In particular, warmer water temperatures have pushed the animals further north. Thinning sea ice has made camping for the hunt more dangerous. And coastal erosion has pushed Inupiat communities further inland. These changes and others have made whaling more and more challenging. The good news, Sakakibara's research shows, is the Inupiat are working hard to cope with their rapidly changing world. They are adapting traditional stories, changing the timing of their drumming and dancing rituals (by using music to bring the whales to them instead of making music to celebrate a catch), and strengthening their appeals to the spirit of the whales. The Inupiat are also adopting new technologies, such as outboard motors. They have traditionally chased whales in wooden boats that are coated in whale oil and driven by oars and lots of hard work. "Because of where they live, they're used to coping with change and environmental danger," said Robert Rundstrom, who teaches geography and Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. "So they might provide insight into how humans are capable of adapting." And even the Arctic is changing more quickly than other areas, the Inupiat may have lessons that extend beyond their whale-centered lives. "It's both a very focused study on a people and their relationship to whales, but it also has implications for how we understand human-wildlife relationships in drastically changing situations all over the world," Rundstrom told Discovery News. "In mainstream society, we think of ourselves as being very distinct from animals. There's them and there's us...For the Inupiat, for 2,000 years, it's been a wholly different ballgame." Related Links: Get the Wide Angle on Climate Tipping Points |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
