Description
Kenn Harper is a historian, writer, and linguist, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and a former member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. From the introduction: "Knud Rasmussen was born in Ilulissat (then called Jakobshavn), Greenland, in 1879. His father was a Danish priest, his mother a housewife of part-Inuit ancestry. Rasmussen grew up as part of an Inuit community, speaking Kalaallisut, a dialect of the widely spread Inuit language, as his mother tongue. He first drove a dog team at the age of eight. During his childhood he revelled in hearing the stories of Inuit Elders, especially about lesser-known groups of Inuit far to the north."
In Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs, Arctic historian Kenn Harper takes readers alongside Knud Rasmussen’s spearheading Fifth Thule Expedition. From 1921 to 1924, Rasmussen trekked across Canada’s Arctic to study Inuit there and record their stories, and perhaps most importantly to him, to immerse himself in their culture and to know them. With the support of his colleagues and Inuit guides, Rasmussen recorded the cultural practices of various Inuit groups, from taboos and shamanism to the introduction of Christianity; traditional stories and practices, and adventures and misadventures that only an Arctic landscape can provide.
Including historic photographs and illustrative maps, this book is a great resource for anyone interested in a momentous journey into Inuit culture.
Includes 8 maps and 66 black and white photos.