Whale Snow: Iñupiat, Climate Change, and Multispecies Resilience in Arctic Alaska

by Chie Sakakibara

As a mythical creature, the whale has been responsible for many transformations in the world. It is an enchanting being that humans have long felt a connection to. In the contemporary environmental imagination, whales are charismatic megafauna feeding our environmentalism and aspirations for a better and more sustainable future.

Using multispecies ethnography, Whale Snow explores how everyday the relatedness of the Iñupiat of Arctic Alaska and the bowhead whale forms and transforms “the human” through their encounters with modernity. Whale Snow shows how the people live in the world that intersects with other beings, how these connections came into being, and, most importantly, how such intimate and intense relations help humans survive the social challenges incurred by climate change. In this time of ecological transition, exploring multispecies relatedness is crucial as it keeps social capacities to adapt relational, elastic, and resilient.

In the Arctic, climate, culture, and human resilience are connected through bowhead whaling. In Whale Snow we see how climate change disrupts this ancient practice and, in the process, affects a vital expression of Indigenous sovereignty. Ultimately, though, this book offers a story of hope grounded in multispecies resilience.
Note: The cover art, x-ray whale, was designed by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson, an Iñupiaq educator, artist, and environmentalist who was born and raised on the North Slope of Alaska. Hopson’s artwork tells many stories, and they often point to a positive reciprocal relationship that goes across the boundary of humans and nonhuman animals.

Genres: Indigenous, Nonfiction, Environment, Science, Animals, Anthropology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Nate Stenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sakakibara’s writing gave me a window into a culture that I otherwise would’ve known nothing about and I am so grateful for it. I enjoyed the complexity of her analysis, and I learned interesting new terms like “cetaciousness” and the “indigenization of Christianity”. Her analysis of interspecies relationships and the adaptation of cultural values to a changing climate were thorough and exciting. It made me want to take a deeper look at my own values and at those of the modern US society I live in.

[Gabby R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only is the topic interesting, but the anthropologist’s writing grabs your attention. It’s clear this anthropologist had good relationships with the community… it comes through not only in methods but also theoretical contributions. I would recommend to anyone interested in extinction studies, climate change, and multispecies research.

[Ian Johnston]

This week has been hell, so I’m really bummed that I couldn’t really dive deep into this book. Of what I did read I really loved tho. I’ve never read such a personal and honest academic text. Her research was so grounded in place and the people around her which made this feel so intimate, and definitely made me rethink how one can (and should) engage in academia. Also loved that this was written by an ex-Oberlin professor, although I really wish I could have taken a class with her. But yeah will definitely be coming back to this!!!

[Josh Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loves this!

[dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an ethnography and solely ethnography then this book was a good read and did a good job at presenting participation observation and field notes.