Abstracts
Abstract
This paper looks at gender relations and presents original findings of an empirical study among the Kalaallit (Greenland Inuit) of Maniitsoq (southwest Greenland). The focus of the study was to figure out what gender roles look like in Kalaallit eyes. Seven couples were interviewed about what work entails in different contexts. All the women interviewed have a job, and they describe their activities in their own homes. They are involved in social activities (including those related to the Church) much more so than their husbands, and have more control on the values involved in raising their children. Five of the husbands had a job but only four were involved in “recreational” hunting. Husbands are less inclined in Church matters but find spiritual connection while out on the sea and hunting. But these Kalaallit men are becoming more socially isolated. The paper ends with the presentation of three models of couplehood in Maniitsoq: traditional; detached; and reversed.
Résumé
Cet article concerne les relations entre les sexes et présente des données originales provenant d'une étude empirique effectuée chez les Kalaallit (Inuit du Groenland) de Maniitsoq (sud-ouest du Groenland). Le but de l'étude était de savoir comment les rôles sexués sont perçus par les Kalaallit. Sept couples furent interviewés à propos de leurs tâches dans différents contextes. Toutes les femmes interviewées ont un travail et elles décrivent aussi leurs activités à la maison. Elles sont impliquées dans des activités sociales (incluant celles liées à l'Église) bien plus que leurs maris. Cinq des maris ont un travail mais seulement quatre s’adonnaient à la chasse «récréative». Les maris participent moins aux activités de l'Église mais trouvent une inspiration spirituelle en mer, pendant qu’ils chassent. Par contre, ces hommes kalaallit sont en train de devenir plus isolés socialement. La note de recherche se termine avec une présentation de trois modèles de couples identifiés à Maniitsoq: traditionnel, détaché et inversé.
Appendices
References
- Bodenhorn, Barbara, 1990 I am not the Great Hunter, my wife is: Inupiat and anthropological models of gender, Études/Inuit/Studies, 14(1–2): 55–74.
- Dybbroe, Susanne, 1988 Participation and control: Issues in the debate on women and development: A Greenlandic example, Folk, 30: 111-131.
- FIENUP-RIORDAN, Ann, 1990 Eskimo essays, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press.
- JESSEN WILLIAMSON, Karla, 2000 Celestial and social families of the Inuit, in Ron F. Laliberte, Priscilla Settee, James B. Waldram, Rob Innes, Brenda Macdougall, Lesley McBain, and F. Laurie Barron (eds), Expressions in Canadian Native Studies, Saskatoon, University of Saskatchewan Extension Press: 125-144.
- JESSEN WILLIAMSON, Karla, 2006 Inuit post-colonial gender relations in Greenland, PhD dissertation, Aberdeen, University of Aberdeen, Department of Anthropology.
- KAWAGLEY, Angayuqaq Oscar, 2006 A Yupiaq worldview. A pathway to ecology and spirit, 2nd edition, Long Grove, Waveland Press.
- Petersen, Robert, 2003 Settlements, kinship and hunting grounds in traditional Greenland, Copenhagen, Meddelelser om Grønland, Man and Society Series, 27.
- SEJERSEN, Frank, 1998 Strategies for sustainability and management of peoples: An analysis of hunting and environmental perceptions in Greenland with a special focus on Sisimiut, PhD dissertation, Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Department of Eskimology.
- WACHOWICH, Nancy, 1999 Saqiyuq. Stories from the lives of three Inuit women, in collaboration with Apphia Agalakti Awa, Rhonda Kaukjak Katsak and Sandra Pikujak Katsak, Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press.