Inuit Toponyms, Territory Memory : A Study of the Inuinnait History
This paper studies the geographical dimension of the memory of the Inuit through the oral tradition of the Inuinnait (Copper Eskimo, Canadian Western Central Arctic). It analyses their toponymic system, collected in 1991-1992, in relation with the stories of their oral tradition, collected at three different periods of the 20th century (1914-1916, 1923-1924, 1958). There appears to be a tight link between space and time, as the memory of the Inuinnait articulates places and events. The territory of the stories covers entirely the territory named. However, the spatial distribution of the stories mentioning place names is irregular throughout the whole territory. The spatial dimension is a key element in the constitution of the memory of the Inuit. Some places play a specific role in the history-making process and, as such, they can be identified as « geosymbols », according to geographer Bonnemaison’s terminology. The identification of those geosymbols by the researcher is validated by recent local initiatives regarding the recognition of some places as « heritage sites ».