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From the Editor: Hammering Home the Point A Qimuksiqti and Her Dogs: Remembering Siu-Ling Han Gone Without a Trace? Searching for the Origins of Dog Transport in the Archaeological Record Dogs of Knud Rasmussen’s 2nd and 5th Thule Expeditions Psychology of Aboriginality Rabies in Igluliq Media Review: Aboriginal Life as Presented in Art Forms IMHO: This Changes Everything Navigating This Site Index of articles by subject Index of back issues by volume number Search The Fan Hitch Articles to download and print Ordering Ken MacRury's Thesis Our comprehensive list of resources Defining the Inuit Dog Talk to The Fan Hitch The Fan Hitch home page
The Fan Hitch, Journal
of the Inuit Sled Dog, is published four
times a year. It is available at no cost
online at: https://thefanhitch.org.
The Fan Hitch welcomes your letters, stories, comments and suggestions. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication. Contents of The Fan Hitch are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org. This site is dedicated to the Inuit Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. It is also home to The Fan Hitch, Journal of the Inuit Sled Dog. |
From the Editor....
If you have an important point to
make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile
driver.
Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. Sir Winston Churchill Hammering Home the Point In the December 2016 issue of The Fan Hitch, Guvener Isik’s “Bulldog with a Short Snout” related what an aboriginal dog is and isn’t and when an aboriginal dog becomes a cultured breed. Yet I still wonder why some folks, for one reason or another, do not understand or outright refuse to differentiate between the two classifications, instead equating one with the other. In the June issue of The Fan Hitch, Isik presents why he “thinks aboriginal” and why some people cannot or will not. His “Psychology of Aboriginality”, explains what aboriginal-ness means to him. I had to read it several times over in order to get a good grasp of his perspective, and ultimately I agreed. I accept it is pointless to actively campaign to alter the mindset of those who cannot distinguish one dog’s world from another’s. However, I remain compelled to emphasize the version of reality as I and like-minded people see it with the hope that the curious are willing to venture beyond their comfort zone. They can find our alternative views found within nearly twenty years of this journal, including in this issue the articles by Isik, Shari Gearheard’s retrospect of a fellow qimuksiqti who also “gets it”, images of dogs of early in the last century that cannot remotely be equated with those non-indigenous dogs of today’s cultured dog world, a research project on the working dogs of antiquity, and how dogs in remote communities survive in the face of health and a host of other challenges unlike the today’s couch potatoes elsewhere. Perhaps this last incongruity might serve as the most graphic differentiation between the aboriginal and the cultured. Will reaffirming definitions positively affect the outlook for aboriginal landrace dogs in general and Inuit Dogs specifically? I don’t know. But I am convinced it couldn’t hurt, and it just might help resolve the confusion where people, inadvertently or otherwise, equate apples and oranges, thereby perpetuating a myth, a chimera that serves neither side. Wishing you smooth ice and narrow leads, Sue |