SELECTED THESES ON THE CIRCUMPOLAR ARCTIC

This thesis identifies, describes and analyzes socioeconomic mechanisms which structure, maintain and organize contemporary East Greenlandic seal hunting households which combine the reliance on the harvest of natural resources with the need for cash income. The context of the study is the on-going anti-sealing controversy and the seal skin trade ban in European Union countries and the USA. The theoretical, analytical and descriptive concerns are inspired by the anthropological frameworks, exemplified by the notion of mixed cash/subsistence economies, employed to account for the contemporary socioeconomic situation of Arctic hunting communities. This thesis challenges the types of frameworks which separate, in analytical terms, the concepts of 'cash' and 'subsistence'. Employing the anthropological method of participant observation, structured and informal interviews, and archival and statistical records, the investigator examines four key households in relation to the village of Isertoq, the Ammassalik municipality and the central government. The findings reveal that this socioeconomic system can be characterized by three principles. First, five significant social units collectively constitute the system. These are the individual, the household, the municipality, the Greenland Home Rule government, and the Greenland Trade (KNI). Second, these units are integrated into one of them, the household; rendering it the principal unit of analysis. Finally, the seal is the most significant connecting factor between the household and the other social units. This thesis concludes that the production, distribution and consumption, of cash, imported technology, and local produce, such as seals, are inextricably linked to all social units, forming an intricate pattern. The implications of the study are that 'subsistence' as an analytical and descriptive category, and the notion of 'cash', must be replaced by a theoretical tool which by definition includes these two elements. By shifting the analytical and theoretical foci away from two opposites which perpetuate the tendency to dichotomize societies, i.e. 'cash' versus 'subsistence', and combining the critical elements in a framework that encompasses both, the foundation has been laid for analysing and comparing the complexities in such communities.