181
19.3 The Severe Silences of Archaeology
All of these human incremental overlays—from traditional hunting cultures, military investiture commencing with the Vikings, global pollution, a serious tourist
destination, and climate change—pose insoluble questions within the very context
of what it is the human collective aspires to achieve. The creators and managers of
Northeast Greenland National Park clearly try to send a message of protection; of
the lowest possible impact by our species; a clear call for the appreciation of nature.
To a large degree, the message succeeds. But strangely and sadly, nonviolence is not
a uniform code, even within the most iconic patch of twenty-first century ecological
imagination. “Special permission is given to mineral exploration and exploitation.
Limited hunting is permitted for ptarmigan, Arctic foxes, and seals by permanent
staff members of the station. Professional Greenlandic hunters may hunt polar
bears”
20
. These vestiges of an implacable mindset stifle projections into the future;
erase quietude; reverse consistency; underpin the historically persistent lack of
objective standards in the human perceptive or cognitive agency. We lack both the
purity of our idealisms and the constancy of those ethics we pretend to perform in
20 See Greenlandtoday, “Trapping in the National Park,” by Admin, August 15, 2017, http://greenlandtoday.com/trapping-in-the-national-park/?lang=en, Accessed April 7, 2019.
Fig. 19.2 In Prince Christian Sound, Greenland. (Photo © J.G.Morrison)
19.3 The Severe Silences of Archaeology
19.3 The Severe Silences of Archaeology
All of these human incremental overlays—from traditional hunting cultures, military investiture commencing with the Vikings, global pollution, a serious tourist
destination, and climate change—pose insoluble questions within the very context
of what it is the human collective aspires to achieve. The creators and managers of
Northeast Greenland National Park clearly try to send a message of protection; of
the lowest possible impact by our species; a clear call for the appreciation of nature.
To a large degree, the message succeeds. But strangely and sadly, nonviolence is not
a uniform code, even within the most iconic patch of twenty-first century ecological
imagination. “Special permission is given to mineral exploration and exploitation.
Limited hunting is permitted for ptarmigan, Arctic foxes, and seals by permanent
staff members of the station. Professional Greenlandic hunters may hunt polar
bears”
20
. These vestiges of an implacable mindset stifle projections into the future;
erase quietude; reverse consistency; underpin the historically persistent lack of
objective standards in the human perceptive or cognitive agency. We lack both the
purity of our idealisms and the constancy of those ethics we pretend to perform in
20 See Greenlandtoday, “Trapping in the National Park,” by Admin, August 15, 2017, http://greenlandtoday.com/trapping-in-the-national-park/?lang=en, Accessed April 7, 2019.
Fig. 19.2 In Prince Christian Sound, Greenland. (Photo © J.G.Morrison)
19.3 The Severe Silences of Archaeology