Inuit and Whalers on Baffin Island Through German Eyes Wilhelm Weike's Arctic Journal and Letters (1883–84)

Wilhelm Weike accompanied Franz Boas, the father of modern anthropology, on his journey to the arctic in 1883-84. As servant to Boas he was much closer to the Inuit they met and he carefully recounts the story of their travels and their encounters in his journal and letters. This extraordinary document of early Canadian arctic history provides a plain direct view of the Inuit and the whalers and their arctic environment in the words of a working man. This book contributes key insight during current wave of scientific assessment of Franz Boas "s legacy in all social sciences. In their preface, notes and comments, Ludger M ller-Wille and Bernd Gieseking provide English-speaking readers in North America with invaluable contextual and complementary information.

Ludger Müller-Wille is a retired professor of geography and northern studies at McGill University and the author of Franz Boas with the Inuit of Baffin Island, 1883–1884: Journals and Letters. He has studied ethnicity and human-environmental relations in the arctic and subarctic among the Sámi and Finns, Inuit, Dene, and Naskapi. He lives in Montreal, Canada. Bernd Gieseking is a cabaret artist and author of children's radio plays and theatre plays. He has hosted theatre, radio, and TV shows, including The Annual Satirical Review. William Barr is a research fellow at the Arctic Institute of North America and the author of Arctic Hell-Ship, Arctic Scientist, Gulag Survivor, and Joseph-Elzéar Bernier. He is also the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Historical Association for his contributions to the historiography of the Canadian North. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.