Smilla s Sense of Snow Research Report

8/3/2019 Smilla s Sense of Snow Research Report

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/smilla-s-sense-of-snow-research-report 1/13

Balman 1

Annotated Fact List

1. Greenland: Location

The largest island in the world (more than three times the size of Texas and spanning four timezones), Greenland is located on the continent of North America (Arctic Region) between Canadaand Iceland. Approximately 81% of the island is ice-capped leaving only less than 411 thousandsquare kilometers out of well over two-million, ice-free. The capital of Greenland is Nuuk (Godthåb in Danish) (“Greenland”). “Many of the Eskimo (Inuit) people survive by hunting andfishing and are struggling as fish stocks become depleted. The island’s population is only 57,000.Inhabitants face severe social problems, notably unemployment, alcoholism and HIV/Aids” (BBC News “Regions”).

2. Denmark: Location

Located on the Jutland Peninsula, Demark shares approximately half of the peninsula withGermany in an area that is less than twice the size of Massachusetts including the major islands

of Sjaelland and Fyn. Denmark is also bordered by Sweden, which lies directly to Denmark ’seast, and Norway, which lies directly to Denmark ’s north and separated by the Baltic Sea, theSkagerrak Straight, and The Kattegat Bay respectively. The capitol of Denmark, Copenhagen, islocated on the Sjaelland Island (“Denmark ”).

3. Greenland Colonized

In 982, “Greenland [is] discovered by the Norwegian Erik the Red, who had been banished fromIceland. He returns to Iceland in 985 and calls his discovery “Greenland” to make it moreattractive. In 986 he returns to Greenland with settlers. Fourteen years later, “Leif Eriksson, theson of Erik the Red, departs from Greenland on the last stage of a voyage which is to take him to

the north-east coast of North America, 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Christianity [is]established in Greenland (BBC News “Timeline”).

4. Greenland Colonized — Again

“Modern colonization was begun (1721) by the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede. Danishtrading posts were established shortly afterward, and colonization was furthered by deportingundesirable subjects to Greenland. Soon, the native Greenlanders began to suffer fromEuropean diseases; tuberculosis remained a problem into the 1960s. In 1814, with the Treaty of Kiel, Denmark retained Greenland and other Atlantic possessions when Norway was ceded toSweden, which, for strategic reasons, was interested in control of the Scandinavian peninsula

but not in overseas commitments of the outlying Norwegian possessions” (“Greenland”).

5. Greenland Isolated

In 1721, “[t]he Danes closed Greenland to foreigners, and the Greenlanders remained isolated,with much inter-marriage between the two populations, and the gradual erosion of traditionalInuit culture. After coming under AMERICAN protection in the 1940s, the island became anintegral part of Denmark in 1953 but was granted home rule in 1979. This, however, has not

http://www.credoreference.com.library.esc.edu/entry.do?id=8288465








Balman 2

resolved many concerns of the Green-landers. They remain dependent on Denmark for mostgovernment income, and Danes control much of the economy. Inuit-speaking teachers arescarce, and the Inuit language has suffered in consequence, although Inuit culture remains verystrong. Employment opportunities remain limited, and the USA has failed to remove militarybases, showing the limits of autonomy” (“Greenlanders”).

6. Greenland Exploited

“In the 19th and 20th cent., Greenland was explored and mapped by numerous arctic explorers.In World War II, after the German occupation (1940) of Denmark, the United States invokedthe Monroe Doctrine for Greenland and reached an agreement (1941) with the Danish ministerat Washington that permitted the establishment of U.S. military bases and meteorologicalstations. A Danish-American agreement for the common defense of Greenland was signed in1951, and U.S. bases were retained, notably at Thule. Thule is now the sole remaining U.S.military base in Greenland” (“Greenland,” Weigert). “Dozens of Inuit families were forced off their lands in 1953 to allow expansion at the base. Many Greenlanders would like to see it

closed down. Others see economic reasons for keeping it” (BBC News “Regions”)

7. Why Thule?

According to the United States, “Construction of a worldwide system of modern air bases wasone of the Air Forces most important tasks following World War II. The US studied thepossibility of establishing a major operating base in Greenland when it became clear that roundtrip flights of planes carrying atomic bombs between US or Canadian bases and Europeanobjectives were impractical. The shortest route from the US to the Soviet Union’s mostimportant industrial areas was over the North Pole, and Thule is at the precise midpointbetween Moscow and New York. Thule became a key point in the whole American militarystrategy. Strategic Air Command bombers flying over the Arctic presented less risk of earlywarning than using bases in England. Defensively, Thule could serve as a base for interceptingbomber attacks along the northeastern approaches to Canada and the US” (28).

8. Greenland Free?

“In 1953 Denmark passed a new constitution that made Greenland a county within Denmark.This resolution was not mentioned in the constitution itself, but it was made clear in the previousdebate and in a referendum in Denmark — not in Greenland — that the colonial status of Greenland had formally ended. In fact, no real change occurred, as Denmark for a long timeadministered the common human rights or civil rights in Greenland and continued to governGreenland with the same civil servants and the same administrative body as before. The speeches

given on the constitution day in Greenland were formulated with enthusiasm, but did not expressmany of the realities, and might be regarded as a mental reaction to the end of the colonial state” (Petersen 120).







Balman 3

9. Greenland “Danized”

“The political consequences of this official situation [the promotion of Greenland from colony tocountry] were that a modernization of Greenland began, bringing about improvements in anumber of areas. There was a campaign to reduce tuberculosis, the leading cause of death at the

time, and the school system was reorganized and separated from the church. Many Danishteachers were engaged, and they introduced Danish-style schooling for children who weremainly monolingual Greenlandic speakers. Greenlandic was retained as a subject in the schools,however. The housing program resulted in modernization of many dwellings, concentrating inthe West Greenlandic open water area, in the towns where industrialization of the economy hadbegun. National economic evaluations entered Greenland. The so-called “Danization” periodbegan. This was regarded as a consequence of the change from colonial state to a so-called equalstate, but in some way it was also a response to the Greenlandic political wishes of the timebetween 1945 and 1950 (Sorensen 1983:1215 f)” (Petersen 120-121).

10. Green Discrimination

“Together with the end of the formal colonial state, the reservation status of Greenland ceased,but modernization made Greenland economically more dependent on Denmark than ever. TheDanish staff in administration, and not least in education, introduced Danish ideas concerningeconomic activities and organization. The means of attracting Danish staff to Greenland wereeconomic, housing, and social privileges. This created a really visible discrimination betweencolleagues according to their Danish or Greenlandic origin.”

“In the next decade the justification of Danish privileges was expressed in other idioms. It wascommonly said that any Dane working in Greenland “had come in order to help theGreenlanders. It was an old idea of the colonial civil servants that they had to do tasks which“the Greenlanders” could not manage for themselves.”

“The indicated privileges at the beginning were higher wages, almost a certainty of a superiorposition, and guaranteed housing, either free or very cheap. In the midst of the 1960s, this kindof discrimination was legalized by passing the “birthplace-criterion” in the Greenland CivilServants Act, according to which civil servants born in Greenland would be in receipt of only85% of the Danish basic salary. With further advantages for the imported civil servants, thedifferences grew and of course affected wage earners at all levels” (Petersen 121).

“This kind of discrimination disappeared almost totally from Greenland about 1990. Only theDanish Ministry of Administration of Justice still practices it in Greenland” (Petersen 122).

11. Mental Colonialism?

“In connection with economic and social problems, it is often omitted that the colonial poweritself created several problems. It exported its own values, its own knowledge, religion, andorganizational system, which in the colonized area effected a dissolution of the originalindigenous norms. These new values need not be bad in themselves but their impact on thesocial, economic, and intellectual systems-not least the religious ones-might well create severalproblems of their own. Many colonial powers introduced specific cultural ideas as if they were



Balman 4

universal values” (Petersen 122).

12. Greenland Autonomous?

In 1979, “Greenland attains home rule following a referendum. The parliament decides upon and

administers internal matters, but Denmark retains control over constitutional affairs, foreignrelations and defence [sic].” In 1982, “Greenlanders vote to leave the European Community — thewithdrawal is completed in 1985.” In November of 2008, “Greenlanders vote in referendum formore autonomy, greater control over energy resources and granting Kalaallisut or WesternGreenlandic status of official language in place of Danish” (BBC News “Timeline”). “Denmark,however, continues to exercise control of Greenland’s foreign affairs, security, and financialpolicy in consultation with Greenland’s Home Rule Government” (“Greenland” CIA…).

Furthermore, Greenland’s “economy remains critically dependent on exports of shrimp and fishand on a substantial subsidy - about $700 million in 2008-09 - from the Danish Government,which supplies about 60% of government revenues” (“Greenland” CIA…).

13. Inuit Migration

According to United States history, “[i]n the spring of 1953 the Greenlandic Village of Thule,located at the base of Mt Dundas, was moved 65 miles north to Quaanaaq, on Red Cliff Peninsula. The Inuits said that the noise and smells from the planes and ships frightened awaythe walruses, seals, polar bears, and birds essential to their cultural survival. They moved so thathunting and fishing could continue without disturbances from the activities of the modern airbase. Before the air base at Thule was built, the Inuits used the top of Mt Dundas as a burialground. The remains of the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933) lie there. Upondeparting, the people of Thule demanded they take the name with them. The settlement remainedbut adopted the name Dundas, taken from the nearby mountain. In 1985, Dundas Village, at thebase of Mt Dundas, closed down” (United States 31)

14. Inuit Reparations?

In 1999, the “Danish High Court rules that Inuit were illegally exiled from their land in northernGreenland in 1953, but denies them right of return.” In 2003, the “Danish Supreme Court rejectsInuit appeal against 1999 ruling denying them right of return to ancestral lands in northernGreenland” (BBC News “Timeline”).

15. What is a Greenlander? A Danish Perspective

According to Madsen and Sullivan, “[t]o most Danes, being Greenlandic means having serious

social and substance abuse problems, and to some it even means coming from a backwardculture… So what do Danes envision when they think of Greenlanders? Perhaps they may recallwhat is most publicly visible – the socially excluded Greenlanders of Vesterbro Torv orChristiania, a counter-culture commune in the heart of Copenhagen where hash is openly sold.They are often homeless and flagrantly drunk, contrasting sharply with a relatively reservedDanish culture…

Actually, according to recent studies, the destitute Greenlanders only constitute approximately



Balman 5

10% of the Greenlandic population in Denmark. Thus the vast majority of Greenlanders,estimated to be between 7,000-9,000, lead lives similar to that of any other Dane but have tonevertheless reckon with a both unfair and misrepresentative stereotype of indigence. It isexactly this stereotype that Helene Risager, Information Manager of Copenhagen’s GreenlandicHouse, bemoans when she relates her experiences at social functions: ’They say ‘Oh, you don’t

look like a Greenlander,’ and they mean it like a compliment, but if they saw me with a beer inmy hand they would say that I look like a Greenlander.’” (“Image and Reality”).

16. Greenlandic Culture in Denmark

“There is a recurrent tension that haunts every aspect of the Greenlandic experience in Denmark.It is the unsettling decision of whether to move forward and westernize or to “stay behind” andkeep one’s tradition alive. Some have described it as a pendulum, while others have described itas a battle of history versus progress. There is sometimes the latent fear that if Greenlandersenmesh themselves too much into Danish society then Greenland per se diminishes its chances of ever becoming its own nation-state” (Madsen and Sullivan “Cultural Differences: Barriers orDoors”).

17. The Danish Greenlander

“Most Greenlanders, especially the ones residing in Denmark, have two identities… [and] [t]he

ability to make something positive of both identities correlates strongly to a high level of confidence in each. Kurt Olsen, head of department at Kofoeds Skole, a shelter and educationalinstitution for marginalized groups in Copenhagen, has extensive knowledge of the problems thatcan arise when such a level of confidence is lacking. He posits, ‘development towards being awhole person can first take place when they have grown confident enough of themselves and of their own culture – when they have accepted their own Greenlandic identity. Many Greenlandershave been brought up to believe that everything Greenlandic is worse than, or not as good as,

Danish’” (Madsen and Sullivan “Lack of Awareness”).

18. Green, Not Mean

“The Greenlandic culture, emphasiz[es] humbleness and not interposing oneself …” (Madsen andSullivan “Legal Recognition and Equality”). “‘When I get a visit from Greenland and bring themto a flea market, and somebody demands 50 kroner for something, they just pay without protest.A Dane would maybe bargain the price to 40 kroner, whereas an immigrant would go onhaggling until the price was 25 kroner’ and she continues: ‘This illustrates the differences inculture: Greenlanders do not question what other people say. Greenlanders are more passive andaccept whatever is presented to them.’”

“To make it in the Danish society you have to be aggressive and demanding, and ready tochallenge the status quo. For a Greenlander needing help this presents a special problem: first,asking for help is awkward and foreign to their natural behavior and second, Greenlanders arewary of speaking up for themselves when not treated fairly or according to the relevantstandards. In a broader perspective, this could explain why Greenlanders are less outspoken thanother minority groups in the public sphere” (Madsen and Sullivan “Cultural Differences: Barriersor Doors”).



Balman 6

Synthesis/Abstract

Smilla Jaspersen, half Greenlander and half Danish, was raised by her Inuit mother in Qaanaaq,Greenland before moving to Copenhagen, Denmark to live. The information I’ve gathered is farfrom exhaustive, but it does give one a sense of the history behind the past relationship between

Greenlanders and Danes and provides some exposition on the current relationships between bothcultures living in both countries. One can almost understand Smilla’s treatment at the hands of the police once they discover she is part Inuit and their reluctance to pursue details she brings totheir attention regarding the dead Greenland boy — details written in the snow that she learned toread as child as we must think every Greenlander can. One can also almost understand thecontempt she seems to have for much of Denmark and its citizens. The relationship between thetwo cultures was several hundred-to-one thousand years in the making. It will take severalhundred more to heal it. Smilla’s heart belongs to Greenland, but the Danish part of her mindwould seem enable her to fight the injustice she finds and pursue it doggedly as any Greenlanderwould on the hunt to survive with a tenacity that perplexes the Danes in the story.



Balman 7

Reading Guide

1. The White Palace

We live in the White Palace. On a piece of donated land the Housing Authority has put up

a row of prefabricated white concrete boxes, for which it received an award from the

Association for the Beautification of the Capital.The whole thing, including the prize, makes a cheap and flimsy impression, but there’s

nothing trivial about the rent, which is so high that the only ones who can afford to live here

are people like Juliane, whom the state is supporting; the mechanic, who had to take what he

could get; and those living on the edge, like myself.

So the nickname, the White Palace, is something of an insult to those of us who live here, but

still basically appropriate… The White Palace is located right on Copenhagen Harbor” (Høeg

6)

Figure 1. Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, The Copenhagen Housing Project (aka, The White Palace)

“



Balman 8

“The project consists of 120 flats, half of them social housing and half of them private, and a

communal house placed out in the copenhagen harbor. the context is characterized by large scalestructures and a windblown openness, into which the project introduces a smaller scale andordered spaces.

It is result of a 2003 competition which had an unusual brief, partly in the 50/50 social housing-private ownership mix but not least in the fact that the copenhagen harbor authorities haddonated an area of water for the competition as they wanted a model project to boostdevelopment of this part of the harbor.”

“The idea was that the money saved from not having to buy land could instead pay for a large

landfill that would accommodate buildings and cars. our proposal was to forget the landfill andto build an artificial island in the form of a one-story parking house to get rid of the cars that plague the spaces between our houses and to get closer to the water” (Vandkunsten).

2. The Drunk Greenlander

Juliane Christiansen, Isaiah’s mother, is a strong endorsement for the curative powers of

alcohol. When she’s sober, she is stiff, silent, and inhibited. When she’s drunk, she is

lively and happy as a clam. Because she took the disulfiram this morning and has been

drinking on top of the pills, so to speak, since she returned from the hospital this beautiful

transformation naturally appears through a veil of the overall poisoning of the organism. And

yet she is feeling markedly better.

“Smilla,” she says, “I love you.”

They say that people drink a lot in Greenland. That is a totally absurd understatement. People

drink a colossal amount. That’s why my relationship to alcohol is the way it is. Whenever I

feel the urge for something stronger than herbal tea, I always remember what went on beforethe voluntary liquor rationing in Thule” (Høeg 24, italics mine)

I remembered this particular passage/exchange because I had to look up disulfiram. From

PubMed, “Disulfiram [brand name, Antabuse] is used to treat chronic alcoholism. It causes

unpleasant effects when even small amounts of alcohol are consumed. These effects include

flushing of the face, headache, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, weakness, blurred vision, mental

confusion, sweating, choking, breathing difficulty, and anxiety. These effects begin about 10

minutes after alcohol enters the body and last for 1 hour or more. Disulfiram is not a cure for

alcoholism, but discourages drinking.”

After I’d done my research, I thought it interesting example of a stereotype as mentioned by

Madsen and Sullivan (see #15, “Facts”). According to his Facebook page, Peter Høeg is Danish

and was born in Copenhagen, Denmark (“Peter Høeg”).

“



Balman 9

3. Northern Lights?

It’s so bright. Some years ago they measured the light at Siorapaluk in Greenland. From

December to February, when the sun is gone. People imagine eternal night. But there are

stars and the moon, and now and then the northern lights. And the snow. They registered

the same amount of lumens as outside a medium-sized provincial town in Denmark ” (Høeg8).

According to Google Earth, Siorapaluk is just about three miles west of Qaanaaq and about

sixty-five miles north of Thule (see #13, “Facts”). According to the United States Air Force

welcome packet for personal transitioning to the base, you cannot see the “Northern Lights”

from Thule even as it is about five hundred miles too far north in latitude to see them. They also

point out that if by some chance you would happen to catch a glimpse, they would properly be

referred to as “Southern Lights” (United States 25).

4. What’s an

amaat

?

My mother is sitting next to me, quite still. And she looks at me as if seeing something for

the first time. I don’t know what it was that stopped me. Compassion is not a virtue in the

Arctic. It amounts to a kind of insensitivity: a lack of feeling for the animals, the

environment, and the nature of necessity. ‘Smilla,” she says, “I have carried you in amaat ’”

(Høeg 35).

The amaat is a kind of seal-skin coat worn by the Inuit women. It has an oversized hood (picture

a hooded sweatshirt) attached to it where infants were placed. The woman then drew the

drawstrings tight and tied them in front — carrying her infant very much like the Native American

women did with the papoose (“Clothing from East Greenland.”).

Figure 2. Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden , “Clothing from East Greenland.”

“

“



Balman 10

5. What’s she talking about?

The wind is blowing off the island, a north wind, avangnaq [a wind from the north]. Thiscrystallizes into another word, and at first there is only the internal sound, as if it werespoken by someone else, someone inside me. Pirhirhuq, snowstorm weather. I shake my

head. We’re not in Thule; the weather is different here. My exhausted system is creatingphantoms” (Høeg 441).

Then my mother is behind me. She knows what’s happening, she has known it for sometime. She talks to me — she who is usually so taciturn. She gives me a box on the ear, partviolence, part caress.“What kind of wind is it, Smilla?”

“It’s kanangnaq [snow wind].” “That’s wrong, Smilla, you’re asleep.” “No, I’m not. The wind is faint and damp, the ice must have just started breaking up. ” “Speak politely to your mother, Smilla. You’ve learned rudeness from qallunaaq [a non-Inuit, especially someone of European descent]” (Høeg 445).

I found a handy glossary for all the Inuit terms in the book. Rather than list them all, I’ll just link to them here so you can reference them as you read if you like.

“

http://www.bookdrum.com/books/miss-smillas-feeling-for-snow/9781860461675/glossary.html






Balman 11

Final Thoughts

In closing, this is the first work of Peter Høeg’s that I’ve read, and while I found this story to beless than perfect — several times I was required to suspend disbelief — it was obvious to me thathe is a very talented writer. Just consider this passage of Høeg’s which is one of my favorites in

this book:

There are mornings when it feels as if you rise up to the surface through a mud bath.With your feet stuck in a block of cement. When you know that you’ve expired in thenight and have nothing to be happy about except the fact that at least you’ve already diedso they can’t transplant your lifeless organs. Six out of seven mornings are like that. Theseventh is like today. I wake up feeling crystal-clear. I climb out of bed as if I had somereason to get up. I do the four yoga exercises I managed to learn before I received theeightieth reminder from the library, and they sent a messenger, and I had to pay such abig fine that I might just as well have bought the book (Høeg 135).

Finally, if military history interests you, specifically the history of Peterson Air Force Base inThule, Greenland, spend some a few minutes reading the handbook referenced in the bibliography under “United States” and which can be found here as a .pdf document. I found itfascinating as it also gives you a very good idea what it’s like to live in Thule today and you canalmost close your eyes and picture yourself there with Smilla.

Happy Reading!

http://www.peterson.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-100412-027.pdf






Balman 12

Works Cited

BBC News. “Timeline: Greenland.” BBC News. BBC News, 10 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Jan. 2012.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1023448.stm>.

BBC News. “Regions and Territories: Greenland.” BBC News. BBC News, 10 Jan. 2012. Web.21 Jan. 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1023393.stm>.

“Clothing from East Greenland.” Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.rmv.nl/publicaties/2groenland/e/e6da.html>.

“Greenland.” CIA World Factbook. Washington: CIA, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 14 January

2012.

“Greenland.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo

Reference. Web. 14 January 2012.

“Greenlanders.” Cassell’ s Peoples, Nations and Cultures. London: Cassell, 2005. Credo

Reference. Web. 14 January 2012.

“Danes.” Cassell’ s Peoples, Nations and Cultures. London: Cassell, 2005. Credo Reference.

Web. 14 January 2012.

“Denmark.” CIA World Factbook. Washington: CIA, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 14 January

2012.

“Denmark.” Philip’ s Encyclopedia 2008. London: Philip’s, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 14

January 2012.

“Denmark.” The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington:

Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 14 January 2012.

Høeg, Peter. Smilla’s Sense of Snow. New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks, 1993. Print.

Madsen, Lars, and Kimberly Sullivan. “Greenlanders in Denmark: A Realistic Perspective of a

Varied Group by Lars Madsen, Kimberly Sullivan.” Humanity in Action. 2003. Web. 16

Jan. 2012. <http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/275-greenlanders-in-

denmark-a-realistic-perspective-of-a-varied-group>.

“Peter Høeg.” Facebook . Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-

H%C3%B8eg/109609169066083>.

Petersen, Robert. “Colonialism As Seen From a Former Colonized Area.” Arctic Anthropology

32.2 (1995): 118-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Jan. 2012.

<http://library.esc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=

a9h&AN=9512292534&site=ehost-live>.



Balman 13

PubMed Health. “Disulfiram.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. National Center for

Biotechnology Information, 1 Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000726/>.

United States. U.S. Air Force. Peterson Air Force Base. Newcomer ’ s Welcome Package. Web. 21

Jan. 2012. <http://www.peterson.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-100412-027.pdf>.

Vandkunsten, Tegnestuen. “Copenhagen Harbor Housing Project.” Architecture Lab. Web. 29

Jan. 2012. <http://architecturelab.net/2009/11/copenhagen-harbor-housing-project-by-

tegnestuen-vandkunsten/>.

Vandkunsten, Tegnestuen. The Copenhagen Housing Project . 2009. Photograph. Architecture

Lab, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Weigert, Hans W. “Iceland, Greenland And The United States.” Foreign Affairs 23.1 (1944):

112-122. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Jan. 2012.

Smilla s Sense of Snow Research Report

Documents

Transcript of Smilla s Sense of Snow Research Report