The Rise of the Leisure Class: Adolescence and Recreational Acculturation in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Over the past two decades there has been a dramatic expansion and diversification of recreational and other expressive opportunities in Inuit communities throughout the Canadian Arctic. The construction of school gymnasiums, indoor and outdoor hockey arenas, curling rinks, baseball diamonds, game arcades, and golf courses has added a leisure domain that previously did not exist in northern life. These recreational developments have occurred at a time of fundamental social, political, and economic change in northern communities. They are but one reflection of a wide-ranging process of social change that is initiating significant alterations in behavior, attitudes, and social expectations, all resulting from increased contacts with the South, that is, the United States and southern Canada. As I have documented in earlier works (Condon 1987, 1990), these acculturative changes have been most profoundly felt among the younger generation of Inuit who have been boin and reared within the comfort and security of government-subsidized settlements and towns. These young people have not only changed their