Inuit, Whaling, and Sustainability

Whales inspire great fascination in the public culture of industrialized nations. Images of majestic and mysterious creatures of the sea, hunted to or nearly to tragic extinction in a emblematic example of human excess, have fueled the economic and cultural power of this century's global movement to end whale hunting. However, this political movement, and the ecological research it initiated, has largely ignored the experience of Native circumpolar communities, whose vast knowledge of whales and…