UNSYMPATHETIC USERS - AN ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF INUIT RESPONSES TO THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Recent trends in modern architectural theory stress the dynamic relati onship that exists between culture and the built environment. Such the ories hold that because different cultures are characterized by distin ctive types of economic, social, and ideological relationships, they r equire different forms of spatial order to sustain them. Through the a doption of such a perspective, this paper examines the effects of Euro -Canadian prefabricated housing on modern Inuit groups in the central and eastern Canadian Arctic. Preliminary results suggest that the ''al ien'' spatial environments of the southern-style prefabricated house m ay have contributed to increasing gender asymmetry, a transformation o f social relations through the delayed resolution of interpersonal con flicts, confusion over how, when, and where to conduct various househo ld activities, and a loss of cultural identity among contemporary Inui t.