Abstracts
Abstract
In his classic essay Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo, Marcel Mauss argued that a strong relationship exists between the spatial organisation of traditional Inuit house forms and the social morphology of the families they shelter. These observations anticipate later works in anthropology that examine how cultural processes are reflected in, and sustained by, the built environment. Such ideas are important when considering the effects of post-war housing programs on Inuit families in the Canadian Arctic. During the 1960s, attempts were made to restructure the routines of Inuit families through Euro-Canadian architecture and home economics classes. Recent ethnographic observations of Inuit households in operation, however, reveal that many continue to use their houses in traditional ways. By doing so, Inuit families are attempting to adapt to dwellings designed around another culture’s concept of homemaking and family life. Mauss’s ideas are therefore a poignant reminder of the need to take cultural factors into account when developing aboriginal housing policy.
Résumé
Dans son classique Esssai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés Eskimos, Marcel Mauss a demontré qu’un fort rapport existe entre l’organisation spatiale des formes traditionnelles des maisons des Inuit et la morphologie sociale des familles qu’elles abritent. Ces observations devancent les ouvrages plus récents en anthropologie qui examinent comment des processus culturels sont reflétés dans, et soutenus par, l’environnement bâti. De telles idées sont importantes en considérant les effets des programmes de logement d’après-guerre sur des familles inuit de l’Arctique canadien. Durant les années 60, des tentatives ont été faites pour restructurer les habitudes des familles inuit par des cours en économie domestique et par l’architecture euro-canadienne. Cependant, des observations ethnographiques récentes de ménages inuit indiquent que beaucoup continuent à utiliser leurs maisons de manières traditionnelles. De cette façon, les familles inuit essayent de s’adapter à des habitations conçues autour de concepts du ménage et de la vie familiale provenant d’une autre culture. Les idées de Mauss sont donc un rappel poignant qu’il faut tenir compte des facteurs culturels en développant la politique du logement autochtone.
Appendices
References
- BAFNA, Sonja, 2003 Space syntax: A brief introduction to its logic and analytical techniques, Environment and Behavior, 35(1): 17-29.
- BATTY, Michael and Sanja RANA, 2004 The automatic definition and generation of axial lines and axial maps, Environment and Planning B-Planning & Design, 31(4): 615-640.
- BOAS, Franz, 1964[1888]The Central Eskimo, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press.
- BRUCE, Jean, 1969 Arctic housing, North, 16: 1-9.
- BUCHANAN, Enid, 1979 Arctic housing, problems and prospects, Vancouver, University of British Columbia, Department of Community and Regional Planning.
- CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION, 2005 Nunavut housing ventilation research 2003-2005, Ottawa, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Research Highlight, Technical Series, 05-116.
- COLLINGS, Peter, George WENZEL and Richard CONDON, 1998 Modern food sharing networks and community integration in the central Canadian Arctic, Arctic, 51(4): 301-314.
- CONDON, Richard, 1996 The northern Copper Inuit. A history, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.
- CONROY DALTON, Ruth, 2001 The secret is to follow your nose: Route path selection and angularity, Environment and Behavior, 35(1):107-131.
- DAMAS, David, 2002 Arctic migrants, arctic villagers, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- DAWSON, Peter, 2003 Examining the impact of Euro-Canadian architecture on Inuit families living in arctic Canada, in J. Hanson (ed.), Space Syntax: 4th International Symposium, London, University College London.
- DAWSON, Peter, 2004 Inuit space use in Euro-Canadian houses, Ottawa, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, External Research Program.
- de CERTEAU, Michel, 1984 The practice of everyday life, Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press.
- DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AND NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT, 1968 Living in the new houses, Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Education Branch.
- DEPARTMENT OF NORTHERN AFFAIRS AND NATURAL RESOURCES, 1960 Eskimo mortality and housing, Ottawa, Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, Northern Administration Branch, Industrial Division.
- DUFFY, R. Quinn, 1988 The road to Nunavut: The progress of the eastern arctic Inuit since the Second World War, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press.
- GRABURN, Nelson, 1969 Eskimos without igloos: Economic and social development in Sugluk, Boston, Little, Brown and Company.
- HANSON, Julienne, 1998 Decoding homes and houses, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- HILLIER, Bill, 1996 Space is the machine, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- HILLIER, Bill and Julienne HANSON, 1984 The social logic of space, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- HILLIER, Bill, Mark David MAJOR, Jake DESYLLAS, Kayvan KARIMI, Beatrice CAMPOS and Tim STONOR, 1996 Tate Gallery, Millbank: A study of the existing layout and new masterplan proposal, London, University College London.
- LAROCHELLE, Gilles, Léo ZRUDLO, Richard BAILLARGEON, Onil POULIN and John W. BERRY, 1974 Projet Nunaturliq, Phase 1, 1973, Bernard Saladin d'Anglure (ed.), Sainte-Foy, Université Laval, Recherches Inuksiutiit, 2 volumes.
- LAWRENCE, Denise and Setha LOW, 1990 The built environment and spatial form, Annual Review of Archaeology, 19: 453-505.
- LEE, Molly and Gregory REINHARDT, 2003 Eskimo architecture: Dwelling and structure in the early historic period, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press and the University of Alaska Museum.
- MAUSS, Marcel (in collaboration with Henri Beuchat), 1979 Seasonal variations of the Eskimo: A study in social morphology, Translation by James J. Fox, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul (originally published in French in 1906).
- MORGAN, Lewis Henry, 1881 Houses and house-life of the American aborigines, Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Contributions to North American Ethnology, 4.
- NELSON, Edward W., 1899 The Eskimo about Bering Strait, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Service.
- NIXON, Peter G., 1984 Eskimo housing programs, 1954-65: A case study of representative bureaucracy, reprint in microform, Ottawa, National Library of Canada.
- PARKER-PEARSON, Michael and Colin RICHARDS, 1994 Architecture and order: Approaches to social space, London, Routledge.
- PRESTON BLEIR, Susan, 1987 The anatomy of architecture: Ontology and metaphor in Battamaliba architectural expression, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- RAPOPORT, Amos, 1969 House form and culture, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall.
- REDGRAVE, Ruth, 1986 Helping both ways in housing administration: Inuit middlemen in the Arctic, reprint in microform, Otawa, National Library of Canada.
- SAVELLE, James, 2002 The umialiit-kariyit whaling complex and prehistoric Thule Eskimo social relations in the eastern Canadian Arctic, Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology, 27(1): 159-188.
- SCOTT, James, 1998 Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed, New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
- SHEEHAN, Glen, 1997 In the belly of the whale: Trade and war in Eskimo society, Anchorage, Alaska Anthropology Association.
- SPENCER, Robert. F., 1959 The North Alaskan Eskimo: A study in ecology and society, Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution.
- TESTER, Frank, 2006 Iglu to Iglurjuaq, in P. Stern and L. Stevenson (ed.), Critical Inuit studies: An anthology of contemporary arctic ethnography, Lincoln and London, University of Nebraska Press.
- TESTER, Frank and Peter. J. KULCHYSKI, 1994 Tammarniit: Mistakes, Vancouver, UBC Press.
- THOMAS, David K. and Charles Thomas THOMPSON, 1972 Eskimo housing as planned culture change, Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Northern Science Research Group.
- THOMPSON, Charles Thomas, 1969 Patterns of housekeeping in two Eskimo settlements, Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Northern Science Research Group.