Life Beside Itself

Name: Life Beside Itself
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SKU: 9780520282940
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Imagining Care in the Canadian Arctic

By Lisa Stevenson

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Summary

In Life Beside Itself, Lisa Stevenson embarks on an ethnographic exploration of the Canadian Inuit experience during two critical periods: the tuberculosis epidemic from the 1940s to the early 1960s, and the ongoing suicide epidemic starting in the 1980s. Stevenson challenges conventional ideas of life and care, revealing a cultural landscape where life is intertwined with spiritual and communal bonds beyond mere physical existence. Through evocative imagery and poignant narratives, the book illuminates the complex realities of Inuit life where humanitarian efforts based solely on preserving the physical body fall short. The work proposes a deeper understanding of care that honours these profound relationships and the notion that life itself resides "somewhere else."
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Format: Paperback / softback

$105⁰⁰

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Life Beside Itself

$105⁰⁰

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This profound and challenging book will appeal to those interested in anthropology, indigenous studies, healthcare policy, and social justice, as well as readers seeking a thoughtful, deeply human exploration of life, death, and care in Inuit communities.

Takes us on a haunting ethnographic journey through two historical moments when life for the Canadian Inuit has hung in the balance: the tuberculosis epidemic (1940s to the early 1960s) and the subsequent suicide epidemic (1980s to the present).

Description

In Life Beside Itself, Lisa Stevenson takes us on a haunting ethnographic journey through two historical moments when life for the Canadian Inuit has hung in the balance: the tuberculosis epidemic (1940s to the early 1960s) and the subsequent suicide epidemic (1980s to the present). Along the way, Stevenson troubles our commonsense understanding of what life is and what it means to care for the life of another.

Through close attention to the images in which we think and dream and through which we understand the world, Stevenson describes a world in which life is beside itself: the name-soul of a teenager who dies in a crash lives again in his friend's newborn baby, a young girl shares a last smoke with a dead friend in a dream, and the possessed hands of a clock spin uncontrollably over its face.

In these contexts, humanitarian policies make little sense because they attempt to save lives by merely keeping a body alive. For the Inuit, and perhaps for all of us, life is "somewhere else," and the task is to articulate forms of care for others that are adequate to that truth.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

"Stevenson explores how care in Inuit communities is like a raven, a spiritual force that binds the living and the dead in ways that are not always straightforward or obvious." – G. Bruyere, CHOICE

"This courageous humanistic work is well worth a close and critical read, for the simple reason that its author, Lisa Stevenson, addresses one of the most important contemporary healthcare issues in the Canadian North—that of suicide—and along the way challenges the reader through been termed welfare colonialism and continues to struggle with a bureaucratic legacy determined by historical state structure and policy." – American Anthropologist

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520282940

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 22 August 2014

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Illustration: 8 b-w

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 408g

Pages: 272

Collections

Education & Reference Lisa Stevenson Non-Fiction

About the Author

Lisa Stevenson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at McGill University and the editor of Critical Inuit Studies: An Anthology of Contemporary Arctic Ethnography (2006).