Snyder, Casting and hauling CASTING AND HAULING IN NUUP KANGERLUA, GREENLAND: SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY FOR A STUDY OF INUIT LIVELIHOODS AND THE BODY HUNTER SNYDER1 A Kalaallit fisher baiting longlines in Nuuk’s municipal workshop. Photographed by author, 2014. Abstract Sensory ethnography has been employed to proffer anthropological understandings that ex- tend beyond the written word, and in many cases, sensory ethnographers have gravitated to- ward the study of both contemporary and traditional livelihoods. Yet ethnographic inquiries made outside of textual forms of representation, inclusive of those concerning livelihoods, are projects that are often contested on epistemological grounds. I will show how sensory ethnography may be understood in relation to longstanding concerns about representing the human body and how it bears in mind this history through its work, despite lacking an explic- it, written corpus to support it. Recognizing and remaining conscious that the topic of represen- tation in anthropology lies atop contested grounds, I suggest that a paradigm shift toward non- textual sensory ethnography tout court is inopportune, especially in relation to the study of livelihoods. By briefly showing that longline fishing practices in Nuup Kangerlua, Greenland 1 ASC Research Fellow, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA;
[email protected] 285 Snyder, Casting and hauling (the Nuuk Fjord), shape and are shaped by complex environmental, political and technologi- cal processes, I seek to problematize the assumption that employing sensory ethnographic methods without the discursive handles of text affords a discernible contribution to the study of livelihoods. Instead, I suggest that sensory ethnography functions productively as a discur- sive project when circumscribed by textual critique, even if the pith of its anthropological representation exists outside of words.