten.) Berlin: Reinhold Schletzer Verlag 1994. English translation published by permission. Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-4150-7 (cloth) Printed on acid-free paper Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Boas, Franz, 1858-1942 Franz Boas among the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883-1884 : journals and letters Translation of: Franz Boas bei den Inuit in Baffinland 1883-1884. Includes index. ISBN 0-8020-4150-7 1. Boas, Franz, 1858-1942 -Journeys - Northwest Territories - Baffin Island. 2. Inuit - Northwest Territories - Baffin Island - Social life and customs. 3. Baffin Island (N.W.T.)-Social life and customs. I. Barr, William. II. Muller-Wille, Ludger, 1944- . III. Title. E99.E7B6598131998 917.19'5042 C98-931821-4 This book has been published with the financial assistance of the Publications Committee, University of Saskatchewan, and the Department of Geography, McGill University. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publish- ing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Contents Foreword ix Preface to the Original German Edition xi Preface to the English Edition xv Introduction: Germans and Inuit on Baffin Island in the 1880s 3 The Simple Relationships between the Land and the People 3 Boas and German Polar Research in the Early 1880s 6 Human Environmental Relations in the Arctic: The Ecological Approach 11 Fieldwork Methods: T am now truly just like a typical Eskimo' 15 Journals and Letters, 1882-1884: The Source Material 18 Transcribing and Editing the Texts 23 Franz Boas and the Inuit Today 27 Abbreviations 29 JOURNALS AND LETTERS (MAY 1882 - SEPTEMBER 1884) 1884) Period of Preparation in Germany, 1882-1883 33 Formulating and Securing the Research Plans 33 The Third German Geographers' Conference in Frankfurt a. M. 37 Logistical Preparations for the Sojourn in the Arctic 38 On Board the Germania from Hamburg to Baffin Island, June-July 1883 45 vi Contents Across the North Sea and the Atlantic 45 Off Greenland 52 In the Drift and Pack Ice off Baffin Island, July-August 1883 55 Reaching K'exerten, Tinixdjuarbing: Meeting the Whalers and Inuit, August-September 1883 71 Winding Down the German Polar Station, K'ingua, September 1883 79 First Boat Trip with the Inuit to the North End of Tinixdjuarbing 79 The Last Days of the German Polar Station 85 At the Scottish Whaling Station at K'exerten and Germanids Departure 90 Late Fall Boat Trips in the Sound, September-October 1883 95 K'exerten 95 Journey to Kingnait Fiord 96 On Board the Catherine: The First Voyage to Naujateling and Milixdjuax 101 Trip to Pangnirtung Fiord 113 Trip to Ujarasugdjuling and Exaluaxdjuin 120 Investigations at K'exerten, October-December 1883 126 Science and Epidemics: Between the Environment and People 126 Geographical Names and Maps: Comprehending the Area 129 Tidal Observations in the Harbour at K'exerten 135 The Inuit's Fall Festival: The Sedna Ritual 137 Discontinuation of the Tidal Observations 138 Sickness and Death among the Inuit 140 Hikes across the Ice: Surveying the K'exerten Archipelago 141 By Dogsled across the Pack Ice 147 Inuit, Igloos, and Dogs: Journeys on the Ice of Tinixdjuarbing, December 1883 - May 1884 150 First Trip to Anarnitung and K'ingua 150 A Bitterly Cold March to K'ingua 152 The First Time in an Inuit Camp: Anarnitung 156 Second Trip to Anarnitung and K'ingua 161 Contents vii K'exerten 167 Third Trip to Anarnitung and K'ingua 170 First Attempt at Crossing the Kingnait-Padli Pass 177 Fourth Trip to Anarnitung and K'ingua 180 Trip to Milixdjuax 186 Second Trip to Naujateling 188 Trip Southeastward to Saumia 192 The First 'White' among the Inuit of Ukiadliving 194 Return Trip to K'exerten 197 Trip to the Northwest to Nettilling Lake 200 Second Attempt at Crossing the Kingnait-Padli Pass 204 Trip to the West Coast of Tinixdjuarbing: Tarrionitung 206 The Last Trip on the Ice of Tinixdjuarbing: Nuvujen 209 K'exerten: Preparations for the Trip to Davis Strait 210 Overland to Davis Strait: From Kingnait to Padli,M ay 1884 215 Along the East Coast of Baffin Island: Survey Trips on the Sea Ice, May-July 1884 221 From Padli to Padloping 221 Northward: From Padloping to Tunirn 225 Establishing the Base Camp at K'ivitung 230 From K'ivitung to Siorartijung 232 The Inuit Settlement of Siorartijung: The Most Northerly Point 238 Southward: Excruciating Sledging on Late-Summer Ice 240 At K'ivitung: Waiting for the Whalers, July-August 1884 246 Completion of the Cartographic Work 246 Ethnographica, Dictionary, and Stories: Last Notes 249 Whalers in Sight 254 Leaving the Inuit and the Arctic, August-September 1884 257 With the Wolf to K'armaxdjuin and St John's 257 On Board the Ardandhu to New York 260 Appendix 1 Dog Names 267 Appendix 2 Names of Ships and Boats 268 viii Contents Glossary 271 English Words 272 Inuktitut Words (Eastern Canadian Arctic) 273 References 277 Index 285 Illustrations and maps follow page 112. Foreword I have always wanted to read my great-grandfather's Baffin Island journals and letters, so it was with enormous excitement and anticipation that I first opened the pages of this translation this past summer. Written more than a century ago, the bulk of Franz Boas's earliest ethnographic writ- ings remained unedited and untranslated until only recently. The publi- cation of Muller-Wille's edited and annotated volume of these texts in German in 1994 was aimed primarily at a German readership in order to reintroduce Boas's work to German scholars after it was banned by the Nazis in the 1930s. Now the translation of this volume into English makes these writings available to a much wider group of interested people. It also makes them available to contemporary Inuit, whose cultural tradi- tions and legacy have always been of vital importance to their present lives. Muller-Wille's skilful arrangement and sensitive editing of the Baffin Island material highlight the rich detail and insight with which Boas wrote about this field experience and its significance for him at the time. Moreover, Muller-Wille's introduction provides an important backdrop for our own appreciation of the original text. It is widely recognized that this trip signalled a crucial turning point for Boas personally, intellectu- ally, and professionally, and that it was the primary context within which he developed his ethnographic field methods and began to articulate the more fundamental philosophical and moral attitudes that would form the core of his mature anthropological viewpoint. Yet until now few of us have had the privilege of reading for ourselves, in Boas's own words, how and under what circumstances this process took place. Boas was a dauntingly prolific writer, and he generated an enormous amount of textual documentation of this trip, including journals, corre-

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In the summer of 1883, Franz Boas, widely regarded as one of the fathers of Inuit anthropology, sailed from Germany to Baffin Island to spend a year among the Inuit of Cumberland Sound. This was his introduction to the Arctic and to anthropological fieldwork. This book presents, for the first time,
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