Quaqtaq : modernity and identity in an Inuit community / Louis-Jacques Dorais.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Dorais examines how the Inuit community of Quaqtaq, a small village on Hudson Strait, has managed to preserve its identity in the modern world. He points to three things: kinship, religion, and language.

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CHOICE Review

Dorais provides a very interesting and timely discussion of the evolution and continuity of identity in a Nunavik (Inuit northern Quebec) community over a 30-year period. Dorais began his work in Quaqtaq in 1965, returned in 1968 and 1969, and then was absent from the community until 1981. He went back to reassess his findings in the early 1990s, evaluating Inuit identity in the light of social, political, and economic change that includes the emergence of the new Canadian territory of Nunavut. His most striking finding--that despite decades (even centuries) of contact and change, "Inuit do not perceive any major break in their personal identity"--is supported by findings in other regions (e.g., V. Alia's work in the Baffin region and Igloolik). His contention that people can be "at once Inuit and modern" is supported by interviews and external evidence. This brief, readable, modestly presented book adds much to the growing literature on identity, politics, and culture. There is only one weak spot--a confusing string of categories of "problems" dropped in almost at the end, out of context (e.g., the juxtaposition of homosexuality, drugs, and violence). All levels. V. Alia; Western Washington University