Colonial Households and Homes: Changes in Kalaallit Architecture, 1750–1900

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

From the initial colonization of Kalaallit Nunaat, houses and housing have been a contested subject. The Danish Trade wanted Kalaallit Inuit to live traditionally as before missionization, spread out and following the animals, thus increasing the economic return. However, the Mission wanted Kalaallit Inuit close to the colonies because it would ease contact and teaching Christianity to Kalaallit Inuit. The Danish Mission submitted to the Trade’s settlement policy, but the Moravian Missions did not. In Southwest Greenland, the settlements connected to the Moravian Missions grew to the chagrin of the Danish officials. Around 1700 a new house form emerged. Some Kalaallit Inuit abandoned the smaller rounded houses in favor of communal houses. These were much larger to accommodate several families and had space to prepare, sew, and dry the long, slender forms of umiaq and qajaq, vital hunting technology for whaling and sealing. Whereas Kalaallit Inuit understood their home as a site of community and resilience, the colonial administration chastised the communal houses as filthy and unsanitary. This paper examines the competing discourses of colonial Inuit housing in the nineteenth century. It explores how Kalaallit Inuit’s houses and households were treated in contemporary historical sources and contrasted with archaeological evidence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36546.0