Preview

White Lies About The Inuit Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
588 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
White Lies About The Inuit Summary
Steckley, J. (2008). White Lies about the Inuit (p. 168). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

In White Lies about the Inuit, John Steckley attempts to dismantle many popular “lies” about the Inuit by examining their sources in both academia and in pop culture (Steckley, 2008). Why is he qualified to write this book? Steckley, who holds a PhD in education from the University of Toronto, is also the last known speaker of the Huron language (Goddard, 2010). He is clearly an eminent scholar who has spent his life studying indigenous people and their cultures in order to preserve them for the future.
However, White Lies about the Inuit is no dry textbook or dictionary. Even its title is playful and provocative, because it incorporates two important

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fishing at the Stone Weir is a short documentary that focus on an Inuit about Netsilik Eskimo, People of the Seal. The documentary was made by the Education Development Center of U.S.A and National Film Board of Canada. Do note that this documentary is a bit of a reconstruction of the nomadic culture as it is not commonly practice. The documentary is about the daily life of this small group of Netsilik people, an arctic hunter-gatherer culture, who are spending their time fishing by a river. The main goal of this paper is to study this group interaction, how the group’s gender roles, the organization of the society, the tool that they use, and trying to understand their language.…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Innu lives on the mountainous Eastern Coast of Canada and live in the same latitude and have the same climate zones.On the other hand the Inuit live in the northwestern coast of Canada. The second thing that the Inuit and Innu have in common is that they both have coats made of animal skin and they both suit each other’s survival needs. The next thing that the Innu and Inuit have in common is that they both have myths and legends about how certain things came to be, the Inuit have a myth about how the stars are in the sky, The Innu have a myth about how they are allowed to hunt and who gave them permission. Lastly, the last thing that the Innu and the Inuit have in common that I will talk about is how the Inuit and Innu’s traditional shelters suit their survival needs. The Inuit have a commonly known house that is called and igloo. The igloo is built from bricks of compacted snow built on top of each other. The Innu have a type of house that is a lodge that is built partially under ground both of these houses are built warm enough so they can stay warm at night. In conclusion, you can see that the Innu and the Innu have many…

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kehoe, Alice Beck. North American Indians: A Comprehensive Account. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981. Print.…

    • 1790 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Vinland Saga's

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Bibliography: Sigurdsson, Gísli. "Eirik the Red 's Saga." In The Vinland Sagas. Translated by Keneva Kunz London: Penguin, 2008. 23-51. Sigurdsson, Gísli. "The Saga of the Greenlanders ." In The Vinland Sagas. Translated by Keneva Kunz London: Penguin, 2008. 1-23.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The use of essence and shadow was discussed in the oral. These opposites were used to emphasize the contrast between white and Eskimo culture. This idea is highlighted…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Inuit people live in the harsh conditions of the Arctic region of North America. Once referred to commonly as “Eskimos,” Inuit’s are spread out in different regions across the Arctic. As a foraging culture, the Inuit’s live and operate in wide range of terrains as they forage and hunt. This paper will explore the traditional kinship systems of the Inuit people and contrast them with similar systems used by the American Culture.…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Igloos Research Paper

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Not many people know how igloos have changed, but they have changed in many ways. For example, the word ‘igloo’ originates from the Inuit word ‘iglu’. Also, the large knifes the Eskimos use were originally made from bone, but as traders came in they got iron ones. Igloos were once used all the time by the Inuit as temporary homes to follow herds of animals, and they still are! But now, the women and children don’t have to live in igloos while the men are out hunting. Instead, they live in villages.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Inuit Culture Research Paper

    • 2440 Words
    • 10 Pages

    This research paper examines the influence the Moravian missionaries had on the Inuit culture. The main goal for the Moravian missionaries was to spread Christianity among the Inuit in Labrador. Over the course of the past two hundred years the missionaries succeeded in doing so. They helped improve the Inuit culture from all the hardships that was faced because mainly of the land in Labrador. This paper includes a lot of history about the Moravian missionaries because they are the ones who introduced a new way of life for the Labrador Inuit and besides archaeologists- they are the ones who documented much of the history about the Labrador Inuit.…

    • 2440 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Inuit Youth Suicide

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages

    He conducts his research through ethnographic fieldwork from 2004-2005, which includes 27 interviews with Inuit between the ages of 17 and 61. Overall he states that the rapid culture change in Inuit society has left the colony destabilized within their kinship social organization which leads to high suicides rates in male youth. The Inuit people had to assimilate to a totally different social structure when the government began to control their region in the 1950’s. The forced colonialism inevitably ruined the kinship and social structure of the community. This newly unstable society has greatly affected the modern day Inuit…

    • 1824 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vanishing Indian Summary

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This idea “Vanishing Indian” became an important part of the creation of Canada. For instance, there was a false notion about ‘vanishing Indian’. This created image among many peoples that Indigenous community population…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inuit Culture In Canada

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Inuit culture is so incredibly rich and important to Canadian heritage, but is one of the most threatened cultures in Canada. Threatened by things such as corporate greed, assimilation, and global warming, Our Inuit population is at risk of losing their culture. This is why I decided to do my project on them. I personally believe that Canada has a lot to learn from the Inuit people but we may never get the chance if their dwindling culture is lost. The Inuit culture, like many native cultures, is one of peace and respect for the Earth. Which is something that I believe is lacking in our world. The Inuit people are being forced to stop eating the diet that they have grown accustomed to for over 10,000 years. As a country we are destroying the…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ancient Thule Culture

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this research paper you will learn more about “the descendants of the ancient Thule culture,” (Netsilik, N.D) the Eskimo clan Netsilik. The indigenous culture that is the Netsilik, reside “North of Hudson Bay, especially from Committee Bay in the east to Victoria Strait in the west, north to Bellot Strait, and south to Garry Lake” (Netsilik, N.D), just above the Arctic circle. They call themselves the Netsilik or “people of the seal” because of their unusual diet. “The winter months for the Netsilik people starts in September and last right up until June, during these months the temperatures can range anywhere from 30-50 degrees below 0” (Young, 1970). During the 2-3 months of warmer weather, “the summer tundra remains wet, since permafrost…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender Roles in Canada

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender roles within society have changed continuously over time, and with the use of primary sources, it can be seen first-hand what it was like during the time in which it was written. In the source, “Parallel Qualities of the Sexes,” the opinion of one writer is seen through the poem. Because this is just one person’s opinion, it is important to determine whether or not the statements made are truthful to the time period in which it was written. There are a number of questions to be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not a source is or is not credible, such as the gender of the writer, who the audience is, and what can be presumed about the author through the work itself. The credibility of the source then relies on the truthfulness of the content compared to the history of the time period when it was written. The author shows that there is a definite separation between the sexes, but that each has their own important qualities. Looking at facts from History of the Canadian Peoples will help determine whether or not the assumptions made within the work are truthful or not. Although the small amounts of information provided match with historical facts, the source, “Parallel Qualities of the Sexes,” does not prove to be entirely reliable, due to a lack of elaboration on the subject matter, leaving it open to anyone’s own opinion.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When most of us that live in the United States especially those of us who live in the lower forty-eight things about Native Alaskans we think of the term Eskimos a term most of us learned about from watching movies that were made in Hollywood. This assumption, however, is most likely wrong due to a lack of education or cultural awareness on our part. The Native Alaskan people are divided into distinct cultures. These cultures speak eleven different languages with twenty-two separate dialects (Alaska Native Heritage Center, 2011). Many of us assume that the Native Alaskans and Native American share a common or at least similar culture but that can also not be further from the truth. The truth is that they historically…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anthropology, or the study of human beings, often references the cultures of indigenous or extinct peoples. However, Zebedee Nungak comically reverses this stereotypical role by studying white people from the perspective of an inuit. He makes bold, cynical comments on our society albeit in a humorous way. Though a bit harsh at times, I feel as though Nungak makes many valid points on white culture.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays