Hunters and Herders: Chukchi and Siberian Eskimo Navigation Across Snow and Frozen Sea

Lewis, David H.; George, Mimi

doi:10.1017/s037346330000967x

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In his study of Inuit navigation in Igloolik, MacDonald (1998: 188) states that routes and landmarks are "the very arteries and nodes, the topographical anatomy, through which Inuit comprehend the totality of their land and access its life-giving resources." The importance of trails and routes in different cultures has been stated, among others, by Brody (1981), Lewis (1976Lewis ( , 1994, Lewis and George (1991), and Myers (1986). The Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project (Freeman 1976) and the Nunavut Atlas (Riewe 1992) produced valuable maps showing traditional routes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Routes, trails and tracks: Trail breaking among the Inuit of Igloolik

Aporta

2006

etudinuit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite significant social, economic, and technological changes, travelling remains a significant part of people's lives in the community of Igloolik, in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. When the snow covers the land and the sea ice, travellers start breaking trails, some of which recreate routes that have been used by generations of Inuit. These routes belong to the individual and social memory of the community, and this knowledge affords people safe and reliable travel to hunting and fishing grounds and between communities. This paper analyzes the characteristics of routes traditionally used by the people of Igloolik and explores the differences between land routes and sea-ice routes, the role of the trail breaker, and the characteristics of oral descriptions of routes. Finally, it addresses the issue of how the perception of trails is changing due to generational differences and the use of new transportation technologies. The study of trails and routes reveals some significant features of the Inuit understanding of the Arctic environment, provides an indication of the history of land and sea use in the area, and shows how verbal descriptions of the territory in particular and oral knowledge in general may remain unchanged or with little variation through time.Malgré d’importants changements qui sont survenus dans leur vie aux niveaux social, économique et technologique, voyager à travers leur territoire demeure une activité très importante pour les Inuit qui vivent à Igloolik, au territoire du Nunavut. Lorsque la neige couvre le paysage, incluant la banquise, les voyageurs doivent tracer des sentiers, dont certains recréent des routes déjà utilisées par plusieurs générations d’Inuit. Ces routes sont ancrées dans la mémoire individuelle et collective de la communauté. Cette connaissance permet aux gens de voyager de façon efficace et sécuritaire vers leurs endroits de chasse et de pêche, ainsi qu’entre les différentes communautés des environs. Cet article analyse les différentes caractéristiques des routes traditionnellement utilisées par les gens d’Igloolik. Il explore également les variations qui existent entre les routes qui traversent la terre ferme et celles que l’on retrouve sur la banquise, et examine comment les chasseurs tracent les sentiers sur la neige et décrivent ensuite ces routes à travers la tradition orale. Enfin, l’article considère comment les différences générationnelles et l’introduction de nouvelles technologies reliées à la transportation, ont affecté la façon dont les gens considèrent et utilisent les sentiers à Igloolik. L’étude de leurs sentiers révèle plusieurs aspects de la compréhension qu’ont les Inuit de l’environnement si particulier qu’est l’Arctique. Elle contribue également à la connaissance historique de l’utilisation du territoire, et démontre comment les descriptions orales du territoire et le savoir oral en général, peuvent traverser le temps sans changer de façon significative

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Routes, trails and tracks: Trail breaking among the Inuit of Igloolik

Aporta

2006

etudinuit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If people have such schemata for the environment, they might use schemata for wayfinding and compensate for the lack of information as they do in other domains. There are a lot of anecdotal reports that navigators use such knowledge to compensate for incomplete cognitive maps and inaccurate navigational techniques in featureless natural environments (Gladwin, 1970;Lewis & George, 1991). Knowledge about environmental structure is not limited to featureless environments.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Knowledge and Heuristics for Wayfinding in an Artificial Environment

Murakoshi¹,

Kawai

2000

Environment and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to explore wayfinding behavior in an unfamiliar environment. The participants were 24 university freshmen. The main task was returning to the starting point after an 8-minute walk within complex buildings. The participants were encouraged to use the shortest path possible. A photo memory task, a route memory task, a pointing task and a sketch map of the route were also completed. Wayfinding performance was found to correlate with performances in the sketch map task and the pointing task, and with route scene memory. However, some participants who either drew incomplete sketch maps or had an inaccurate homing vector could also find their way with a minimum of errors. Their verbal explanations of their choices revealed that using route scenes, schema-like knowledge, environmental constraints, and information-seeking heuristics enabled them to find their way in the artificial environment.

show abstract

“…As for the Inuit navigation system, Irwin (1984), and Lewis and George (1991) pointed out that their navigation is car ried out using deer footprints, winds and con stellations as landmarks in bare winter snow fields. Omura (1995) reviewed such case studies and asserted that their orientation is based on a two coordinate-four directions system, which consist of right-left direction and directions of seasonal winds.…”

Section: Communication and Mapping Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of the Spatial Descriptions in Tourist Guidebooks

Suzuki

2003

Geogr. Rev. JPN, Chirigaku Hyoron

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:This study makes comparison of spatial descriptions for navigation between Japan and America from cross-cultural and geographic perspectives , based on 24 tourist guidebooks of four cities in Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo) and the U .S (Boston, New York City). The contents of maps and linguistic information in the guides were quantified and then analyzed . The results indicate that Japanese guidebooks use predominately visual information such as maps , while American guides mainly use linguistic information . Therefore, we can insist that there is a complementary relationship between these modes of spatial information vehicle , language and imagery. The results also demonstrate that a relative frame of reference with landmarks is the most fundamental sentence construction for giving directions . In principle, linguistic informa tion can be used to complement the lack of visual information in describing a given geographic environment, so its use rate increased in relatively unfamiliar environments . However, the contents varied with the environmental characteristics such as the regularity of street pattern . Difference in address systems between two countries also affected the way of sorting the sites , style of maps, and the use frequency rate of linguistic information .

show abstract

Hunters and Herders: Chukchi and Siberian Eskimo Navigation Across Snow and Frozen Sea

Cited by 7 publications

References 2 publications

Routes, trails and tracks: Trail breaking among the Inuit of Igloolik

Routes, trails and tracks: Trail breaking among the Inuit of Igloolik

Use of Knowledge and Heuristics for Wayfinding in an Artificial Environment

A Comparative Study of the Spatial Descriptions in Tourist Guidebooks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About