Lexington Books
Pages: 128
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-7936-0977-9 • Hardback • June 2023 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
978-1-7936-0978-6 • eBook • June 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Tim Murray holds a PhD and an M.A. in ethnomusicology from the University of Florida, where he is also currently an adjunct professor of music.
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: An Old Tool with a New Purpose
Chapter 1: Ulukhaktok: Historical Background and Cultural Context
Chapter 2: How We Go Here: Metacommunication and the Optics of Productivity
Chapter 3: Drum Dancing, Social Boundaries, and a Strategic End by Tactical Means
Chapter 4: Performing Cultural Productivity and the Adapting Taskscape
Appendix A: Glossary of Inuinnaqtun Terms
References
Murray’s research stands out because he grounds the concept of well-being squarely within cultural practice. The study of well-being among arctic peoples is an increasingly important topic, but the majority of this work attends to documenting “traditional” conceptions of well-being or simply asserts that engaging in “traditional practices” has positive outcomes for Inuit well-being. Murray’s book explores how cultural practices around drum dancing have been actively constructed and adapted to meet Inuit needs within the contemporary community. Murray’s work with drum dancers documents well-being as an active and creative process, in reference but not strict adherence to the values of their grandparents or great-grandparents. His ethnographically rich perspective details the economic, political, and social difficulties younger Inuit face as they try and find their way in a dynamic and uncertain social environment. The result is a work that makes a significant contribution to understanding well-being in the Arctic while documenting important cultural and ethnomusical processes.
— Peter Collings