Dynamic Inuit Social Strategies in Changing Environments: A Long-Term Perspective

Abstract

Geografisk Tidsskrift—Danish Journal of Geography 110(2):215–225, 2010

This paper presents an overview of the International Polar Year (IPY) research programme Dynamic Inuit Social Strategies in Changing Environments: A Long-Term Perspective. For this project, research teams from six separate multi-year subprojects performed fieldwork across much of the Canadian Arctic. Fieldwork and analysis revolved around two primary processes critical to the understanding of Inuit history: first, is the migration from Alaska to the east by the earliest Inuit, known as ‘Thule’, an apparently rapid event which replaced populations of the earlier, and culturally very different Dorset tradition; second, is the transformation of Thule Inuit into their more diverse recent cultural forms, involving abandonment of some regions, combined with major changes in settlement patterns, artifact form, architecture, economy, and social organization. The ultimate goal of the project is to understand the variable roles of climate change and social structures on the culture change which can be observed during the past 800 years of Inuit history.

Keywords:

• International Polar Year
• archaeology
• Thule
• Inuit
• Canadian Arctic
• climate change