Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the characteristics and development of written and oral vernacular narratives about polar bear meat consumption in Iceland throughout recent history. A particular emphasis is placed on the expression of gender, spatial and human-animal boundaries in these narratives.

Paper long abstract:

Icelandic narratives about bear meat consumption are rare, yet can be found in sources of varying historical accuracy from the settlement era to the 1960s. In some communities, folk ideas surrounding the properties of bear meat have survived and developed alongside this practice, often linking its consumption with the attainment of other-than-human properties such as bravery and physical endurance. This paper aims to examine how humans relate to bear meat during and in the wake of these rare exchanges. Furthermore, developments of folk ideas about bear meat in a modern context are explored, as government regulations and increased awareness of trichinella make its consumption a much more difficult, and subversive, culinary practice. In this analysis, particular attention is paid to bear meat narratives as a format for expression of ideas about boundaries of gender, culture, space and species. At the core of this research is narrative analysis of written sources from the 19th and 20th centuries and interviews conducted by the researcher during the summer of 2020, as well as selected responses to ethnographic questionnaires. This narrative analysis demonstrates a certain continuity in regard to ideas about gender in bear narratives. Consumers of bear meat are portrayed as male, while female biology (ursid and human) sometimes facilitates the transferral of properties from bear to man. Meanwhile, the analysis of narratives from recent years shows the emergence of new ideas about the nature and origins of bear meat, as this culinary practice makes a transition from Iceland‘s geographical to cultural fringes.