Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T02:59:10.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Too Much of a Good Thing: Crises of Glut in the Faroe Islands and Dominica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Jonathan Wylie
Jonathan Wylie
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The question to which this essay is addressed struck me when, having done ethnographic field work in the Faroe Islands, I undertook another stint on Dominica, at the opposite corner of the North Atlantic.1 In the Faroes, I took part in a couple of slaughters of herds of pilot whales. The grindadráp is dramatic, but apart from the inevitable tumult of the slaughter itself, in which romantically inclined observers have been pleased (or horrified) to find Faroese acting like their Viking ancestors, it is a remarkably orderly business. In a Dominican village called Casse, I took part in another great sea hunt, in which shoals of skipjack tuna were caught inshore. Seining bonik, as these fish are called in the French Creole vernacular, is no less dramatic than the grindadráp, if considerably less difficult and dangerous. But particularly in the division of the spoils, bonik seining is disorderly, even chaotic.

Type
Environmental Planning
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , April 1993 , pp. 352 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Annandale, Nelson. 1905. The Faroes and Iceland: Studies in Island Life. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Anon. 1868. “Der Grindefang auf den Faröer-Inseln, von einem Augenzeugen.” Die Gartenlaube 1868, 7:104–7.Google Scholar
Anon. 1878. “Det første ‘Grindebud.’;” Dimmalœtting, 1:29 [20 07 1878].Google Scholar
Anon. 1890. “Færøsk Dans.” Dimmalœtting, 13:38 [20 09 1890].Google Scholar
B[aerentsen], E[nok] D. 1879. “De store Grindeflokke.” Dimmalœtting, 2:44 [1 11 1879].Google Scholar
Bloch, Dorete; Geneviève, Desportes; Kjartan, Hoydal; and Patrick, Jean. 1990. “Pilot Whaling in the Faroe Islands. July 1986–July 1988.“ North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 36–44.Google Scholar
Bloch, Dorete; Kjartan, Hoydal; Jákup, S. Joensen; and Petur, Zachariassen. 1990. “The Faroese Catch of the Long-Finned Pilot Whale. Bias shown of the 280 Year Time-Series.” North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 45–46.Google Scholar
Brend, Arthur. 1927. “The Faroe Whale Hunt,” in George Herbert Harris, The Faroe Islands, 109–15. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers.Google Scholar
Cohen, Anthony, P. 1979. “The Whalsay Croft: Traditional Work and Customary Identity in Modern Times,” in Social Anthropology of Work, Wallman, S., ed., 249–67. London and New York: The Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Anthony, P.. 1985. “Symbolism and Social Change: Matters of Life and Death in Whalsay, Shetland.” Man, 20:2, 307–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debes, Lucas. 1963 [1963]. Fœeroce et Fceroa reserata [etc.]. Copenhagen, Mattias.Jørgensøn. Republished with an introduction by Einar Joensen, Tórshavn: Einars Prent og Forlag, 1963.Google Scholar
Degn, Anton. 1929. Oversigt overfiskeriet og monopolhandelen paa Fœrøerne 1709–1856. Tórshavn: Vardin.Google Scholar
Desportes, Geneviève. 1990. “Pilot Whale Research in the Faroe Islands. Presentation and Preliminary Results.” North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 47–54.Google Scholar
Gaffin, Dennis L. 1987. “Everyday People as Living Legends: The Art of Social Control in a Faeroese Village.” Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Buffalo.Google Scholar
Galvin, Seán Carroll. 1989. “The Many Faces of Satiric Ballads in the Faroe Islands: Identity Formation, National Pride and Charter for Everyday Life.” Doctoral dissertation, Department of Folklore, Indiana University.Google Scholar
Gardner, R. E.; and Tinkler, J. E.. 1977. “Some Normative Aspects of Friendship in Dominica, West Indies: A Preliminary Analysis.” Anthropology, 1:2, 147–57.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1973 [1972]. “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” in The Interpretation of Cultures, 412–53. First published Dœdalus, 101 (winter), 1–37.Google Scholar
Graba, Carl Julien. 1987 [1848; 1830]. “Reise nach Färö,” in Reisen nach Färö, Island, Sibirien, und den Nord-Polarländern, Heinzelman, Fr., ed., vol. 2, pt. 1, 1–64. Leipzig: August Weichert, 1848.Google Scholar
First published as Tagebuch, gefürht aufeiner Reise nach Färö imJahre 1828, Hamburg: Perthes und Veser, 1830.Google Scholar
Republished in Faroese translation, trans. Eydun, Winther, as Dagbók skrivad á einiferd til Føroya í árinum 1828. Tórshavn: Emil Thomsen, 1987.Google Scholar
Hammershaimb, Venceslaus Ulricus, ed. 1969 [1891]. Fœrøsk anthologi, 2 vols., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller (Møller og Thomsen). Facsimile edition, Tórshavn: Hammershaimbsgrunnurin, 1969.Google Scholar
Hastrup, Kirsten. 1990. Nature and Policy in Iceland, 1400–1800: An Anthropological Analysis of History and Mentality. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holm, P. A. 1860. Skildringer og sagn fra Fœrøerne, 2nd ed., expanded. Copenhagen, K. Schønbergs.Google Scholar
Honychurch, Lennox. 1975. The Dominica Story: A History of the Island. Barbados: Letch worth Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Jørgen-Frantz. 1970 [1936]. Fœrøerne, Natur og Folk, 3rd rev. ed. Tórshavn: H. N. Jacobsens Bókahandil.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jákup Sverre; and Petur, Zachariassen. 1982. “Grindatøl 1584–1640 og 1709–1978 (Statistics for Pilot Whale Killing in the Faroe Islands 1584–1640 and 1709–1978).” Fróoskaparrit, 30: 70–102.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1975. Fœøske sluppfiskere: Ethnologisk undersøgelse af en erhvervsgruppes liv. Tórshavn: Føroya Frooskaparfelag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1976. “Pilot Whaling in the Faroe Islands.” Ethnologia Scandinavica 1976,1–42.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1980. Färöisk folkkultur. Lund: LiberLäromedel.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1982. Fiskafólk: Ein lýsing av føroyska húshaldinum í slupptioini. Tórshavn: Føroya Sparikassi.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1987. Fra bonde tilfisker: Studier i overgangen fra bondesamfund tilfiskersamfund på Fœøerne. Tórshavn: Føroya Fornminnisavn.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1988–1989. “At finna ella uppfinna tao føroyska.” Frodskaparrit, 36–37:28–38.Google Scholar
Joensen, Jóan Pauli. 1990. "Faroese Pilot Whaling in the Light of Social and Cultural History.” North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 179–84.Google Scholar
Landt, Jørgen. 1965 [1800]. Forsøg til en Beskrivelse over Fœrøene. Copenhagen: Tikjøbs Forlag. Republished, Tórshavn: Einars Prent og Forlag, 1965.Google Scholar
Muhle, Carl Adolf. 1970 [1844]. Carl Mogensens fœrøeske krønike. Tórshavn: Einars Prent og Forlag. First published, Copenhagen: J. C Salomon, 1844.Google Scholar
Muller, H. C. 1883. “Whale-Fishing in the Faroe Isles,” in Fish and Fisheries: A Selection from the Prize Essays of the International Fisheries Exhibition, Edinburgh, 1882, Herbert, David, ed., 1–15. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwoodand Sons.Google Scholar
Pálsson, Gísli. 1991. Coastal Economics, Cultural Accounts: Human Ecology and Icelandic Discourse. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Olafsson, Árni. 1990. “Faroese Whale and Whaling Policy.” North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 124–9.Google Scholar
Peterson, Poul. 1968. Ein føroysk bygd. Tórshavn: privately published.Google Scholar
Ringel, Gail; and Jonathan, Wylie. 1979. “God's Work: Perceptions of the Environment in Dominica,” in Perceptions of the Environment: A Selection of Interpretive Essays (Caribbean Environment: Environmental Studies, no. 1), Renard, Yves, ed., 39–53. Barbados: Caribbean Conservation Association/Association Caraïbe pour l'Environment/Asociación para la Conservación del Caribe.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1968. Tribesmen. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Kate. n.d. Whales and Whaling in the Faroe Islands. Tórshavn: Department of Fisheries.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Kate. 1990. “Grindadrap. The Discourse of Drama.” North Atlantic Studies, 2:1–2, 196–204.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Kate 1992. “Grindadrap: A Textual History of Whaling Traditions in the Faroe Islands to 1900.” Sydney: Master's Thesis, Department of English, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Svabo, Jens Christian. 1959. Indberetninger fra en rejse i Fœrøe, 1781–1782, Djurhuus, N., ed. Copenhagen: Selskabet til Udgivelse af Faer0ske Kildeskrifter og Studier.Google Scholar
Taylor, Douglas Rae. 1977. Languages of the West Indies. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Thorsteinsson, A. 1986. “Hvussu gamalt er grindadrápio?” Varoin, 53:65–66.Google Scholar
V. Y., 1864. “A Fortnight in Faroe, from Unpublished Journals.” The North British Review, 40 [05 1864], 287–336.Google Scholar
West, John F. 1972. Faroe: The Emergence of a Nation. London and New York: C. Hurst and Co, and Paul S. Eriksson.Google Scholar
Wilson, Peter J. 1974. Crab Antics: The Social Anthropology of English-Speaking Negro Societies of the Caribbean. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Peter J. 1975. Oscar: An Inquiry into the Nature of Sanity. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Wouk, Jonathan. 1965. “Witchcraft and Sorcery in a Dominican Fishing Village.” Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan. 1974. “I'm a Stranger Too: A Study of the Familiar Society of the Faroe Islands.” Doctoral dissertation, Department of Social Relations, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan 1982. “The Sense of Time, the Social Construction of Reality, and the Foundations of Nationhood in Dominica and the Faroe Islands.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24:3, 438–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan 1983. “Ólavsøka, the Faroese National Holiday.” Ethnos, 48:1–2, 26–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan 1987. The Faroe Islands: Interpretations of History. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan 1989a. “The Christmas Meeting in Context: The Construction of Faroese Identity and the Structure of Scandinavian Culture.” North Atlantic Studies, 1:1,5–13.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan 1989b. “The Law of the Streets, the Law of the Courts and the Law of the Sea in a Dominican Fishing Village,” in A Sea of Small Boats, Cordell, John, ed., Cultural Survival Reports, no. 26, 152–176. Cambridge, Mass.: Cultural Survival.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan In press. “The White Man's Book: The Sense of Time, the Social Construetion of Reality, and the Foundations of Nationhood in Dominica and the Faroe Islands,” in Time: Histories and Ethnologies, Hughes, Diane Owen and Trautmann, Thomas R., eds. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Wylie, Jonathan; and David, Margolin. 1981. The Ring of Dancers: Images ofFaroese Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, G. V. C. 1979. From the Vikings to the Reformation: A Chronicle of the Faroe Islands up to 1538. Douglas (Isle of Man): Shearwater Press.Google Scholar