Résumés
Abstract
A recent study of the wayfinding techniques employed by Inupiat residing in the communities of Barrow, Wainwright, and Anaktuvuk Pass, suggests that the incidence of disorientation episodes has increased in recent decades, despite easier access to maps and compasses and other aids to navigation and wayfinding. A general model, which focuses on the environmental and cognitive sources of disorientation, is introduced to help understand this apparent deterioration in Inupiat travel skills. Some social consequences of disorientation are also discussed, including: (a) the community reaction to individuals who get lost; and (b) resolution of spatial conflicts during group travel. Finally, questions are raised concerning the nature of "traditional knowledge," and its role in the Inupiat wayfinding system.
Résumé
Une récente étude sur les techniques d’orientation utilisées par les Inupiat résidant dans les communautés de Barrow, Wainwright et Anaktuvuk Pass, suggère que les épisodes de désorientation se sont accrus depuis les récentes décennies et ce, malgré l’accès aux cartes, compas, et autres aides pour la navigation et l’orientation. Un modèle général centré sur l’environnement et les sources cognitives de désorientation est présenté afin de comprendre cette apparente détérioration des compétences des Inupiat en matière de voyage. Certaines des conséquences sociales de la désorientation sont aussi discutées, incluant: a) la réaction de la communauté vis-à-vis des individus qui se perdent et b) la résolution de conflits ayant rapport à l’espace durant les voyages en groupe. Finalement, des questions sont soulevées concernant la nature des «savoirs traditionnels» et de leur rôle dans le système d’orientation des Inupiat.
Parties annexes
References
- BOEHM, Christopher, 1999 Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Society, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
- Briggs, Jean L., 1970 Never in Anger, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
- Chance, Norman A., 1966 The Eskimo of North Alaska, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
- Coles, Robert, 1977 Eskimos, Chicanos, Indians. Volume IV of Children of Crisis, Boston, Little, Brown and Company.
- Gubser, Nicholas, J., 1965 The Nunamiut Eskimos: Hunters of Caribou, New Haven, Yale University Press.
- Kroeber, A. L., 1948 Anthropology, New York, Harcourt, Brace, and Company.
- MacDonald, John, 1998 The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore and Legend, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum and Igloolik, The Nunavut Research Institute.
- Nelson, Richard K., 1969 Hunters of the Northern Ice, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
- Sonnenfeld, Joseph, 1994 Way‑keeping, way‑finding, way‑losing: disorientation in a complex environment, in K.E. Foote et al. (eds), Rereading Cultural Geography, Austin, University of Texas Press: 374-86.
- Sonnenfeld, Joseph, Forthcoming Arctic Wayfinders: Inupiat (Eskimo) Travel Behaviours and Travel Environments in Northern Alaska.
- Spencer, Robert F., 1959 The North Alaskan Eskimo: A Study in Ecology and Society, Washington D.C., Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Bulletin 171, U.S.G.P.O.
- TONNIES, Ferdinand, 1963 [1887] Community and Society (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft), translated and edited by Charles P. Loomis, New York, Harper and Row.
- Van Stone, James, W., 1961 Point Hope, An Eskimo Community in Northwest Alaska, Fort Wainwright, Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory, Technical Report 57-22.