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Economic status and role of hunters in a modern Inuit village

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Thomas G. Smith  and
Harold Wright
Thomas G. Smith
Affiliation:
Arctic Biological Station, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 555 St Pierre Blvd, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3R4
Harold Wright
Affiliation:
Holman, Northwest Territories, Canada X0E 0S0
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Abstract

The cash revenues and imputed incomes from country food harvests were calculated from interviews with eight full-time hunting and ten wage-earning Inuit for 1984 at Holman, Northwest Territories. Using a substitution value of Can$10.56/kg ($4.79/lb) for country food harvests, the combined income (cash + imputed food value) of the two groups was very similar. Full-time hunters produced country food at $1.01/kg ($0.46/lb). while wage earners spent $5.7 I/kg ($2.59/lb) on their harvest. Full-time hunters harvested surpluses of food which would feed another fourpeople outside their immediate family. Wage earners ended the year with almost twice the cash balance of full-time hunters, whose main monetary revenuecomes from guiding trophy hunters. The precarious cash economy of the full-time hunters who provide a significant part of the food for the village should be a subject of concern and attention when considering the future well-being of the northern economy.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 25 , Issue 153 , April 1989 , pp. 93 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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