Animal Rights, Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic - Hardcover

Wenzel, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802059619 ISBN 13: 9780802059611

Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr, 1991

Synopsis

This analysis of the impact of the ban on seal hunting on Inuit (Eskimo) culture and economy in arctic Canada is written by an anthropologist who spent over 20 years living and working with Inuit. He describes the consequences the ban has had on an industry which came from one of their few natural resources, bringing hardship, distress and instability to an ecologically balanced traditional culture. The study comments on how environmental activity can oppress a whole society, which raises questions about the motives and methods of the animal rights movement to elevate animal rights over human rights.

About this title

Review

'If Inuit have the right to cultural survival - the only alternative to total assimilation into the .southern. Canadian mainstream, then "Animal Rights, Human Rights is a vitally important book. In an era when we, as a country, are trying hard to recognize native rights and distinctiveness, Canadian should acknowledge the impact of the anti-sealing campaign. This book forces you to look the issue straight in the face. It is indeed a question of rights.'

- David E. Pelly - Canadian Geographic

'This book illustrates beautifully the destructive, anti-ecological premises of economics that endanger peoples as well as environments. It also shows how naive, even obtuse, semi-skills of the protectionist lobby can be perverted to harm both the animals they seek to save and the human societies interwoven with them.' - L.R. Taylor - Journal of Animal Ecology

'This book's cogent arguments for human rights, its dispassionate tone, and its conclusions make it vital reading for all who are concerned about the environment, man's role vis-a-vis animals, and the wider implications of animal rights. As powerful, in its own fashion, as Farley Mowat's People of the Deer.' - J.A. Casda - Choice

'"Animal Rights, Human Rights" is much more than a social history - it is a tool for understanding.' - Alan Saunders - Arctic Circle

'This wonderfully focused book would make a fine case study for courses in arctic ethnology, as well as cultural ecology, political geography, and economic anthropology. It should be in the library of every institution with a Canadian Studies program. It is suitable either for graduate students or undergraduates, and the glossary and bibliography are very useful. With 184 pages of text, it can be quickly read, and its subject matter is of value to social scientists and historians in general, not just anthropologists specializing in cultural ecology or economic development.' - Ann McElroy, University of Buffalo - Reviews in Anthropology

'If Inuit have the right to cultural survival - the only alternative to total assimilation into the "southern" Canadian mainstream, then Animal Rights, Human Rights

is a vitally important book. In an era when we, as a country, are trying hard to recognize native rights and distinctiveness, Canadian should acknowledge the impact of the anti-sealing campaign. This book forces you to look the issue straight in the face. It is indeed a question of rights.'

- David E. Pelly - Canadian Geographic

'This book illustrates beautifully the destructive, anti-ecological premises of economics that endanger peoples as well as environments. It also shows how naive, even obtuse, semi-skills of the protectionist lobby can be perverted to harm both the animals they seek to save and the human societies interwoven with them.'

- L.R. Taylor - Journal of Animal Ecology

'This book's cogent arguments for human rights, its dispassionate tone, and its conclusions make it vital reading for all who are concerned about the environment, man's role vis-a-vis animals, and the wider implications of animal rights. As powerful, in its own fashion, as Farley Mowat's People of the Deer.'

- J.A. Casda - Choice

'Animal Rights, Human Rights is much more than a social history - it is a tool for understanding.'

- Alan Saunders - Arctic Circle

'This wonderfully focused book would make a fine case study for courses in arctic ethnology, as well as cultural ecology, political geography, and economic anthropology. It should be in the library of every institution with a Canadian Studies program. It is suitable either for graduate students or undergraduates, and the glossary and bibliography are very useful. With 184 pages of text, it can be quickly read, and its subject matter is of value to social scientists and historians in general, not just anthropologists specializing in cultural ecology or economic development.'

- Ann McElroy, University of Buffalo - Reviews in Anthropology

About the Author

George Wenzel is an anthropologist and geographer who teaches at McGill University, Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802059619
• ISBN 13: 9780802059611
• Binding: Hardcover