Arctic development and historical analysis: the use of historical methodology in addressing current issues in the Arctic

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate the applicability of historical methodology to current issues in the Canadian Arctic.

STUDY DESIGN: This is a literature-based analytical historical study, which draws on material from database searches of MEDLINE, Anthropology Plus, POLARInfo, the Arctic Blue Books and Historical Abstracts. Material was also obtained from physical searches of the University of Alberta Libraries and Library and Archives Canada collections, as well as from field research in the records of the Inuulitsivik Maternities.

METHODS: The historical technique of tracing epistemological change over time, pioneered by Michel Foucault and further developed by Ian Hacking, was applied to the history of Canadian authority in the Arctic. This was linked with epistemological changes occurring throughout Western/Southern culture in this period. The applicability of this historical analysis for current issues in the region was then evaluated.

RESULTS: An epistemological shift in Western society has moved authority from traditional human actors in government, medicine and, increasingly, science to statistics, which is seen as both impartial and accurate. Human authorities now routinely appeal to statistical authority to validate policy decisions. This change is as apparent in the Arctic as elsewhere, but it has also opened a space for Inuit practices, rooted in traditional Inuit epistemology, to reassert themselves, provided they can satisfy demands for statistical validity.

CONCLUSIONS: Historical analysis provides a means to identify the spaces which epistemological change and historical contingency have opened in which social and cultural change can occur.

Keywords:

• Inuit
• history
• methodology
• governmentality
• statistics
• Canada