Bored in the Arctic : the modern experience of Inuit youth

Cole, Sally Cooper (1981) Bored in the Arctic : the modern experience of Inuit youth. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Inuit teenage values, behaviour, aspirations and expectations are explored within the context of discussion of Inuit adaptation to modernization and industrialization in the Canadian Arctic. Ambivalence and conflict in the teenagers' contemporary relationships with family, community, school and work are described and are considered primary factors in the development of strong adolescent peer groups and in the teenagers' enthusiastic reception of the urban pop youth culture. -- The youth culture provides the teenagers with an alternative value system to that of adults and non-Inuit in the settlements. The youth culture offers immediate rewards, establishes attainable goals and identifies realistic role models which are otherwise lacking in the lives of contemporary Inuit youth. The youth culture is considered to be playing an instrumental role in developing within the Inuit population, values and lifestyle aspirations leading Inuit into the ranks of the non-mobile groups within Canadian society. -- Inuit teenage boredom is found to be associated with modernization and to reflect the quality of the Inuit relationship with urban Canada. Settlement living, going to school, seeking wage employment, enjoying a relatively high material standard of living and consumption of items of popular culture are accepted by young Inuit as behaviour necessary to becoming modern. Becoming modern has also, however, meant becoming bored and this is the dominant experience of modern Inuit youth who are bored in the Arctic.

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