Afterword: Storytelling Animals: Human-Nonhuman Relationships in the Arctic

A common misperception among non-arctic residents is that northern environments are less productive and more hostile to human life than other biomes; after all, it is true that in most arctic regions, traditional agriculture is generally not possible, and species richness is relatively low. Combatting such misperceptions is important because while the past century has foisted many traumatic changes on traditional Inuit lifeways, two of the most pressing relate to the availability of nonhuman-animal resources: climate change, which affects animal habitats and hunters’ ability to travel safely across increasingly volatile ice-and seascapes; and top-down, government regulation of subsistence hunting. Paleoclimatological and zooarchaeological research shows that arctic peoples have long found innovative ways to adapt to past episodes of climate change. Importantly, both cosmological and economic interests of arctic peoples have been addressed and better integrated within new interpretive frameworks that help align past-, present-and future-focused perspectives on vital human-nonhuman trajectories.