[Anthropgrad] Wednesday 12 March anthropology seminar

[Melinda Hinkson]

Wednesday 12 March, Anthropology Seminar, 9.30 am Seminar Room A, Coombs
Building
 
Whaling in the Faroes:  Søtur er Sjalvgivin Biti*
Seán Kerins, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
 
This seminar will examine the development, practice and performance of the
grindadráp:  The Faroese common property resource institution for the
management and utilisation of the North Atlantic Long-Finned Pilot Whale
(Globicephalus melas).

Over the past two decades the 1000 year old tradition of Faroese pilot
whaling has come under enormous criticism from a large number of animal
rights and environmental organisations who campaigned to stop Faroese
whaling through an international boycott of Faroese fish and fish products.
The animal rights and environmental organisations claimed: the hunt was
unsustainable; there was no economic need; whaling was sport with the
killing little more than fun; and that a subsistence and modern economy
could not co-exist in one society.
The Faroes with 95.9% of its economy based on commercial fishing was
extremely vulnerable to an international boycott.  A decision needed to be
made by the Faroese whether or not to comply with the threats and stop
whaling.  After a re-evaluation of the grindadráp the Faroese chose not cast
the institution aside but to further refine and develop it so that it
increased its efficiency, data collection and participation of resource
users within decision-making processes.
In this seminar I will set the Faroese institution of the grindadráp within
a broad political, economic, social and ecological framework where I will
examine the institutional performance of the grindadráp through evidence
based research to determine if the grindadráp exhibits the common property
resource design principles, which are considered essential criteria for
sustaining both the resource and the common property resource institution
over time.  
 
*  Søtur er Sjalvgivin Biti is a Faroese proverb, which roughly translates
to English as: ŒSweet is the food one can provide for oneself¹.
 

____________________________________
Melinda Hinkson
School of Archaeology & Anthropology
A.D. Hope Building
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

T: +61 2 6125 8246
F: +61 2 6125 2711
W: http://arts.anu.edu.au/AandA/