Muskox multiplications: the becoming of a resource, relations and place in Kangerlussuaq, West Greenland

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the mid-1960s, 27 muskoxen were translocated from Northeast Greenland to Tatsip Ataa near Kangerlussuaq in West Greenland. In just a few decades, these 27 individuals reproduced to become a population of many thousand – now the largest population of muskoxen in Greenland. This article examines human–muskox relations in present-day Kangerlussuaq and Greenland as biosocial multiplications. Muskox–human encounters shape muskoxen as well as human sociality in Kangerlussuaq, and – ultimately – they take part in the shaping of Kangerlussuaq as a place. The article ethnographically unfolds the processes through which muskoxen and humans shape each other and multiply. Diverse relations, meanings, and values come out of muskox–human encounters, and only some result in the muskox becoming a resource, understood as an element that can be utilized in a rational way, where the outcome can be measured in a specific (economic) value. Some of the meanings and values embedded in muskox–human encounters and the relations that come out of them overlap with the notion of resource, while others exceed it. Understanding how muskoxen become a resource, and how they do not, is crucial when wanting to understand human–muskox relations and to manage muskoxen sustainably.