The Integrative Role of Seals in an East Greenlandic Hunting Village

• Published in: Arctic anthropology 1999-01, Vol.36 (1/2), p.37-50
• Main Author: Hovelsrud-Broda, Grete K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Wild - physiology; Anthropology, Cultural - education; Anthropology, Cultural - history; Cash; Commerce - economics; Commerce - education; Commerce - history; Commerce - legislation & jurisprudence; Economics; Employment - economics; Employment - history; Employment - legislation & jurisprudence; Employment - psychology; Ethnic Groups - education; Ethnic Groups - ethnology; Ethnic Groups - history; Ethnic Groups - legislation & jurisprudence; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnology; Food security; Food Supply - economics; Food Supply - history; Food Supply - legislation & jurisprudence; Gender roles; Goods; Greenland - ethnology; Hierarchy, Social; History of medicine; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Households; Housekeeping - economics; Housekeeping - history; Housekeeping - legislation & jurisprudence; Humans; Hunting; Hunting, fishing, gathering; Income - history; Meats; Minority Health - economics; Minority Health - ethnology; Minority Health - history; Minority Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Morphological source materials; Seal hunting; Seals, Earless - physiology; Social Behavior; Social Class; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Wages
• ISSN: 0066-6939; 1933-8139

In Isertoq, East Greenland, seals are the significant factor that links individuals, households, and other social units. Production activities involving seals are essential in the maintenance of the sociocultural system. Over the last century the socioeconomic system has changed, but many of the fundamental aspects of production (e. g., seal hunting, sealskin processing), distribution, and consumption (e. g., of seal by-products) have been retained. This is because the main source of food and cash from the local environment (as of the last hundred years)— seals— has remained unchanged. This paper illustrates how seals can be seen as a critical link between the past and present cultural systems and between individual households. Seal products are the main source of food within households; they are the main items in the sharing networks between households; and sealskins are the only significant source of cash from local natural resources. Seal hunting, sealskin processing, and the consumption of seal meat are all central to the cultural system.