February 7, 2005
-
MONDAY BOOK
Still reading This Cold Heaven by Gretel Ehrlich but nearing the end. She is describing Knud Rasmussen’s “Great Sledge Journey” in 1923-24 at this point. Rasmussen was born in Greenland to an Inuit mother and a Danish father so he spoke the Inuit language fluently. He was the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage by dogsled. He established a base in Thule, Greenland in 1910 and from there tried to visit as many Inuit groups as he could, making sketches and notes and collecting artifacts and legends and songs. See here. When he pulled into Barrow, Alaska in the spring of 1924 having trekked by dogsled all the way from Greenland to Siberia, he proved that there was a circumpolar Arctic Inuit homeland bound by common language, culture, and kinship. But I thought I would regale you today with Ehrlich’s description of the birth of his son along the way:
Sometime during their stay there, Arn [short for Anrakaphaluk] gave birth to a boy fathered by Rasmussen. The two travelers had been together since 1921. It is said that no special house was built for her as her time drew near. She simply kneeled on the platform, supporting herself with one arm and leaning against another woman until the child came out. After, she tied a piece of caribou skin between her legs and rested for a day. During that time she had to wear the hood of her anorak. Knud came in. She immediately leaned over and lit the fire under the cooking pot. Doing so
meant the child would learn to walk quickly.
Rasmussen helped tie the umbilical cord with a piece of braided caribou thong. Then one of the women cut it with her ulo (knife). A bandage of caribou skin was applied. When the end of the navel fell off, it was sewn into his inner coat as an amulet. The ulo with which it was cut was also given to the child and saved.
Arn gave the boy his first “bath” by wiping him with the forehead skin of a caribou, then the soft skin of a northern diver (duck). Before she nursed him, the angakok came and sang a song. Then she gave the child a piece of meat to suck, to ensure that he would never go hungry. It was then time to give the child a name. Rasmussen held the boy up in the air and said, speaking for the boy, “With the strength from the one I have been named after, with strength from the one I have been named after, I who am insignificant myself, may I soon be allowed to hunt.”
On February 15, Arn put the infant in her amaut – the hood on the back of her anorak in which children are carried – stepped onto the sled, and, with Rasmussen and Qav, bade the Eskimos of the Northwest Passage good-bye…..The Greenlanders were about to begin the final stretch of their long journey during which they traced (backwards) the ancient migration route of the Inuit to Alaska. Little did Rasmussen know that the Copper Eskimos represented the last subsistence hunters who were still wild and free.
Those women of the Arctic Circle could seriously keep up. Like someone said, “Ginger Rogers could do everything Fred Astaire could do and she could do it backwards and in high heels.” (And if you know who said that you get a gold star.)
Deep Thought: “Whenever someone asks me to define love, I usually think for a minute, then I spin around and pin the guy’s arm behind his back. Now who’s asking the questions?”
Today I am grateful for: Indoor childbirth
Guess the Movie: “Hell of a situation we got here. Two on, two out, your team down a run and you’ve got the chance to be the hero on national television… if you don’t blow it. Saw your wife last night. Great little dancer. That guy she was with? I’m sure he’s a close personal friend, but tell me, what was he doing with her panties on his head?” Answer: Major League, 1989.
Winner: llcj65.
What’s Up with Everyone Besides Barbara Boxer?
by Simon Floth
Carefully note that by self-evident logic not all the following 4 propositions can be true.
1. As regretted by most Americans and without historical precedent, the US undertook a dubiously provoked unilateral invasion, a determining factor being Rice’s distortion of fact.
2. On an occasion for the express purpose of addressing Rice’s suitability for the role of Secretary of State, Rice is called out on 1 by Boxer.
3. Rice brushes it off as inappropriate impugning of her integrity, correctly anticipating the consensus of politicians and pundits on all sides.
4. The US is a sound democracy. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:13 pm
+ = Good day sunshine.
- = I’m afraid to inspect the Budget Cuts details.
Comments (15)
I’m familiar with the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers quote, but I’ve no idea who said it. Sounds like something Gloria Steinheim (sp!) might have said. It’s amazing that the human race can survive under the conditions noted above. The thought of childbirth is terrifying to me (I never had children), and I would have to say your observation about giving birth indoors is an understatement. <g>
Clue to quote: Texas.
Nope. Still don’t have a clue. LOL
Another clue: Initials A.R.
I’m sure you must be missing your Mom today. Remember the happy times.
One of my favorite books is People of the Deer by Farley Mowat, who also wrote Never Cry Wolf.
I’m putting This Cold Heaven on my reading list.
That “trans-North American link,” like most of what we refuse to know about “pre-Euro” North America, is just more evidence of the high sophistication and success of pre-modern cultures. Despite all recent attempts, we still teach our kids that the only way to success is corporate capitalism, that our economic system somehow represents the pinnacle of human achievement. But I think our schools need to spend far more time letting kids investigate what “success” really means.
I thought about Ann Richards, and I nearly suggested her. What a gal! Did you know she used to be a teacher? I just adored her style. She was a real class act!
What a great clip from the book….interesting rituals–it makes me wonder how they came up with all the symbolic things done at the birth of the child. And what an interesting mixed face the author has with his dual heritage.
Movie – “Major League”?
Found the birthing part to be a sacred-ceremonial thing, interesting. But PLEASE! I have appreciated the modern birthing practices. Who can really define love? I wish we had some more Barbara Boxer’s in this country. Silk? Knowing the true person, the spiders wouldn’t waste their time…
Winners! Ann Richards and Major League both correct. Good going.
silk bugs-or whatever. A.R.-hmmm…Andy Rooney, Ayn Rand, Anne Rice…
Birth on the tundra. Thank God(dess) for caribou skin is about all I kept thinking reading that.
That’s how all childeren are born here in Minnesota.
Now that’s what I call a multi-dimensional post.