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bring readers up to the present with respect to land use planning and theWhile threatened, traditional crafts demonstrate tenacious adaptabil- issues with which itis associated. For those with longer involvements ity. Sections of formica counter tops discarded after installing modern in northern affairs, it brings together a diversity of views of land use sinks are salvaged as scraping boards for cleaning sealskins. We also planning not found elsewhere. learn that extra-soft, creamy-white leather may be produced by smear- The editors have succeeded quite well in elucidating both the devel-ing pelts with “Mr. Clean.” (Ad agencies take note.) opment of land use planning and the issues that are raisedby such an Oakes’s hands-on approach results in some interesting exchanges. initiative. Younger women, she finds, fear that chewing seal hides (to prepare them for kamik production) might damage their teeth. Oakes’sof ause R.J. Payne wringer washing machine to soften soles (a technique she learned from School of Outdoor Recreation a woman from Chesterfield Inlet) is watched with keen interest. Lakehead University Another process developed by her friend in Chesterfield Inlet is Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada revealed with the sympathetic and understated humour that pops up P7B 5EI here and there to brighten what could easily have become a comprehen- sive but lifeless report: Once the skinis pliable she dips it into a bowlof warm water mixed with FACTORS INFLUENCING KAMIK PRODUCTION IN ARCTIC a bitof salt anddish detergent,rubs theskin withlard or goose fat,wraps BAY, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. By JILL E. OAKES. Mercury it in a plastic bag and puts it under a sofa cushion overnight. It is not Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper No. 107. Ottawa: Nation- certain why this is done [p. 341. alMuseums of Canada,1987. 54 p., illus., photos. Softbound. When all is said, making kamiks is hard work-physically difficult, Cdn$4.00. time-consuming and requiring considerable skill. Meanwhile, the hunt- ing culture in which it played such an important role is under siegeby Duringthe recent Canadian International Fur Fair in Montreal, forces still largely beyond Inuit control. In Arctic Bay, for example, fashion writer Iona Monahan wrote an unusually enthusiastic column. The Nanisivick mine ships lead and zinc in early June, six to eight weeks She urged furriers to visit the McCord Museum’s new exhibit: “Ivalu before the ice normally breaks up. Early shipping speeds up theannual -Traditions of Inuit Clothing.” TheInuit, she wrote, “were centuries ice break-up, disrupting floe-edge hunting of nanvhales and seals. . . . ahead in fur and skin design” (Gazette, 26 April 1988). Shortened ice hunting seasons reduce the need for kamiks to protect As examples of Inuit fur savvy, Monahan cites the use of dropped hunters’ feet and reduce the number and variety of skins returned to shoulders and other techniques to move seams away from areas of sewers [p. 461. stress. Designs incorporated natural qualitiesof the fur- head skin for The ability of Inuit across the Arctic to finance their hunting activi- hoods, supple shoulder and back fur to cover human shoulders, rumpsties has, meanwhile, been seriously eroded by the recent collapse of for trousers and tough leg skins to make mitts and boots. Tight stitchingworld markets for sealskins, orchestrated by “animal-rights’’ campaigners. kept out wind and water. Current fashion techniques like the alternationThe future for traditional crafts in this context is uncertain. Oakes of dark and light colours or fur worked in decorative mosaics were notes that in the late 1950s and early 1960s women began using nylon developed by Inuit seamstresses long ago. fabric for the upper portionof kamiks, to reduce their use of sealskins, Jill Oakes’s detailed monograph on skin boot production today in which were then selling for high prices in the international market. The one northern Baffin Island community shows that the survival and drop in prices after the first wave of anti-sealing protests, in 1964, evolution of traditional design and handicraft skills are influenced by a resulted in a return to sealskin uppers for kamiks. Today,“more time complex web of social, economic and environment factors. and materials are used to create exquisitely hand crafted kamiks” (p. The resettlement of Inuit in larger communities thirty years ago and 48). the availability of alternative footwear from the outside have reduced Still, Oakes ends her book with a plea for more research in the fields the need for, and sometimes the suitability of, kamiks. Meanwhile, of Inuit skin preparation, design and construction of all types of skin changing lifestyles and the possibility of wage employment redefine clothing, which “mustbe documented before they are forgotten.” Her the significance of time as a “cost” in the production (and mainte- own contribution to this recording effort willno doubt be appreciated nance) of traditional clothing. In ArcticBay, resettlement marks a clear by ethnologists, northern educators and museum curators, as suggested turning point: in her abstract. Women ten years or olderat the time of this major change in lifestyles, For less specialized readers (like this reviewer), Oakes’s book sug- remain active kamik sewers today. Younger females have grown up withgests a different order of question: are the skills she describes necessari- little interest in kamik productionskills [p. 491. ly doomed to the dustbin of history? The factors at play behind this deceptively simple statement are, as To someone raised close to the Montreal fur-garment manufacturing Oakes shows, often ambiguous. The influenceof Catholic and Angli- industry, Oakes’s description of the knowledge, skill and sensitivity can missions brings skin preparation and sewing to a halt on Sundays.with which Inuit women handle and sew furs sounds a familiar chord. But Christmas and Easter have become occasions for the production Greenlanders are now successfully producing and marketing their own and wearing of new kamiks. More significantly, resettlement changed sealskin garments. With the craft skills that Canadian Inuit women the channels through which skills are transmitted: obviously possess, surely some similar project could be initiated on Traditionally, girls were taught tosew by their mothers or grandmoth- Baffin Island? ers. . . . Steps were demonstrated and handed to the studenttry. When to the student ran into difficulty the teacher would work over the difficult Alan Herscovici portion and pass it back to the student. Consequently,fist kamik the was 856a Bloomfield Avenue made well enough tobe worn. Today, girlsare taught in a course called Outremont, , Canada “Culture” at school. . . . The first pair of kamiks often contain many H2 V 3S6 errors and aregenerally thrown into the garbage. Rarelydoes the student attempt a second pair [p. 471. Oakes has an advantage over earlier observers since she actually POSTGLACIAL VEGETATION OFCANADA. BYJ.C.RITCHIE. New sewed with the women whose skills she documents. Her admiration forYork Cambridge University Press, 1987. 151 p., appendix, refs., their work is apparent when she describes the subtle art of using the index. Hardbound. US$70.00. wearer’s “hand-span” to develop kamik patterns or the painstaking techniques of waterproof stitching. She comments insightfullyon why J.C.Ritchie has, in his usual clear, concise and comprehensive more difficult techniquesare sometimes avoidedby individual sewers. manner, produced a book that will anbe asset for all those involved in REVIEWS I 325

Quaternarypalaeoecology in Canada, and indeed, for many other (arctic). The roles of (including a brief review of the disciplines and areas as well. Only a person of Ritchie’s capabilities Milankovitch model), fire, pathogens and paludification as palaeo- could undertake a project such as the postglacial history of vegetation environmental controls on vegetation history are discussed. The sec- of this large and diverse area and successfully present such a compre- tion “Problems for the Future,” although brief, raises important and hensive review. Prior myto reading this volume,if anyone had claimed significantpoints, and careful reading of thissection will provide that the postglacial vegetation of Canada could be documented in 151 direction and themes for future studies. Ritchie’s cautionary note at the pages, I would not have believed it. Although Ritchie apologizes for end of this section that “the progress of palaeoecology remains depen- not being able to cover all aspects of the postglacial vegetation in dentdetail, on the adequacy of its database” is worth emphasizing. As he he has dealt with most topics at least to the degree that the interested points out, computers and numerical methods cannot replace the long reader can follow up on the subject guided by the many references and careful analyses required for a quality database. An appendix of cited. sites used for modern pollen spectra, an extensive reference list and an Ritchie outlines at the beginning a threefold aim for the book, whichindex round out the book. he then proceeds to accomplish. The first aim, “to assemble informa- The quality of reproduction, especially the figures, is excellent. A tion on the history of the plant cover of Canada for the latestof the part few minor editing errors were noted, but these are too few to detract Quaternary - during and following the most recent major ice age,” isfrom the text. A small point concerning the term Champlain Sea on accomplishedby, if nothingelse, the extensive bibliography. The page 68 should be noted. Champlain Sea was the body of water that second aim, “to search for patterns of vegetation change and to evalu-occupied the depressed Ottawa-St. Lawrence Valley above Quebec ate such alternative explanations of these changes as climatic factors, City following deglaciation. The submerged areaof the St. Lawrence variedrates of species spread from refugia, biological Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence below Quebec City is termed the factors that may have controlled the spread and abundance of species, Goldthwait Sea. soil and geomorphological factors, chance events, and other influenc- Ritchie states that “the book was written for a heterogeneous reader- es,” is achieved to the extent to which the available data allow. A thirdship of fairly broad background,” with his chief aim being “to interest aim,“to expose interesting, useful, and challenging problems in ecologists, physical geographers, geologists, foresters, archaeologists, paleoecology that might be solvedby imaginatively designed searches soil scientists, and historians.” In my opinion, this has been accom- for new data or novel analysesof the existing record,” is addressedby plished,and this book should become a standard reference for all the number and variety of problems that are proposed and discussed. workers grouped together as Quaternarists. It will be a must for stu- The contents are arranged in eight chapters. The introduction acquaintsdents of palaeoecology (despite the fairly high cost), and I have no the reader with the central thrust of the book by refemng to glacial doubt that it will provide more than just “something of interest” to extent, ecological provinces and geographical range mapsof important “the small band of active palaeoecologists” in Canada. floristic elements, plus the terms and abbreviations used throughout the book. R.J. Mott Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the pertinent background information on Geological Survey of Canada the biogeographical setting and autecology and pollen representation, 601 Booth Street some knowledge of which is necessary, especially for readers not Ottawa, Ontario, Canada directly involved in palaeoecological studies. The sections on geology, KIA OE8 physiography and surface materials are minimal, but the reader is referred to other authors for details. Bioclimates are dealt with some- what more extensively, and the figure with climate diagrams surround- CONTEMPORARY INUIT DRAWINGS. ByMARION E. JACKSON and ing the map depicting bioclimatic regions is a particularly useful and JUDITH M. NASBY. Guelph, Ontario: Macdonald Steward Art Centre, concise method of presenting data. Autecologyof selected representa- 1987. 144 p., 12 colour inserts, 96 black and white reproductions. tive taxa and modem pollen rain spectra are also required information Softbound. Cdn$15.00. for both the specialist and the interested reader. The following four chapters deal directly with the fossil record, This volume is a catalogue of an exhibition of drawings, 83 in beginning with the records at sites from full-glacial refugiaof souththe number, by selected contemporary Canadian Inuit artists. Most of the main ice sheets and in Beringia. The fossil record is primarily pollen drawings came from the Omark Collection of InuitArt, though some stratigraphy, not simply because Ritchie is a palynologist, but because were loaned by others. In 1987, the exhibit received the Corporate most of the data are palynological. Where available, Ritchie uses other Award of Merit from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. The types of data, such as plant macrofossil and beetle analyses, to augmentdrawings were selected from archival collections,of which Cape Dor- the pollen results. set alone has 10,OOO (Nasby, Introduction, p. 2). The record for eastern Canada is outlined in Chapter 5, with dia- Twelve drawings are illustrated in colour, representing eleven artists. gramsrepresentative of various areas, followed by thevegetation Of the twelve drawings, seven are untitled, but the catalogue compilers reconstructions proposed by the authors involved. A breakdown into providean exegesis in parenthesis, such as “Standing Woman in lateglacial and Holocene time intervals and smaller geographical Amautiq” or “Fishing Scene.” Three illustrations are numbered by regions allows for a well-organized presentation. plate, the rest apparently by the number in the exhibit itself. The colour A similar format is followed for the western interior (Chapter6), but reproductions are followedby an introduction by JudithM. Nasby and subdivision of this region is based on the modem forest-grassland two articles, “Contemporary Inuit Drawings: Reflections of an Art transition, boreal forest and forest-tundra boundary areas. Descriptions Historian,” by Marion E. Jackson, and “Reflectionsof an Anthropolo- of the Pacific-Cordilleran region (Chapter 7) revert to geographical gist. Inuit Drawings: The Graphics behind the Graphics,” by Nelson areas of North and South Pacific and Cordilleran zones. H.H. Graburn. Beginning with 32,p. all objects in the exhibit are listed In the introduction to Chapter 8 on vegetation reconstruction and and illustrated in black and white, beginning with 3 carved (incised) palaeoenvironments, Ritchie notes two questions that emerge from hisivory, bone, and antler objects (one of each) apparently intended to review: (1) What reconstructions of past vegetation can be made and illustrate Inuit representational traditions in the flat used prior to the with what degrees of certainty?(2) What palaeoenvironmental changes introduction in the late 1940s of drawing on paper. The artists are can be inferred from the record? Answering such questions is the identified by gender - “male,” “female” - and by age (birthdates ultimate raison dttre forpalaeoecologists, andthis final chapter address- when known are given). The accompanying captions contain informa- es these questions in discussionsof the origins and history of the major tion on the artist and thematic content and supplemented by the cura- Canadianvegetation regions: the eastern temperate forests, boreal tors’ instructions to the viewer how and what to see in any given forest,grasslands and parklands, Pacific-Cordilleran complex, and drawing. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the impact of an outsider’s activity