Living on the Land: Change Among the Inuit of Baffin Island

By John S. Matthiasson

As recently as three decades ago most Inuit lived a lifestyle much like that of their forbearers: "living on the land," with the men hunting according to time-honoured methods and the women performing the same round of daily tasks that their grandmothers and great grandmothers had done. Today these people typically live in settlements, some of them distinctly urban in character. Adults work for wages and use electric appliances, children listen to stereos and run about the settlement on motorbikes. As anthropologist John Matthiasson observes, "the Inuit child of today may look back in fond nostalgia on the lifestyle of his parents when they lived on the land, but he cannot return to it." Matthiasson, who has remained in contact with the Tununermiut since the 1960s, offers both a vivid picture of Inuit society as it was and an illuminating look at the nature and the extent of the enormous changes of the past thirty years.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 092114993X
• ISBN13: 9780921149934
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Higher Education Division
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

living on the land by john matthiasson

John Matthiasson's account of his year abroad among the Inuit of the eastern Arctic is entertaining and honest. He carefully describes a culture in rapid transition and offers many humorous anecdotes about his struggles to fit in with the very alien lifestyle of these Arctic people. Matthiasson's naivete but willingness to adhere to the social norms of his hosts, endears him to the reader. Overall, an excellent anthropological introduction to Inuit culture.