Histoire environnementale, violence épistémique et contre-récit subalterne. Sur la controverse entourant la chasse au phoque au Canada

Abstract

This article explores the controversy surrounding Canada’s seal hunt and the related “anti-sealing” media campaigns since the 1960s. Based on this case, it proposes to engage in an epistemological and critical reflection on contemporary socio-ecological challenges and human-environmental relationships that require a shift in thinking from the dominant discourses on injunctions to global political actions for “conservation” and “animal welfare”. This reflection is based on the Inuit’s agentivity in this controversy since the moral dimension of the seal hunting issue has contributed to making their voice inaudible and has effectively affected their communities. The subaltern Inuit counter-narrative contributes to grasping the unthought of the dominant discourses in the media sphere and challenges us with regard to the representations of a practice deemed immoral by some, but held as perfectly ethical by others.

Keywords

• colonialism
• environmental history
• seal hunt
• subalternity