 |
|
Survey reveals family ties and traditional activities keep arctic communities vital
March 22, 2007Results will be released March 22 in Anchorage
A newly released survey of indigenous Arctic people indicates that an overwhelming majority of the region's native people think traditional pursuits such as hunting, boat-building and manufacturing crafts are important to their identity. Unique because it measured quality of life and involved them in data gathering, the survey also says a substantial portion engages in traditional activities in addition to working in the cash economy.
"Four decades ago, as wage work rapidly became more common in the north, scientists and policymakers assumed that indigenous people would take advantage of opportunities to participate in the cash economy, abandoning harvest and traditional food processing activities," report notes.
The survey results indicate that despite lifestyle changes that have swept into northern communities as non-natives move to remote areas, traditional values still are important to native peoples, and they are willing to use their earnings in the cash economy to support those ways of life. Despite historical efforts by national governments to assimilate native peoples and encourage them to give up native traditions in favor of wage labor, nine out of 10 Inuit continue to think traditional activities are important to their identity.
The findings come from the "Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)," which was produced through a partnership of indigenous peoples and researchers from the United States, Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Researchers hope the study results will provide Native organizations and local governments across the Arctic with information to help make policy decisions. As a major step toward that goal, the team is hosting an international meeting with indigenous policy makers March 22 in Anchorage, Alaska.
The survey results will be posted on the Web on March 22 at www.arcticlivingconditions.org.
"In Alaska, most products of hunting, fishing and gathering do not enter the market economy. Rather, subsistence products are directly consumed by the harvesting household, given away or exchanged," the report states. "Cash plays an important role in the Alaska mixed economy, however. Money buys snow machines, gas and ammunition."
More than 7,000 interviews were conducted between 1998 and 2001 to gather the survey data. In short, the survey concludes, "it takes money to pursue traditional activities. But households with higher incomes can, and do, choose to spend income on these activities."
"Unlike previous attempts to sample and quantify information about the lives of indigenous Arctic peoples, SLiCA aims to measure the quality of life conditions in ways that Arctic residents find important," said Jack Kruse, the U.S. project team leader. "It also documents and compares living conditions among the indigenous peoples of various regions of the Arctic and improves the understanding of living conditions in ways that will benefit Arctic residents."
Kruse also noted that the International Polar Year (IPY)—a two-year, concentrated campaign of field science across a broad spectrum of disciplines which began earlier this month—provides an unmatched international framework for conducting such research by encouraging scientists to work across both national and disciplinary borders.
"I am excited to see the results of this very ambitious effort that is quintessentially the kind of work that IPY should be about, especially through its circumpolar Arctic scientific and community collaboration," said Anna Kerttula de Echave, director of the Arctic social sciences program in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs. "A key element of the project was the inclusion of indigenous people in conceptualizing the survey instrument and collecting data. This research is an excellent example of NSF's efforts to increase the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences," she said.
NSF is the lead U.S. government agency for IPY.
Of the more than $6 million for the project, $1.4 million was supported by NSF. Other support came from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Statistics Canada, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Greenland Home Rule government.
SLiCA also is part of the Arctic and Human Health Initiative (AHHI), a project of the Arctic Council. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Arctic Investigations Program and the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center support the the AHHI.
Other major findings of the survey include:
Family ties, social support of each other, and traditional activities have a lot to do with why indigenous people choose to remain in Arctic communities. Well-being is closely related to job opportunities, locally available fish and game, and a sense of local control. Improving well-being may reduce social problems such as depression and related problems like suicide. Health conditions vary widely in the Arctic: three in four Greenlandic Inuit self-rate their health as at least "very good" compared with one in two Canadian and Alaska Inuit and one in five Chukotka indigenous people. "The North Slope of Alaska appears to be a success story; the Inupiat there were successful in forming a regional government funded through taxation of petroleum facilities," the report notes. "They have effectively used their access to economic resources to influence such bodies as the International Whaling Commission and to manage development."
National Science Foundation
The survey results indicate that despite lifestyle changes that have swept into northern communities as non-natives move to remote areas, traditional values still are important to native peoples, and they are willing to use their earnings in the cash economy to support those ways of life. Despite historical efforts by national governments to assimilate native peoples and encourage them to give up native traditions in favor of wage labor, nine out of 10 Inuit continue to think traditional activities are important to their identity.
The findings come from the "Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)," which was produced through a partnership of indigenous peoples and researchers from the United States, Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Researchers hope the study results will provide Native organizations and local governments across the Arctic with information to help make policy decisions. As a major step toward that goal, the team is hosting an international meeting with indigenous policy makers March 22 in Anchorage, Alaska.
The survey results will be posted on the Web on March 22 at www.arcticlivingconditions.org.
"In Alaska, most products of hunting, fishing and gathering do not enter the market economy. Rather, subsistence products are directly consumed by the harvesting household, given away or exchanged," the report states. "Cash plays an important role in the Alaska mixed economy, however. Money buys snow machines, gas and ammunition."
More than 7,000 interviews were conducted between 1998 and 2001 to gather the survey data. In short, the survey concludes, "it takes money to pursue traditional activities. But households with higher incomes can, and do, choose to spend income on these activities."
"Unlike previous attempts to sample and quantify information about the lives of indigenous Arctic peoples, SLiCA aims to measure the quality of life conditions in ways that Arctic residents find important," said Jack Kruse, the U.S. project team leader. "It also documents and compares living conditions among the indigenous peoples of various regions of the Arctic and improves the understanding of living conditions in ways that will benefit Arctic residents."
Kruse also noted that the International Polar Year (IPY)—a two-year, concentrated campaign of field science across a broad spectrum of disciplines which began earlier this month—provides an unmatched international framework for conducting such research by encouraging scientists to work across both national and disciplinary borders.
"I am excited to see the results of this very ambitious effort that is quintessentially the kind of work that IPY should be about, especially through its circumpolar Arctic scientific and community collaboration," said Anna Kerttula de Echave, director of the Arctic social sciences program in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs. "A key element of the project was the inclusion of indigenous people in conceptualizing the survey instrument and collecting data. This research is an excellent example of NSF's efforts to increase the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences," she said.
NSF is the lead U.S. government agency for IPY.
Of the more than $6 million for the project, $1.4 million was supported by NSF. Other support came from the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Statistics Canada, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Greenland Home Rule government.
SLiCA also is part of the Arctic and Human Health Initiative (AHHI), a project of the Arctic Council. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Arctic Investigations Program and the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center support the the AHHI.
Other major findings of the survey include:
Family ties, social support of each other, and traditional activities have a lot to do with why indigenous people choose to remain in Arctic communities. Well-being is closely related to job opportunities, locally available fish and game, and a sense of local control. Improving well-being may reduce social problems such as depression and related problems like suicide. Health conditions vary widely in the Arctic: three in four Greenlandic Inuit self-rate their health as at least "very good" compared with one in two Canadian and Alaska Inuit and one in five Chukotka indigenous people. "The North Slope of Alaska appears to be a success story; the Inupiat there were successful in forming a regional government funded through taxation of petroleum facilities," the report notes. "They have effectively used their access to economic resources to influence such bodies as the International Whaling Commission and to manage development."
National Science Foundation
Arctic News and Current Arctic Events RSSBad sign for global warming: Thawing permafrost holds vast carbon pool
Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws.
Unexplored Arctic region to be mapped
A scientific expedition this fall will map the unexplored Arctic seafloor where the U.S. and Canada may have sovereign rights over natural resources such as oil and gas and control over activities such as mining.
Thawing permafrost likely to boost global warming
The thawing of permafrost in northern latitudes, which greatly increases microbial decomposition of carbon compounds in soil, will dominate other effects of warming in the region and could become a major force promoting the release of carbon dioxide and thus further warming, according to a new assessment in the September 2008 issue of BioScience.
Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low
Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.
Even seaweeds get sunburned
It is red, it burns and itches: a sunburn on our skin. However, too much sun is not only bad for humans. Many plants react sensitively to an increased dose of ultraviolet radiation, too. Yet they are dependent on sunlight.
Greenland Ice Core Reveals History of Pollution in the Arctic
New research, reported this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth's polar regions.
Stroke and SIDS in Alaska topics of neuroscience conference
University of Alaska Fairbanks neuroscientists studying stroke and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome will present their research findings at the 7th Conference of the Specialized Neuroscience Research Programs in New York Aug. 19-22, 2008.
Successful series of measurements in Arctic sea ice
The German Research Vessel Polarstern had to prove its ice breaking capabilities in Arctic waters to gain data on two series of long-term research measurements. After working in regions up to latitude 82° N, Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will enter port in Reykjavik (Iceland) on August 10th.
Arctic Map plots new 'gold rush'
Researchers at Durham University have drawn up the first ever 'Arctic Map' to show the disputed territories that states might lay claim to in the future.
Patagonian glacier yields clues for improved understanding of global climate change
A better understanding of climate variations at planetary scale is one of climate scientists' crucial concerns. Stable water isotope analysis, the chemistry of ice cores taken from the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps and of air bubbles trapped in them now allow a chronology to be drawn up of the climate changes that took place over the past 800 000 years.
More Arctic News Articles
 | Arctic Drift (A Dirk Pitt Novel, #20) (Dirk Pitt) by Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler As with all Clive Cussler’s dazzling Dirk Pitt novels, critics said Treasure of Khan “amazes, informs and entertains” (Publishers Weekly), “the action zipping along until a final powerhouse showdown” (Entertainment Weekly). “What’s not to like?” proclaimed the Los Angeles Times—and hundreds of thousands of readers agreed. In his new novel, however—the twentieth Dirk Pitt adventure— Cussler may... |
 | Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Series) by Richard Carlson Got a stress case in your life? Of course you do: "Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things all at once." Carlson's cheerful book aims to make us stop and smell--if not roses--whatever is sitting in front of our noses. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... offers 100 meditations designed to make you appreciate being... |
 | The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl, Book 2) by Eoin Colfer Eoin Colfer's bestselling antihero is back in Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident--the superb sequel to the hyper-hyped Artemis Fowl, shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. The Arctic Incident sees the slightly older, perhaps slightly more mellow arch-criminal Artemis recovered from his last adventure, richer now that he has his half of a hoard of fairy gold, and happier... |
 | The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock A New York Times bestseller with over 1.9 million copies in print, THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS poses 265 questions that invite people to explore the most fascinating of subjects: themselves. These questions are as intriguing as our very lives because they are about our lives-our fundamental values and beliefs, our dreams and nightmares about sex, money, love, power. Some of the questions thrust you... |
 | Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat More than a half-century ago the Canadian Wildlife Service assigned the naturalist Farley Mowat to investigate why wolves were killing arctic caribou. Mowat's account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone-studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for the wolves (who were of no threat to caribou or man) and for a friendly Inuit tribe known as the Ihalmiut ("People of... |
 | Robert Ludlum's The Arctic Event (Covert-One) by Robert Ludlum, James Cobb On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a mysterious World War II-era aircraft, a discovery that forces the Russian Federation into a shocking admission. The unmarked plane is a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than fifty years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax.Desperate to prevent a political and... |
 | Digging to America: A Novel by Anne Tyler Anne Tyler’s richest, most deeply searching novel–a story about what it is to be an American, and about Iranian-born Maryam Yazdan, who, after 35 years in this country, must finally come to terms with her “outsiderness.”Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport – the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the... |
 | The Terror: A Novel by Dan Simmons "Dan Simmons writes with the salty grace and precision of Patrick O'Brian. But in piling supernatural nightmare upon historical nightmare, layering mystery upon mystery, he has produced a turbocharged vision of popular doom." -Men's JournalGreeted with excited critical praise, this extraordinary novel-inspired by the true story of two ice ships that disappeared in the Arctic Circle during an 1845... |
 | Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo In his slyly funny and moving new novel, the author of The Risk Pool follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat, upstate New York town--and in the lives of the unluckiest of its citizens. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Jessica Tandy. Author reading... |
 | Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse This exceptional board-book tells a beautiful and timeless story about a daughter's attempt to find the limit of her mother's love. Barbara Lavallee's exquisite illustrations of Alaska, with their exaggeratedly foreshortened perspective and rich tones of violet, blue-gray, and gray-green, tell of an easy declaration ("I love you more than the raven loves his treasure, more than the dog loves his... |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |