11 October 2009

Evolutionary Hangover Transformed

You are a member of an indigenous culture in a developing country that places great emphasis on kinship ties. After years of hard work you have saved up enough to send your son to study abroad in hopes he will get an excellent education and the best chances in life. However, before your son departs your brother tells you his child has fallen gravely ill and needs financial help. What do you do? Jahoda (1962) in his study of the aspects of westernization states his “findings indicate a marked tendency to shift from an extended family orientation to a nuclear family one” and “the loosening of kinship ties which is an almost inevitable concomitant of moving up the social ladder.” It is essential to examine this Western shift and refer back as we explore the people of the Arctic, the Inuit, and their adaptive traits that came and went and returned again westernized. This move towards westernization taken by the Inuit people is a temporary development that foreshadows an even possible further step back than from their old ways if a new middle ground is not reached.

The solution is to head towards a mix of old and new and utilize traditional knowledge in a global environment. However, this path has not been well traveled by many Inuit. Many have retired their sleds and dogs for the snowmobile which can go farther and faster but at the same time disenabling the rider to judge ice conditions (Moran 2008). This dependence on snowmobiles can be disadvantageous when it breaks down and many do not have the capital to replace it. The desire for Western goods creates a wage labor system among the Inuit but the actual jobs go to skilled others resulting in low unemployment rates. Class divisions, economic differences and harm to the arctic surfaces simply add to this snowball effect. In cultures with class and status differences, it is reasonable to presume the undoing of tight kinship ties.

Further desire for technology like rifles and radios raises concern in regards to the preservation of traditional practices. They now predominantly use radios for the weather forecast and in doing so will dull their ancient skill of predicting the weather. Rifles used by hunters kill more than necessary for sustenance disturbing life cycles in the ecosystem at least temporarily and also likely demeaning sacred hunts. Due to the new, foreign glamour in their lives, young Inuit are less willing to face the rigors their forefathers went through in the arctic (Moran). With the onset of Western education in non-Inuit wisdom and boarding schools that take children away from parents who would normally put them through a socialization process, responses to these changes in lifestyle would result in the de-conditioning in physical capacity as well as decreasing respect of Inuit culture by children. The “abandonment of traditional housing for less healthy shelters” or improperly humidified shacks replacing traditional igloos make the Inuit susceptible to respiratory infections putting especially children in danger. With the introduction of Western food, majority of calories are now coming from carbohydrates which causes health problems such as anemia and obesity due to essential nutrient deficiencies (Moran). Both tangible and intangible changes are immense and they have modified many traits of the Inuit challenging their traditions in more ways than just kinship.

It is presumptuous to say westernization for the Inuit has done nothing but unsettle Inuit beliefs. The tape recorder has allowed distant relatives to connect. Newspapers, TV and the internet have enabled those voicing dissent to preserve Inuit identity. Infanticide has nearly been erased from the culture. Moran explains the problems posed by the arctic and describes adaptive strategies used by the Inuit as they form kinship bonds and create the important seal-meat sharing system with the underlying factor of cooperation while surviving in their ecosystem limited by extreme cold. The fundamental physiological adjustments like shivering and behavioral responses such has clothing, shelter, exercise and diet were all honed by ancestors to adapt and survive. But the effects of climate change and, for this essay, contact with American society altered many of their survival strategies. The difficulties of living in the arctic are not the same as the US, so as democracy is not for everyone, so is westernization. Once non-renewable resources are used, the Inuit may have to revert back to the old ways and will not likely have the adaptive strategies to live as before. The push to “lead the new generation to combine traditional knowledge with the need to be part of the global economy” can combat this transformed evolutionary hangover brought on by westernization.


Jahoda, Gustav., 1962: Aspects of Westernization: A Study of Adult-Class Students in Ghana: II: The British Journal of Sociology, 13, 43-56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/587945.

Moran, E., 2008: Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Westview Press, Colorado, 473 pp.

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