Inuit Youth

An excellent example of applied anthropology. Condon avoids the pitfalls of technical jargon ...an enjoyable reading experience for all.""--Arctic ""A substantial contribution to our cross-cultural understanding of adolescence. It contains complete and up-to-date ethnographic descriptions of adolescence among the Inuit, written by an anthropologist who has considerable experience and rapport in this area.""--Nelson Graburn, University of California at Berkeley ""Until the 1980s no cross-cultural monograph on adolescence had supplemented Margaret Mead's 1928 classic Coming of Age in Samoa...Now we have the first product of the Harvard Adolescence Project. Condon ...tells of ...loud and demanding preteens [who], through peer and community pressures (though almost without parental supervision) change into quiet, child-producing couples who later marry...will assist teenagers and their elders in broadening their views on adolescence.""--Choice Richard G. Condon's ethnography of Inuit adolescence describes the life of young people between the ages of nine and twenty in the small, isolated Inuit community of Holman Island, located in the Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic. He begins with an overview of the historical development and contemporary situation of the community, covering social organization, economic adaptations, and recent changes in population structure. Condon details the rapid social, material, and political changes taking place, and the impact of these changes on the behaviors, attitudes, and aspirations of the new generation of Inuit. The author vividly describes the day-to-day activities of Inuit youth, their time playing sports and games, attending school, engaging in sexual play, and simply ""hanging out"" with their peers. Throughout the book, Condon communicates the young people's perspectives on their own social worlds.