| Muskoxen and Their Hunters, 5: A History Contributor(s): Lent, Peter C. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0806131705 ISBN-13: 9780806131702 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $59.40 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2000 Annotation: Muskoxen, shaggy denizens of the Far North, are creatures long enveloped in myth. In this first major work on the muskox, Peter C. Lent presents a comprehensive account of how its fortunes have been intertwined with our own since the glaciations of the Pleistocene era. For aboriginal hunters from Alaska across Canada to Greenland and Eurasia, muskoxen have provided necessities -- food, fuel, and horn implements. Likewise, they often staved off starvation later explorers. Muskoxen also were romantic figures, epitomizing the rigors of life at the limits. In the modern world, the muskox has been the focus of domestication efforts and a cottage industry based on its fine underwool, comparable to cashmere. Drawing from paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, and Indian and Inuit lore, Lent examines muskoxen in prehistory. Changing concepts in biology, conservation and management, animal husbandry, and contemporary arctic economics complete the picture. In uniting these themes, Lent refutes the idea that the muskox is an "Ice Age relict," arguing that it was never numerous, even during the glacial era. Through the years, human hunting further depressed muskox numbers and limited natural range expansion. Yet theirs is ultimately a conservation success story. Once considered an endangered species, the muskox today has an expanding economic role in northern lands. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Nature | Animals - Mammals - History | Native American - Science | Paleontology |
| Dewey: 599.647 |
| LCCN: 99015298 |
| Series: Animal Natural History |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 7.31" W x 10.47" (1.76 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Prehistoric - Cultural Region - Arctic/Antarctic - Cultural Region - Canadian - Cultural Region - Pacific Northwest - Ethnic Orientation - Native American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this first major work on the muskox, Peter C. Lent presents a comprehensive account of how its fortunes have been intertwined with our own since the glaciations of the Pleistocene era. Drawing from paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, and Indian and Inuit lore, Lent examines muskoxen in prehistory. Changing concepts in biology, conservation and management, animal husbandry, and contemporary arctic economics complete the picture. In uniting these themes, Lent refutes the idea that the muskox is an ice age relict, arguing that it was never numerous, even during the glacial era. Once considered an endangered species, the muskox today has an expanding economic role in northern lands. |