The meaning of ice
Subtitle: people and sea ice in three Arctic communities
By: [editors, Shari Fox, Gearheard and seven others]
Publisher: International Polar Institute Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng; iku; kal; ipk
Number of pages: 365
ISBN-13: 9780982170397
Subjects: Eskimos; Social life and customs; Arctic peoples; Inupiat; Polar Eskimos; Sea ice
Other titles: People and sea ice in three Arctic communities
Description: "The Dynamics of Human-Sea Ice Relationships: Comparing Changing Environments in Alaska, Nunavut, and Greenland ... Project summary : This project is also referred to as "Siku-Inuit-Hila" (Sea ice, people, and weather). The research team includes social and physical scientists and members of each community: Barrow (Alaska), Clyde River (Nunavut) and Qaanaaq (Greenland). The project relies heavily on fieldwork conducted by the whole team in each community. Comparisons of sea ice use and changes are the focus of workshops and field excursions. The team will also establish ice monitoring stations, which are monitored by local observers to record the ice growth and melt cycle at key locations for each community. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been thinning, retreating, and changing its patterns of freeze up and break up. For many indigenous communities in the Arctic, sea ice use and human-sea ice relationships that are deeply rooted in time, as well as identity, are being challenged.

There is an urgent need for scientists, decision makers, and others to better understand the human and social dynamics surrounding Arctic sea ice change, what is at stake for coastal communities, and what the responses might be. Using the unique approach of an international, multidisciplinary, and multicultural "sea ice knowledge exchange," the investigators, in partnership with indigenous sea ice experts (hunters and Elders) from three regions of the Arctic (Barrow, Alaska; Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada; and Qaanaaq, Greenland), will conduct a comparative study across these three communities. Bringing together traditional knowledge, science, and methods from social sciences (e.g. interviews; participatory observation) and physical science (e.g. analysis of remote sensing imagery and meteorological data), the research team will examine the following: Characteristics of sea ice and its use by humans, including the role of the human-sea ice relationship in social organization of the three communities ; Changes in human use patterns over time ; Changes to sea ice, with particular attention to the features most crucial for human uses ; Recent human responses to changes in sea ice ; Societal impacts from sea ice changes and human responses ; Implications for future changes, impacts, and adaptation. ..."--from ://nsidc.org/research/projects/Gearheard_Human_Sea_Ice_Relationships.html.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 365).

Text in English; some text also in Inuit and Kalaallisut.
Table of contents: title: Three Arctic communities. Barrow ; Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River) ; Qaanaaq ; Change; title: Home; title: Food; title: Freedom (travel); title: Tools and clothing; title: The language of sea ice; title: About the Siku-Inuit-Hila Project.