THE HISTORY OF GREENLAND: VOL. longsince disappeared, so local Greenland 11: 1700 TO 1782. BY FINN GAD.TRANSLATED Eskimos then became the objects of Egede’s BY GORDONc. MWDEN. Montreal: McGill- efforts. Queen’s University Press, 1973. 6 x 91% Gad makes the justifiable claim of having inches, 446 pages, illustrated. $27.60. produced “the first detailed and comprehen- sive narrative on the development of Green- The first volume of Gad‘s History of Green- land . . . even in Danish.” The scope and land covered the period from earliest archae- careful scholarshipevident in this volume ological records to 1700, at the dawn of show how well he has succeeded in his task. Danish-Norwegiancivilization (reviewed in In my review of Volume I, I worried about Arctic, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 245-6). This second historical minutiae which tended to obtrude of four planned volumes on the history of upon an otherwise good tale. I have found Greenland is a translation of highquality Volume I1 equally scholarly, but with amore and of lasting value to English-speaking free-flowing narrative stylewhich will hold northern scholars, the original Danish edition the general reader’s interest withoutdetriment of which appeared in 1969 as Grghlands to historicalaccuracy and scholarship. The Historie ZZ (Copenhagen:NytNordisk result isa happy combination of solid re- Forlag/Arnold Busck, 760 pages). searchand literary style- acombination Volume I1 covers, of course,a shorter which is destined to assure permanent recog- period of time and providesa much more nition of Gad‘s tirelessefforts to present a detailedcoverage than does the previous storyunparalleled in human history: the volume,because of the greater wealth of effects of the impingement of western man available writtenrecords. The history of and his values and attitudes upon an ancient developments in Greenland - actually only civilizationwhich represented theultimate West Greenland-are set out fromthe in human adaptation to nature. In the last earliestbeginnings of recordedDanish- paragraph of the book, much is lost by the Norwegian re-colonization up to the impor- absence of a rendering of one passage from tant Danish reforms of 1781-82. The volume the original Danish text: “The development constitutes a poignant record of Denmark’s in the first 60 years of colonizationmeant connectionwith Greenland: thestory of a therefore that Danish society,in a limited missionary’s zeal in opposition to the selfish way to be sure, began to feel its obligation motives of many northern adventurers, of for the Greenlanders.” (my translation). This battleswith Greenland‘s vigorous climate, is the voice of conscience: the beginning of a and of the starvation, disease, and untold - unique benevolentand protective native often stoically accepted -privations which policy in the North which was to become a were inherent in colonizing frontier areas, model for other northern lands administered especially in the North. It is a story which from southernseats of comfort. Finn Gad is singularly well qualified to tell. In theprocess of translation, sacrifices have His knowledgeof Greenlandic history is based been made which are perhaps unavoidable. uponpainstaking archival researchwhich Little more than two pages of notes on the places him in the category of doyen of Green- source material and just over 80 references landhistorians. Hehas also hadthe ad- at chapter endings are included, whereas the vantage of spending many yearsin Greenland original Danish volume contains 1,328 notes pursuinghis main occupation of teaching, and annotated references spread over100 and as a result has acquired a knowledge of pages. An 11-page general index is an insuf- the language and placewhich has enabled Acient replacement of a34-page index of him to write authoritatively about early de- persons,place names and subjectsin the velopments on the island. Danish edition. My comments in the review Gadrecords the immenseeconomic and of Volume I, therefore, still apply: a scholar social changes which occurred in West Green- desiringoriginal sources must refer to the land until the 1782 reforms: the conflict be- Danishedition forthe most part. Another tweennative Greenland Eskimos andthe shortcoming, repeated in the second volume succession of European exploiterssuperim- of both the English and Danish editions, is posed uponthe persistentmission of the the lack of a good map. Norwegian pastor from Harstad, HansEgede, Theillustqtions are quite representative and hiswife, Giertrud Rasch. Hans Egede of the rather limited available material. The hoped to re-establish contact with the lost Danish edition’s magnificent colour portraits Norse colonies of Greenland and bring them of Ham Egede and his wife Giertrud Rasch, the Christian faith. This mission was to have Jacob Sewerin, andthe Greenlanders Pi3q beenfinanced by trade with the local in- and Qiperoq arereproduced in black-and- habitants.The Norsemen had, of course, white in the English edition, presumably to 220 REVIEWS

realize a saving in printing costs. One won- VanStone brings to thistask wide acquain- ders,however, whether a book costing tance with the literature, both old and new, $27.60 ought not to be freefrom such combinedwith field experience in both economies - especially when the translation Alaska and Canada. His book is intended as costs have been underwritten by the Danish an introduction to Athapaskan ethnography government’s Rask-grsted Fund. The book’s for thebeginning student, bothundergraduate cost will undoubtedly limit its distribution to and graduate, and consequently its emphasis library shelves. At a somewhat lower price, is on general patterns rather than extensive the individual northern scholarcould have ethnographic detail. had the pleasure ofincluding this splendid After a briefintroduction the author volume among his reference works. analysesAthapaskan culture under eight Finn Gad is to be lauded for his continuing chapter headingsfollowed by an appendix, efforts to produce the firstlarge and com- “TheEthnographic Literature and Future prehensive history of Greenland. Praise must ResearchNeeds,” together with selected also go to thetranslator, Gordon C. Bowden, references and suggested future readings, the and to the Englishpublishers, C. Hurst & latter annotated. An index, maps, and a care- Company, for undertaking a projectwhich fully selected group of illustrations - some will benefit all non-Danish-speaking persons old, some recent - complete the volume. In with anorthern interest. Chapter 1, “Natural Environment and Human William G.Mattox Populations,”he points out that since the Athapaskanslacked any tribal organization and resultant tribal consciousness,what emerges is “a cultural continuum carried on ATHAPASKANADAPTATIONS: HUNT- by a series of interlocking groups whose indi- ERS AND FISHERMEN OF THE SUB- vidual lifeways differed in only minor details ARCTICFORESTS. BY JAMESW. from those of theirimmediate neighbors.” VANSTONE.Chicago: Aldine,1974. 5% x FollowingMcClellan, he then attempts to 8% inches, 145pages, maps, tables, and il- resolve the difficulties inherent in contrasting lustrations. $7.50 cloth,$2.95 paper. environments bydividing the territory into fivephysiographic units: Arctic Drainage As JamesVanStone points out in the ap- Lowlands, Cordilleran, Yukon and Kuskok- pendix to his excellent little book Athapaskan wimRiver Basins, Cook InletSusitna River Adaptations, the past fifteen years have wit- Basin, and Copper River Basin.The exploita- nessed a greatupsurge of interest inthe tion of the varying food resources of these cultures of hunters, fishers and gatherers, and areas is discussedin Chapter 2, “TheSub- a consequent rediscovery of the Athapaskans sistenceBase and SettlementPatterns.” In of the American Subarctic. In part this seems thisconnection VanStone makes apoint, to reflect anthropology’s present emphasis on sometimesoverlooked by anthropologists, culturalecology andcultural evolution, as that throughout the boreal forest almost every well as the problems inherent in rapid social foodresource is subject to markedfluctua- change. Quite possibly, also, as this reviewer tions in abundance, both regular and irregu- suspects, it results from the great increase in lar. Using the typology devised by Beardsley numbers of graduate students which occurred et al., the author classifies the community in the nineteenfifties and sixties, andthe patternof the “typical” Northern Athapas- increasingaccessibility of the North as an kans,those of the northern cordilleran and areafor fieldwork. In any event a new northern arcticdrainage lowlands, as “Re- generationof Athapaskanists has already strictedWandering” while the Cook Inlet- published the results of a variety of special- Susitna Riverand Yukon-Kuskokwim groups, ized studies and more are still in manuscript including the Ingalik, Koyukon and Tanana, form. are considered to be “Central Based Wander- Althoughmost students of the Northern ing.” In the opinion of thisreviewer, Van- Athapaskanshave feltthat acertain unity Stone errs includingin the aboriginal pervaded the cultures of the various groups, Koyukon and Tanana in the latter category. this has been more of a gut feeling than a “SocialInstitutions,” the subjectof demonstrablereality. The greatenviron- Chapter 3, permits a greater degree of gener- mental contrasts within the Athapaskan area alization. VanStone believesthat JuneHelm’s and the adaptability of the various groups to conceptsof “regional band,” “local band,” theirrespective ecological niches make any and “task group” (the two latter often indis- general cultural synthesis difficult. As a result tinguishable) are applicable throughout the few scholars have attempted it, and then only area, although the development of thefur at a fairly superficiallevel. Fortunatelg trade tended to obliterate pre-contact group-