Culture of Greenland - Traditional Skills at Risk

Traditional Skills At Risk

Finally, traditional Thule culture is threatened by development and the growing cash-based economy. Even the smallest settlements in northwest Greenland have electricity today, albeit a small supply of electricity powered by diesel generators. Having electricity, as well as ammunition, hunting rifles and other store-bought products, means that at least one member of every family must be in salaried employment. In most cases, that member is a woman—a wife, daughter or mother. The jobs held by the women allow the men to continue to hunt full-time. But one consequence of this division of labor is that Thule women are losing their knowledge of traditional skills faster than the men. These skills include flensing, treating and sewing skins.

Read more about this topic:  Culture Of Greenland

Famous quotes containing the words traditional, skills and/or risk:

    “The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
    —C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)

    “While most of today’s jobs do not require great intelligence, they do require greater frustration tolerance, personal discipline, organization, management, and interpersonal skills than were required two decades and more ago. These are precisely the skills that many of the young people who are staying in school today, as opposed to two decades ago, lack.”
    —James P. Comer (20th century)

    “Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.”
    —Václav Havel (b. 1936)