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George Wenzel, Cultural Ecologist on The Polar Bear, The Seal Campaign and Misrepresentation
About
Cultural Ecologist George Wenzel, PhD, discusses the misrepresentation of the Inuit in the seal campaign by organizations such as Greenpeace. He says the Inuit were a relatively helpless community in these regards and didn’t fully understand the reasons behind the massive collapse of the European sealskin market. He has a lot to say about the two contrasting views of the Inuit world – the southern idea of the relationship between man and animals. The seal controversy, and how it relates to the current polar bear campaign is discussed at length. He speaks about sport hunting and the costs and benefits of selling skins and their value to the Inuit versus southerners. He mentions hunting as a source of real income and the value of a bullet in comparison to a can of pop. He doesn’t not believe that relationships between the Inuit and the land are being changed dramatically by environmental change because he sees the Inuit are highly adaptable. Their adaptability is also translated to the availability of animals, whether it is dictated by government restrictions or migration patterns. He mentions the polar bear controversy and game management. Polar bears as an apex species and image politics in the Arctic are discussed at length. George is glad that polar bears were not "uplisted".
