Site Damage and the Perception of Change in Northwest Greenland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Accelerating Environmental Change Threats to Cultural Heritage: Serious Challenges, Promising Responses" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological sites in the Qaanaaq region of Northwest Greenland are under a variety of threats related to climate change. In addition to processes observed in other arctic contexts (increased coastal erosion and melting permafrost), the area has seen a dramatic surge in landslides caused by increased precipitation. Assessing damage to cultural heritage and prioritizing mitigation is complicated by access constraints and a lack of systematic survey. In this paper we present initial observations from collaborative work that involved visiting and surveying sites with Elders and hunters who identified them as significant locations under threat. Impacted sites are places where community members or their recent ancestors lived, and remain locations that are actively used as a part of hunting or other activities on the land. We will present some of the patterns of damage observed as a part of this work, and will also discuss the multi-layered reasons they remain relevant and a subject of concern to the community. In particular, we will highlight the continued role that archaeological sites play in how the Inughuit community apprehends and responds to the complexity of environmental changes underway in Northwest Greenland.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Accelerating Environmental Change Threats to Cultural Heritage: Serious Challenges, Promising Responses   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25536