Whale hunting in Indigenous Arctic cultures

Bowhead whaling has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, from archeology to ethnography to political science. Such research has traced the development and spread of bowhead whaling through the Arctic, the significance of not just the hunt but also the festivals and activities that occur throughout the year, and the battles of whalers to assert their knowledge of the whale and their rights to continue their practices on their own terms. This chapter provides a brief review of the literature on bowhead whaling, and then presents five accounts of Indigenous whaling by Indigenous authors, from two communities in Alaska, one in Chukotka, and one in Nunavut, together with a broader overview of the history of bowhead whaling in Greenland. These accounts, written specifically for this book, demonstrate the vigor of contemporary whaling cultures and the significance that bowhead whaling continues to have for the peoples of Arctic coasts.