Beyond Darkness and Sleep: The Inuit Night in North Baffin Island

Description

This is a place where night is dark, like everywhere else, and bright, like nowhere else. This is a people for whom sleep belongs to nighttime, but who nonetheless favor nocturnal wakefulness. This is a people for whom almost any activity seems more appealing than sleep. This is a people for whom darkness did not mean evil, until the arrival of Christianity. This is a culture which, without totally rejecting binary or dualistic schemes, tends to favor the notion of continuity between events, beings and objects: between night and day, dark and light, dreaming and conscious life. This is a people adept at radical pragmatism. This is a people for whom words have always been powerful. This is a people with a unique experience of “nocturnity.” This book is an invitation to enter the realm of the North Baffin Island Inuit night.