White Lies About the Inuit

John Steckley teaches Anthropology at Humber College in Toronto. He is the author of Aboriginal Voices and the Politics of Representation in Canadian Sociology Textbooks (Canadian Scholars' Press) and Words of the Huron (Wilfrid Laurier University Press).

• Chapter 1: Imagining the Inuit Arctic Urban Legends Learning about the Eskimo See You in the Movies "In This Movie, You Will Be an Eskimo" White Lies Not Included The Word Eskimo and Its Meanings Does Eating Raw Mean Eating People Raw? Who Are You Calling Inuit, White Man? Part of a Larger Picture Chapter 2: Four Major White Figures Franz Boas: A Paternalistic Father of Anthropology Stefansson and Jenness: Two Polar Opposites Farley Mowat: Subjective Non-fiction, Essential Truths, or Fxxx the Facts? Conclusion Chapter 3: Fifty-two Words for Snow A Source of Humour: Jokes about Inuit Snow Terms It All Began with Boas Enter Diamond Jenness Benjamin Whorf Downplaying the Number of Inuit Snow Terms: An Ignored Source The Birth of 20 Snow Terms: A Sociological Tradition Since 1968 Numbers Ending with Two: 52, 42, 32, 22 Farley Mowat Takes the Number to an Artistic High: 100 How Do Inuktitut and English Differ in Terms for Snow? English Is Good in the Snow, Too So How Many "Words" Are There for Snow? Seven Primary Terms for Snow Negative Implications of the Inuit Snow Term Cliche Summary Chapter 4: The Myth of the Blond Eskimo The Blond Eskimo: A Popular Figure The Copper Inuit First Contact Lost Races Stefansson Discovers the Blond Eskimo and Finds Funding The Greenland Norse and Their Fate The Blond Eskimo Captures the Literary Imagination Jenness Takes Up the Challenge The Return of the Blond Eskimo Negative Implications of the Blond Eskimo Chapter 5: Elders on Ice A Popular Story: Going with the Floes Why Shouldn't You Believe the Story? When is Abandonment Really Abandonment? The Deep Roots of This Myth: Beginnings as Euthanasia Growing the Myth Altruistic Suicide, Mores, and Cultural Relativism Anthropologists Introduce Environmental Causality Balikci Uses Psychology to Blame the Victim Guemple Uses Anthropology to Blame the Victim Colonial Contact: A Neglected Causality Farley Mowat Popularizes Inuit Elder Abandonment and Suicide Inuit Suicide Today Chapter 6: The Lies Do Not Stand Alone Inuit Snow Terms, Hanunoo Rice Terms, and Nuer Cow Colours The Blond Eskimo: Atlanteans, Welsh Princes, and the Irish Sati The Inuit as a Canadian Construct Best in the Bush  Conclusion Works Cited Index