Anarchy in the North Atlantic. Regulating Faroese pilot whaling

FIELDING, R., DAVIS, Jr., J.E. and SINGLETON, B.E., 2015. Mutual aid, environmental policy, and the regulation of Faroese pilot whaling. Human Geography, 10(3), pp. 37-48.

Faroese pilot whaling – grindadráp – presents particular challenges in organisation and governance. An ad hoc, spontaneous, opportunistic, non-commercial and voluntary affair, it requires the mobilisation of a large number of people in a short timeframe to drive and then slaughter by hand whole pods of pilot whales or other small cetaceans, potentially numbering in the hundreds of animals. It then requires a system of distribution in order to share out the sudden glut of meat between participants and within the community at large (Wylie1993). A recent article in Human Geography, drawing on observations and interview data, analyses Faroese pilot whaling using anarchist geography theory. It describes the practice of pilot whaling, including the sighting of whales, the drive, the kill itself, and finally the distribution of the catch. This involves discussing the roles of various participants, changes to the practice through history (notably the institution of a certification scheme for whalers) and opposition—both within the Faroes and abroad—to pilot whaling.

Grindadráp in Tórshavn. Photo by Bjarni Mikkelsen

Anarchy is not a word often associated with modern Nordic societies. This however perhaps reflects popular misconceptions of the concept. More correctly “[a]narchy is a form of governance characterised by a lack of hierarchical organization, and self-organizing and governing communities, where the means of subsistence is shared by all citizens” (Fielding et al. 2015:39). These citizens are joined together by “mutual need and common interests” (Berkman 2006). Faroese pilot whaling can be seen as characteristic of Kropotkin’s concept of “Mutual Aid” applied to resource management (2006). Whilst nested within a broader state hierarchy, the Faroe Islands are semi-autonomous within the Kingdom of Denmark. Regarding pilot whaling, each village largely self-organises, with neighbouring communities coordinating and cooperating throughout the archipelago to ensure success in each drive.

The Faroese embrace a communal hunt and condemn the sale of pilot whale meat for profit. They thus take a ‘holistic’, or cooperative approach rather than an ‘atomistic’, or competitive, approach. It is not a fixed or unchanging institution however and these changes reflect attempts “to balance the concerns driving global pressure to end the whale hunt, and local desire to both improve and protect a traditional activity that benefits and sustains the community” (Fielding et al. 2015:46). Linked to this balance is a desire to preserve Faroese self-sufficiency in food production, another characteristic indicative of an anarchist society. Indeed, compared to hierarchical, industrial agricultural practices such as large, monoculture farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), the relationship to food and nature embodied by Faroese pilot whaling is more in line with holistic anarchist thought. “The dependence on this food source and the close Faroese connection to it, combined with communal governance and attempts to ensure the long-term viability of the species and reduce the suffering of individual pilot whales provides an example of one successful type of anarchist governance of a resource outside the capitalist system by a society asserting itself and attempting to preserve its identity against the overwhelming pressure of global economic forces” (Fielding et al. 2015:46-7).

50 pilot whales were killed at a grindadráp in Tjørnuvík, August 2012. Photo credit: Becky Brice.

- Benedict Singleton, Russell Fielding and John E. Davis, Jr.

References
BERKMAN, A., 2006. The ABC of Anarchism. London: Freedom Press.
FIELDING, R., DAVIS JR., J.E. and SINGLETON, B.E., 2015. Mutual aid, environmental policy, and the regulation of Faroese pilot whaling. Human Geography, 10(3), pp. 37-48.
KROPOTKIN, P., 2006. Mutual aid. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
WYLIE, J. 1993. Too much of a good thing: Crises of glut in the Faroe Islands and Dominica. Comparative Studies in Society and History 35(2), pp. 352-389.