Diario ártico: Un año entre los hielos y los inuits (Solvitur ambulando.Clásicos nº 8)

by Josephine Diebitsch-Peary, Ricardo Martínez Llorca (Translator), Javier Cacho Gómez (Contributor)

Uno de los escasos relatos en la historia de la exploración polar protagonizado por una mujer inusual. Cuenta su vida durante el año que pasó en Groenlandia con ocasión de la expedición de 1891 comandada por su marido, Robert Peary, que habría de ser una de las figuras centrales en la pugna ártica. En la bahía McCormick, al norte de la isla, construyen un refugio en madera y allí convive, en duras condiciones, con la población local. Tras el impacto que le provocan sus extrañas costumbres, nuestra dama comparte experiencias con las mujeres inuit, de cuya vida, hábitos y cultura deja registro detallado en estas páginas. Nos habla del cosido y tratamiento de las pieles con las que se visten, de la comida, de la vida familiar en el interior del iglú, de sus desplazamientos en trineo, del emparejamiento o de hábitos terribles como el infanticidio cuando se quedan viudas. Presencia escenas de extrema violencia hacia ellas y hasta un episodio de Pibloktop, o histeria ártica, fenómeno ligado a la dureza de su condición femenina.
Información enormemente valiosa para la incipiente etnología de la época que desconocía la vida cotidiana de las poblaciones aborígenes árticas, pero también asoma en estos diarios el aguijón de la aventura extrema, la observación y registro de la belleza feroz de ese entorno hostil, junto a un plácido canto a la vida al aire libre y el placer de los pequeños detalles. Isabel Coixet se inspiró en esta valerosa mujer para el personaje principal de su película Nadie quiere la noche.

Genres: Travel, History

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1893

About the author

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary (1863-1955) was an American author and arctic explorer.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am smooth-reading this book and Project Gutenberg will publish it pretty soon.

This plain and simple narrative of a year spent by a refined woman in the realm of the dreaded Frost King has been written only after persistent and urgent pressure from friends, by one who shrank from publicity, and who reluctantly yielded to the idea that her experiences might be of interest to others besides her immediate friends.--R. E. PEARY

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 MAY 2022 - written in diary format, this small novel told the story of Admiral and Mrs Peary, who early in their marriage, travelled to Greenland and further into the Arctic Circle. It was a joy to read her adventures - she saw up-close and in-person both a musk ox (and baby) and narwhals; she was quite a shot with a rifle; she wrote wonderfully descriptive scenes of Greenland and its seasons and colors; and, she cared deeply for husband.

Thank you, Dagny, for this great recommendation. And, Thank You, to Cheryl and to Dagny for reading Mrs Peary's Arctic Journal with me.

Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64549

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Arctic Journal. 1892, by Josephine Diebitch-Peary. Mrs. Peary, the young wife of the famous Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary, accompanies her husband on a dangerous, year long expedition to explore northern Greenland. While her husband's expeditionary party treks far off into the interior, the majority of her time is spent alone at camp near a small, remote, previously undiscovered Eskimo community. Her journal, despite being flat, detached and generally poorly written, provides important, never before documented, ethnographic information, specifically the sexual practices {wife swapping, "Eskimo kissing", etc.} of the indigenous Inuit people. Although not widely known contemporarily, on a future expedition her husband fathers a child with an Inuit woman. Perhaps Josephine's fear of her husbands infidelity led her to participate in an expedition that could only promise her hardship and isolation?

[Pippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this absolutely fascinating. Josephine was a brave woman and an interesting one, but she was very prejudiced against the 'Eskimos' (Inuit people) who she dismissed as ignorant savages. The book gives a picture of a complex and interesting woman and her difficult and lonely marriage.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciated the intro and background information. I enjoyed the first-hand account of an experience I myself will never have. But I felt it was a bit lacking, maybe in emotion or description. I also found it odd that in Mr. Peary's section of notes, he didn't refer to his wife as such, but simply "the woman". This may be evidence of him loving exploration more than anyone or anything else.

[Marina Forteza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llegir a través d'aquests diaris les aventures de l'expedició àrtica és un privilegi i un plaer. M'ha fet sentir molt dèbil, jo probablement no hauria sobreviscut ni a la travessia que els va dur fins allà.

[Laranac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante testimonio de una pionera de la exploración así como un revelador retrato antropológico de los inuit.

[Sarada · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a free epub version, I believe from archive.org, which had some formatting issues but was mostly readable and quite enjoyable. It was nice to read a travelogue from a female perspective -- I'm not sure how many Arctic adventure and travel books there are from a female perspective, actually, so this is a great place to start. She talks more about the domestic side of the adventure, of course, since it was 1891-92, and her duties lay mainly in household concerns, but it gives a great insight into everyday life among the people of Greenland. She describes the warm cozy (and smelly) igloos and the ways in which people survived the long, dark winters, in clear and mannerly language. The modern reader may share my regret that the adventuring party shoots and kills pretty much every animal they come across, but of course, that was the only way to survive, and peoples' ideas about man's relationship with nature was a little different back then.