Inuit post-colonial gender relations in Greenland

• Main Author: Williamson, Karla Jessen
• Published: University of Aberdeen 2006
• Subjects: 306.70897120982; Inuit : Sex role : Indigenous peoples
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.429467

This dissertation explores Inuit gender relations in a post-colonial setting in Greenland. Explicitly avoiding Western theories as support, a pan-Inuit framework was constructed in order to more appropriately study gender equity among the kalaallit, the Greenland Inuit. This framework materialized the linkages of Inuit thinking to that of the West, making sense of the Inuit worldview, and arguably justifies the development of other analytical tools. Inuit terms and notions are used in teasing out the emic aspects that reveal the cultural foundations specific to the target group to enable more accurate perception. Concurrently, culturally appropriate protocols in soliciting partnership for research in the field were established to test feasibility that such a relationship could create new knowledge. The combination of the established research modes caused the emergence of a more culturally enriched social construction, which made it possible to go beyond the regular scholarly treatises and standards of analytical structure. The epistemological understanding allowed for more critical analyses of what is presently known of relations between Inuit men and women in the Arctic.