Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:14:18.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identity and the evolving relationship between Inuit women and the land in the eastern Canadian Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2014

Martha Dowsley
Martha Dowsley*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Academic discussions around Inuit identity once focused on acculturation. These have mainly been replaced by concepts of adaptation to new living conditions. Yet, Inuit in the eastern Canadian Arctic still frame identity concerns around their land activities and are wary of becoming too much like ‘Qallunaat’ or southerners. This paper examines what material and non-material goods (for example psychological goods) Inuit seek from the land today in order to understand what traditional aspects of their relationships with the land persist and what new ones might have emerged recently. It then discusses the implications these have for Inuit identity. The study found a decrease in the procurement and use of material goods from the land compared with previous generations. Concomitantly, the acquisition of non-material goods has become more formalised and distinctly identified in discussions of land excursions. The non-material goods are clearly linked to Inuit ideology and traditions, rather than to southern ideas. The desire for, and acquisition of, non-material goods is developing both from a top-down or group consensus and bottom-up or individual decision, illustrating an interplay between the construction of group and individual identities in relation to the land. Inuit in the eastern Canadian Arctic are transforming their relationship with the land in a way that demonstrates an emerging identity as community Inuit who are rooted in their own local history and geography and also consciously subscribe to a larger Inuit culture that is premised on values such as sharing and building harmonious relationships.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 51 , Issue 5 , September 2015 , pp. 536 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Boas, F. 1888. The central Eskimo. Washington D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology (Annual report 6).Google Scholar
Briggs, J. 1970. Never in angry: portrait of an Eskimo family. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Briggs, J. 1974. Inuit women: makers of men. In: Matthiasson, C. (editor). Many sisters: women in cross–cultural perspective. New York: Free Press: 261–304.Google Scholar
Briggs, J. 1997. From trait to emblem and back: living and representing culture in everyday Inuit life. Arctic Anthropology 34 (1): 227–235.Google Scholar
Briggs, J. 1998. Inuit morality play: the emotional education of a three–year–old. John's, St.: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economic Research (Social and economic studies 62).Google Scholar
Brody, H. 1975. The people's land: Eskimos and whites in the eastern Arctic. Markham ON: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Condon, R.G., Collings, P. and Wenzel, G.. 1995. The best part of life: subsistence hunting, ethnicity, and economic adaptation among young adult Inuit males. Arctic 48 (1): 31–46.Google Scholar
Dahl, J. 2000. Saqqaq: an Inuit hunting community in the modern world. Toronto ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Dorais, L.J. 1994. À propos d’identité inuit. Études/Inuit/Studies 18 (1–2): 253–260.Google Scholar
Dorais, L.J. 1997. Quaqtaq: modernity and identity in an Inuit community. Toronto ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Dorais, L.J. 2005. Comparing academic and aboriginal definitions of Arctic identities. Polar Record 41 (216): 1–10.Google Scholar
Dowsley, M. and Wenzel, G. 2008. ‘The time of the most polar bears’: a co–management conflict in Nunavut. Arctic 61 (2): 77–89.Google Scholar
Dowsley, M. 2010. The value of a polar bear: evaluating the role of a multiple use resource in the Nunavut mixed economy. Arctic Anthropology 47 (1):39–56.Google Scholar
Duncan, J. 2010. Mapping with eastern Arctic Inuit. Unpublished BA dissertation. Thunder Bay ON: Lakehead University, Department of Geography.Google Scholar
Fienup–Riordan, A. 1990. Eskimo essays: Yupik lives and how we see them. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Fienup–Riordan, A. 1999. Yaqulget qaillun pilartat (what the birds do): Yup’ik Eskimo understanding of geese and those who study them. Arctic 52 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar
Fogel–Chance, N. 1993. Living in both worlds: ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’ among North Slope Iñupiaq women in Anchorage. Arctic Anthropology 30 (1): 94–108.Google Scholar
Freeman, M.M.R. 1976. Inuit land use and occupancy project: vol. 2: supporting studies. Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.Google Scholar
Gombay, N. 2005. Shifting identities in a shifting world: food, place, community, and the politics of scale in an Inuit settlement. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 23:415–533.Google Scholar
Guemple, L. 1986. Men and women, husbands and wives: the role of gender in traditional Inuit society. Études /Inuit/Studies 10 (1–2): 9–24.Google Scholar
Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J.. 1992. Beyond ‘culture’: space, identity and the politics of difference. Cultural Anthropology 7 (1): 6–23.Google Scholar
Harder, M.T. and Wenzel, G.W.. 2012. Inuit subsistence, social economy and food security in Clyde River, Nunavut. Arctic 65 (3): 305–318.Google Scholar
Hughes, C.C. 1965. Under four flags: recent culture change among the Eskimos. Current Anthropology 6 (1): 3–62.Google Scholar
Inksetter, J.B. 2012. Women and work: analyzing the mixed economy in Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut. Unpublished Master's dissertation. Thunder Bay, ON: Lakehead University.Google Scholar
Kral, M., Idlout, L., Minore, J.B., Dyck, R.J. and Kirmayer, L.J.. 2011. Unikkaartuit: meanings of well–being, unhappiness, health, and community change among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada. American Journal of Community Psychology 48: 426–438.Google Scholar
Laugrand, F. and Oosten, J.. 2010. Inuit shamanism and Christianity transitions and transformations in the twentieth century. Montreal Quebec: McGill–Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, R.B. and Devore, I. (editors). 1969. Man the hunter. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company Google Scholar
Matthiasson, J.S. 2002. Living on the land: change among the Inuit of Baffin Island. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. (in collaboration with Henri Beuchat). 1906. Essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés Eskimos. Étude de morphologie sociale, L’Année Sociologique, 9: 39–132.Google Scholar
Nuttall, M. 1992. Arctic homeland: kinship, community and development in northwest Greenland. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Nuttall, M. 2001. Locality, identity and memory in south Greenland. Études/Inuit/Studies 25 (1): 53–72.Google Scholar
Oosten, J. and Remie, C.. 1999. Arctic identities: continuity and change in Inuit and Saami societies. Leiden: Universiteit Leiden, Research school CNWS.Google Scholar
Rasing, W.C.E. 1994. ‘Too many people’: order and nonconformity in Iglulingmiut social process. Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Rasing, W.C.E. 1999. Hunting for identity: thoughts on the practice of hunting and its significance for Iglulingmiut identity. In: Oosten, J. and Remie, C. (editors). Arctic identities: continuity and change in Inuit and Saami societies 79–108. Leiden: Universiteit Leiden, Research School CNWS:79–108.Google Scholar
Reimer, G.D. 1996. Female consciousness: an interpretation of interviews with Inuit women. Études/Inuit/Studies 20 (2): 77–100.Google Scholar
Searles, E. 1998. The crisis of youth and the poetics of place: juvenile reform, outpost camps and Inuit identity in the Canadian Arctic. Études/Inuit/Studies 22 (2): 137–156.Google Scholar
Searles, E. 2008. Inuit identity in the Canadian Arctic. Ethnology 47 (4): 239–255.Google Scholar
Searles, E. 2010. Placing identity: town, land, and authenticity in Nunavut, Canada. Acta Borealia 27 (2): 151–166.Google Scholar
Shannon, K.A. 2006. Everyone goes fishing: understanding procurement for men, women and children in an arctic community. Études/Inuit/Studies 30 (1): 9–29.Google Scholar
Smith, T.G. and Wright, H.. 1989. Economic status and role of hunters in a modern Inuit village. Polar Record 25 (153): 93–98.Google Scholar
Stairs, A. 1992. Self–image, world–image: speculations on identity from experiences with Inuit. Ethos 20 (1): 116–125.Google Scholar
Stairs, A. and Wenzel, G.. 1992. ‘I am I and the environment’: Inuit hunting, community and identity. Journal of Indigenous Studies 3 (1): 1–12.Google Scholar
Stern, P. 2000. Subsistence: work and leisure. Études/Inuit/Studies 24 (1): 9–24.Google Scholar
Stuckenberger, A.N. 2006. Sociality, temporality and locality in a contemporary Inuit community. Études/Inuit/Studies 30 (2): 95–111.Google Scholar
Vallee, F.G. 1968. Differentiation among the Eskimo in some Canadian Arctic settlements. In: Valentine, V.F. and Vallee, F.G. (editors). Eskimo of the Canadian Arctic. TorontoON: McClelland and Stewart Limited: 109–126.Google Scholar
Wenzel, G. 1981. Clyde Inuit adaptation and ecology: the organisation of subsistence. Ottawa: National Museum of Man (Canadian Ethnology Service Paper 77).Google Scholar
Wenzel, G. 1991. Animal rights, human rights: ecology, economy and ideology in the Canadian Arctic. Toronto ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Wenzel, G. 2001. ‘Nunamiut’ or ‘Kabloonamiut’: which identity best fits Inuit (and does it matter)? Études/Inuit/Studies 25 (1–2): 37–52.Google Scholar
Wenzel, G. 2008. Clyde Inuit settlement and community: from before Boas to centralization. Arctic Anthropology 45 (1):1–21.Google Scholar
Williamson, K.J. 2006. Men's and women's spheres among couples from Maniitsoq (Greenland). Études/Inuit/Studies 30 (1): 123–133.Google Scholar