some-eskimo-songs-pages_from_alcheringa_1-1_fall-1970-5.pdf

“Some Eskimo Songs About People & Animals” is a short collection of works describing interactions and dynamics between human beings, as well as between people and animals. The collection first starts with Travel Song which involves a narrator discussing the various terrains they and their group of hunters have crossed and traveled through. They cross mountains, lakes, and islands until they finally arrive at Seal Bay, where they decide to set up a resting site before continuing their hunt.

The next poem in the collection is The old man's song, about his wife. The narrator of this piece discusses a time where his wife saw a face in the black lake water. Now, in the poem, the husband also notices the face for the first time.

Spring fjord is the next piece, and it describes an encounter between a seal and a person out on a kayak at sea. When the seal reveals itself, the narrator doesn't attack but instead leaves the seal alone. This leads the narrator to question why he didn't wish to combat the animal.

The fourth short work in this collection is entitled A woman's song, about men. The storyteller explains that others that know her claim she stole her aunt's husband; however, the narrator claims that is it the husband who is truly at fault in this situation. The narrator knows that she lied in order to steal a man from another woman, but she claim that this kind of lying is what men do best.

The fifth work, titled Song of an old woman, has a question-filled narrator who asks when the surrounding eyes won't see them anymore and describes actions they will take once others stop looking at them.

The last piece in this collection is A man's song, about his daughter. The narrator is asked here if his son is actually a man. The narrator is egged on by those around him to ensure he has a son by using a “sharp prick” to “do the job again.” If this procedure goes according to plan, it'll be just this one occurrence where needing to check the son in this way is necessary.

In Travel Song, there seems to be a connection the narrator makes between migration among lands and how that represents the life of a hunter. The narrator and their band of hunters travel through various lands, and, like their destinations, they have evolved over time. Rather than going towards the bear that they mention in the beginning of the song, the hunters decide to change course, both externally and internally, to find the “blubber beasts” at the Seal Bay.

The old man's song, about his wife seems to be a sort of adding-on to the idea of love being blind. When the woman in this story reveals her true self, it changes the narrator's view of their relationship. This work ends with the narrator questioning who else has possibly seen his wife's true self before him. Even though she reveals herself in this way, the narrator still loves her. Through this line of thinking, though, it could be perceived as the woman being almost property to the narrator, as if the fact that someone else being able to see his wife in this light is unacceptable to him.

Spring fjord is very impactful because it raises the question of if there is really a significant difference between humans and animals. The narrator of the story doesn't desire to attack the seal that shows up near their kayak, making them wonder if they didn't want to hurt the seal because, just like the narrator, it is out in the sea attending to its own work.

A woman's song, about men present a feminist critique on men, examining how men have been given a pass for the foul and wrongful behaviors and tendencies that some of them possess. In this case, the focus of the song is on lying. Not only do men lie, according to the narrator, but people believe these lies more so than the actual truths that women tell. This stems from the inequality that exists between genders.

Song of an old woman beautifully delves into the themes of societal and peer pressure, with the narrator questioning when the surrounding eyes and ears will stop looking at and hearing her so that she can finally be her true self. She wants to have the freedom to change the kinds of food she eats and how she does her hair without fear of judgement from others. This piece wonderfully describes the idea of old age equaling obscurity. The narrator wants to know when people won't notice her and it is implied that her hair, perhaps a representation of her beauty or youth, will have disappeared when this happens.

A man's song, about his daughter describes ideas similar to those found in a woman's song, about men in that it also touches upon societal perceptions and expectations of men. The narrator is driven to find out if he truly has a son because of those around him questioning, in almost a demeaning way, if his child looks like a boy or a brother to his other son. The narrator, as a result of these questionings, will do whatever it takes to make sure that his child is an easily identifiable son, using a “sharp prick” to attain his goal. Also, because the word 'prick' is a slang term for penis, this double entendre highlights the creativity of this song.

All of these works in the collection were written by Inuit peoples who live in the Arctic areas of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. Songs, legends, and drama are an important part of their oral tradition, and none of it was put to writing until Europeans did so in the 1700s and 1800s. The first work in the text is an adaptation of one of these writings by Danish explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen. It is important to note that he was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage using sled dogs, hence the lines in the work, “It was sweaty work, I tell you, helping the dogs.” This being the first work in the series, it also bears mentioning that Rasmussen is known as the “father of Eskimology” because of the journey he took and the work it inspired.

The rest of the works, originally in a collection titled “Poemes Eskimo,” were written in Paris in the year 1958 by Paul Emile Victor, a French ethnologist who was a part of the US Air Forces during the second World War. He also spent fifty years researching the wilds of polar locations on Earth, funding the French Polar Expeditions to help with his documenting. This documenting may have spawned Spring Fjord. Also, after WWII, social change was desired among the people of France. The population of Paris grew, as well. Both of these factors could have fed into the critique on men and gender inequality in works such as A woman's song, about men and A man's song, about his daughter, respectively. Those two effects of the population growth and desire for social change also could have played into the social critiques in Song of an old woman.

Benson, Eugene, and L. Conolly. Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2005.

Field, Edward, and Armand Schwerner. “SOME ESKIMO SONGS ABOUT PEOPLE & ANIMALS.” Alcheringa: Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Dennis Tedlock, Stony Brook Poetics Foundation, 1970, pp. 34–36.

Graham Royde-Smith, John. “World War II - Costs of the War.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Costs-of-the-war. Accessed 6 June 2021.

“Knud Rasmussen | Arctic Thule.” Arctic Thule, www.arcticthule.com/history/knud-rasmussen. Accessed 6 June 2021.

Marie-Françoise Lévy (1998) Television, family and society in France 1949–1968, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 18:2, 199-212, DOI: 10.1080/01439689800260131

McQueen, Paul. “1950s Paris Through the Lenses of Four Photographers.” Culture Trip, 30 Apr. 2017, theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/1950s-paris-through-the-lenses-of-four-photographers.

Reuters. “Paul-Emile Victor, 87, Explorer Who Wrote About Polar Regions.” The New York Times, 9 Mar. 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/03/09/obituaries/paul-emile-victor-87-explorer-who-wrote-about-polar-regions.html.

Page Creator: John Phillips

Contributors: