"It is windier nowadays" coastal livelihoods and changeable weather in Qeqertarsuaq

Coastal fishermen and whalers on the island of Qeqertarsuaq in Disko Bay, west Greenland, rely on the harvest of marine resources for the continuation of subsistence livelihoods. Over the years, however, Qeqertarsuarmiut have witnessed increasingly stringent whaling quotas and, more recently, a global crisis-narrative about climate change which ignores the reality of coastal livelihoods in the Arctic. In popular debates about whaling, aboriginal subsistence whalers (ASWs) are generally portrayed as 'uncivilised' while the climate crisis-narrative features arctic coastal dwellers as somehow more 'exposed' or 'vulnerable' to environmental fluctuations than the rest of the world. Qeqertarsuarmiut tell a different story about their relationship and ways of engaging with non-human persons (such as winds, sea ice and marine mammals) as these are encountered in the course of seasonal harvesting efforts along the coast and wider bay waters. So while ecological fluctuations have certainly been observed, interactions with a familiar coastal environment continue to foster a relationship that presupposes a sense of patience and flexibility towards shifting sea ice conditions, local weather vagaries and the moods of non- human persons and forces. Coastal dwellers attentiveness towards the liveliness of fiords, mulls and inlets is anchored in stories about both previous encounters, and contemporary experiences, with wilful environmental agents, which reflect an enduring ontology of openness towards the sea. The chapter argues that coastal - as opposed to crisis - narratives about Qeqertarsuarmiut seascape making reflect the complexities of arctic livelihoods in ways that conflict with imposed whaling regulations and the otherwise dominant vocabulary of risk associated with climate change in the Arctic today.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Bear Trap:Reinvestigating a unique stone structure on the northwest tip of the Nuussuaq Peninsula, Greenland

AbstractThe dry-stone structure known as the ‘Bear Trap’ or ‘Bjørnefælden’ in Danish, and ‘Putdlagssuaq’, ‘The Great Trap’ in the local Greenlandic Kalaallisut, is a unique and enigmatic feature on the Arctic landscape of the Nuussuaq peninsula in northwest Greenland. Despite its suggestive name, the intended purpose of the Bear Trap has been the subject of scholarly debate since 1740. Here we present new findings on the Bear Trap, update the archaeological context of the site and its surroundings, and present the first 3D digital reconstruction of the site and its surroundings. In-vestigations of the Bear Trap and its surroundings during summer 2019 revealed previously un-documented graves in the vicinity. Based on the newly discovered graves and the quantitative data extracted from the 3D models we concur with previous scholarly speculations (e.g. Rosenkrantz 1967) that the Bear Trap was possibly used as a grave or possible cenotaph, rather than as a skemma, the typical stone storage structure of the Greenland Norse. In addition, we demonstrate the use of 3D modeling as a means of digitally preserving cultural heritage in a rap-idly changing Arctic and in permitting remote, quantitative analysis of archaeological sites.<br/