• Research activities
  • Applications géophysiques sur le site de Tayara (KbFk-7)
  • Tiriganniaq Inullu (Fox and Human)
  • Summary of the fieldworks of 2010, by Stéphanie Steelandt
  • Summary of the Fieldworks of 2009, by Andrée-Anne Pharand
  • Summary of the Fieldworks of 2009, by Sarah Aubé-Michaud
• Dessimination of traditional knowledge
• Public presentations
• Publications
• Symposiums and conferences
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
• Media

Activities and broadcast

Tiriganniaq Inullu (Fox and Human)

Hervé Monchot and Daniel Gendron

Until first contact with explorers, whalers and other traders, the Inuit were entirely dependent on wildlife for their survival and food, but also for all the materials to make clothing, tools, weapons, build houses and means of locomotion. Their lives were organized around hunting and the intense relationship they had with the animals has left many traces in the way of being and thinking among Inuit society.

Thus, one can find in the literature, many books and stories about the relationships existing between marine mammals (seals, walrus, whales, polar bears, etc..) or terrestrial mammals (caribou) and Inuit. But what about the relations between the Inuit and the fox, where the foxes as a species is considered marginal or of less importance. Indeed, with the exception of the heyday of the fur trade that began around 1900, foxes were caught with traps made of stone, their flesh generally not consumed by humans, but not lost as it was used as food for the dogs.

This project was initiated with the discovery of a large number of fox remains (close to 2000 fragments), both arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes), retrieved from the Tayara Dorset site near Salluit. This discovery raised many questions, amongst which the inclusion of fox meat in the Dorset diet is a salient point.

Tiriganniaq Inullu will therefore seek to better understand the relationship between foxes and the different groups of Nunavimmiut through time and space. It will include several components:

- A (palaeo)ecological and ethological component: synthesis behaviour and distribution of the different fox species in Nunavik.

- An archaeological component: summary of the various archaeological data, direct data, such as the analysis of fox bones or the analysis of the gnawing marks left on the bones, and indirect, such as the distribution of stone fox traps in the area.

- A historical and modern component, anchored in the project through a questionnaire for the Nunavik Elders. The questionnaire, distributed by the local cultural committees, will serve primarily to collect traditional Inuit knowledge. Strongly inspired by archaeological discoveries, it will confirm or invalidate certain assumptions.

- A final point will be to integrate these results in a continental comparison with other regions, such as the High Arctic, the Western Arctic and Greenland.