Muskox movements: human-animal entanglements in Northeast Greenland

ABSTRACT

Human and muskox lives in Northeast Greenland are entangled in movement. These movements are mutual; sometimes humans move muskoxen, and other times muskoxen move humans. Showing how the movements are both spatial and conceptual, the article explores four human-muskox movements. “Arrivals and Disappearances” concerns the disappearance of humans and arrival of muskoxen in Northeast Greenland in the nineteenth century. “Expansion” looks at the human exploration and mapping of Northeast Greenland by way of muskoxen. “Extinction” explores translocations of muskoxen owed to the perceived movement of muskox close to extinction. Finally, “Intrusions” looks at the mutual intrusions of Inuit and muskoxen across a legislative remove in Ittoqqortoormiit. These four human-muskox movements show how Northeast Greenland is brought into view as a world of movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Muskoxen
• human-animal entanglements
• movement
• exploration
• colony
• Northeast Greenland

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Danish Arctic Institute for granting access to documents and diaries pertaining to Christian Vibe's muskox translocations, as well as the population of Ittoqqortoormiit for their hospitality during research trips over the past years, and for sharing their own muskox experiences and stories. I am grateful to my collaborators on the Muskox Pathways project: Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen, Kirsten Hastrup, Jens Fog Jensen, and Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, as well as to two anonymous reviewers for their perceptive reading and comments, and to Bryan Hood for a skilled editorial process. They have all helped strengthen this article at various stages along the way.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Gåsefjord and Vestfjord (later called Nertivit Kangersivat and Ugaddi Kangersiva).

2 Later called Immikkeertaata Kangertiva.

3 Save one find of muskox bones in the context of human ruins by Møbjerg (1988) at Sydkap and a skull picked up by Vibe (1967) in Kangerterajiva (Hurry Inlet) in 1964, later archaeological excavations in Kangertittivaq (Sandell and Sandell 1991) have found no evidence to suggest that the humans in the Kangertittivaq Fjord had also lived off muskoxen. The excavation of ruins at Clavering Island, around 500 km north of Kangertittivaq, however, has suggested that humans in Northeast Greenland did indeed occasionally hunt muskoxen, albeit not extensively (Gotfredsen 2010).

4 Koch was accompanied by Aage Bertelsen and Tobias Gabrielsen.

5 They caught ca. 90 polar bears, 30 walruses, 300 Arctic hares, 115 polar foxes, 5 wolves and a number of seals (Amdrup 1913, 244).

6 Twelve grown muskoxen and five calves, hunted on two consecutive days.

7 The word pangneq is also the word used by Padlimiut and Aivilik Inuit in Arctic Canada (Bangsted 1928, 166) and in Greenland (Rink 1887, 79) for “old male caribou”.

8 Sydkap was initially populated by earlier Inuit populations, and again, after Ittoqqortoormiit's establishment by hunting families between the nineteen thirties and fifties in a settlement named Kangertertivarmiit, also called Kangerstua. The settlement remains in seasonal use today.

9 The first of Vibe's failed attempts to translocate muskox was in 1954, when he captured a cow in Ymer Ø. To calm it, Vibe blindfolded the cow during the 15 km walk back to the boat. Thus unable to see, the cow unfortunately hurt its leg stumbling into a large rock. Now unable to walk, the cow was put down (Vibe 1954, 408).

Additional information

Funding

The research project “Muskox Pathways: Resources and Ecologies in Greenland” of which this article is part, is generously funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, Grant Number: 9037-00140B.