Sakakibara, Chie. (2010). Kiavallakkikput Agviq (Into the Whaling Cycle): Cetaceousness and Climate Change Among the Iñupiat of Arctic Alaska. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(4), 1003-1012.
In this study the author coins the term "cetaceousness" as a hybrid of cetaceous and consciousness, which links human awareness with cetaceans or whales. The bowhead remains central to Inupiat life and culture through the hunting process, the communal distribution of the catch, and associated ceremonials and other events to sustain cultural well-being. The study is based on the author's ethnographic fieldwork in Barrow and Point Hope, Alaska, from 2004 through 2007 on how collective uncertainty about the future of the environment is expressed and managed in Inupiat practices and, by extension, how deeply global warming penetrates the cultural core of their society. Through his findings, the author intends to demonstrate how the Inupiat retain and strengthen their cultural identity to survive unexpected difficulties with an unpredictable environment by reinforcing the relationship with the Whales.
