"In addition to seals, walrus, polar bear, and caribou the Inuit also eat arctic char, spring geese, ducks and ptarmigan, arctic hare, as well as clams and seaweeds. In Dorset everyone used to eat ptarmigan, now about 25% of the people don't like ptarmigan. Parents cut off pieces of raw ptarmigan and feed them to their children up to about age nine. The kids help themselves to other types of meat."

"Guillemots, murres and ptarmigan are eaten boiled or raw in Dorset. Various birds' eggs are also eaten here. They are tested for their freshness by placing them in water, fresh eggs sink, whereas maturing eggs float. Some people enjoy eating eggs that are starting to form embryos."

"Sculpins are eaten raw when small, the larger ones are boiled, or sometimes they are eaten with aged oil. When sculpins are caught on the ice in front of town they are given to whoever will eat them, not everyone eats sculpins.
" Seaweed is cooked by putting it into a pot of cooked meat after it is done boiling, it's placed in the hot pot for only 30 seconds to one minute. The type of seaweed that is eaten has young leaves that are about six inches wide and four feet long. Only the base of the leaf is eaten on the mature seaweeds which have leaves which grow to about twenty feet or longer. The type of seaweed with small air bladders, is also eaten, but not too much is eaten because it causes stomach aches."

Communicating That There is Food to Share
Hunters returning to camp are greeted with excitement and anticipation. In the past the news spread like wildfire amongst the camp members by word of mouth.

Sharing Meat via Feasts
Feasts have always been popular with the Inuit. Impromptu feasts occur on the hunt, on the beach in front of the community, or in a hunter's home after a large mammal has been killed. This frequently occurs when the animal which is caught is not usually available, such as the first beluga or narwhal of the year. Feasts are also held when a young person kills his or her first significant animal, such as a seal or caribou. Organized feasts are also held in the churches, community halls or schools on the holidays including Christmas, New Years, Easter and Thanksgiving. Feasts are commonly held for other special events such as the opening of a new building, a special political meeting, or an intercommunity athletic competition.

"It's usually the older people who attend the feasts that are announced over the radio. When many people have caribou and lots are inviting people to come to eat, some people find that no-one shows up. Lots of people came to eat my bear because the rarer the game the quicker it disappears; also if it is the first of the season it goes quickly, like the first eggs or the first whale."

"People go to feasts to socialize, to eat together, because they don't have any equipment, or to show respect to someone special, or so they can bring some home."

"When we are in an outpost camp we invite everyone to eat. We all go to one place. In town there are too many people so we just invite the neighbours and relatives. In an outpost camp everyone can fit into one tent for a feast, but it is not possible in town. Only eight or ten households are invited in town for a feast, they don't all come."

"If a whale is caught and brought to shore near town, everyone takes off with their ulu to have lunch on the beach. People with jobs usually wait until their lunch-breaks to go to the beach."

"When my friend's son got his first caribou he bought lots of candies and threw them off the roof to everyone waiting on the ground. Sometimes several families will pool together and celebrate all their young people who killed their first annual. These events are organized in the fall when everyone is back in town."

"When someone gets their first animal in Igloolik we have a large party. My son got his first seal when he was seven years old."

"I got my first seal when I was nine years old. It was the first time I got a red face, we had a large eating party."

"At seal feasts we invite special friends or relatives. Often the entire seal is eaten at one time. If a neighbour sees that you have a seal and they don't have any meat they will ask for some.

" Whale is considered very special. It is hunted in September and killing a whale always represents a feast. The largest whale feast I have seen in Dorset was for about 40 persons."

"People are invited to a feast of polar bear, caribou, seal, aged meats of all types, as well as ducks, walrus, beluga, seaweed and sometimes fish. These feasts go on regularly, whenever someone has lots of meat. Sometimes a seal lies on the ground and goes bad but not very often."

"People never announce a feast of ptarmigan, rabbits, clams, or bannock. When a young person shoots his first animal it is announced over the radio, it is not necessarily turned into a feast."

"People come to Christmas parties for elders, about 30-40 people come; if there are 40 people and enough food for 100 people nothing is left because everyone brings plastic bags to take food home for themselves or for the children. Children actually wait at home for it. Sometimes extra food is brought to the elders, especially land food. This happens at many Baffin communities."

"Walrus and polar bear feasts are announced on the radio. People are invited to bring their own bag so they can get some meat to take home."

"When a new building was opened people organized a feast with meat donated from the hunters. Sometimes the hunters are paid for their expenses."

Recent Impacts on Generalized Reciprocity

The informal economy takes on the form of generalized reciprocity for many Inuit. There are several transformations in the Inuit lifestyle that have impinged upon their generalized reciprocity. Many of these changes can be traced back to the government's initiatives in the nineteen-fifties to move the Inuit from their camps into communities. Today the living conditions have changed drastically from the camp life of 50 years ago. Now most of the Inuit reside in communities of 200 to 2,000 persons rather than from distant, unrelated camps; therefore, some Inuit feel that they are living with strangers rather than with their kin. This influences the way they share their resources and skills.
Another factor that has impacted on their sharing behaviour is the increased size of the families. The size of the average family has more than doubled for several reasons, including: the introduction of child support and other transfer payments, the use of baby bottles, a shortened weaning period, and an increased pregnancy rate among young women. These lifestyle changes have modified the Inuit's form of reciprocity. Since there are fewer and fewer active hunters, each active hunter has more people dependent upon his meat supply. These changes are reflected in the current sharing practices. For example, some hunters now feed their immediate families but don't provide meat to their extended families or to the community at large.

"My husband is a good hunter, he gets enough meat for his parents but he doesn't open his meat cache to his extended family because there are too many relatives."

"We always share food and help out by sharing sugar or other necessities even if we aren't related. When I go to Iqaluit I feel scared to look at food or peak in someone's freezer. People put food away as soon as they are finished eating and it makes me feel like they are hiding their food. Smaller communities are better for sharing."

"Our aunt who lives nearby comes regularly for food. My husband's brother and their large family live on the other side of town and rarely eat with us nor do they come to borrow food very often."

Changing Food Preferences

During the past few decades there has been a major shift in the food preferences of the Inuit, particularly with the youth. In the northern communities many people are hooked on southern foods, especially junk foods.

This increased consumption of southern foods has reduced, to some extent, the Inuit's dependence upon the hunters' take of wild game. Nonetheless, the various harvest studies, which have been conducted since the early nineteen-eighties have emphasized that there is still a major reliance upon wild game for both nutritional and cultural reasons.

"Elders depend more on country food; young people use both, but they especially use store-bought food."

"I have noticed an improvement in the variety of produce, bread, and especially sweets in the local stores. People are starting to add fruit to their snacks. They love pop, a bar, and an apple or orange. People are still buying junk food, they must eat more land food not just junk food. Younger people are turned off land food."

"I have seen an increase in fruits, vegetables and meat being sold in the store. I think this is primarily due to the subsidized mail freight, which is limited to nutritional and perishable food. Without a subsidy, one litre of milk would cost more than $4 for freight plus the cost of the milk. More people are buying fresh fruit and fewer are buying canned fruit cocktail. The store makes its own fresh fruit salad, that sells quite well. People are shifting from tea to coffee. Bestsellers are flour, baking powder, lard, tea, powdered milk, Cornflakes and Rice Krispies, flaky pilot biscuits and Purity sweet breads, hard pilot biscuits are less popular now. People are buying more meat as fewer people hunt because of the high cost of equipment and lack of skills, pork chops and hamburgers sell best."

"Younger people aren't interested in land food. I started my daughter on solid food by chewing the land food and giving it to her from my mouth. Now she loves it and even likes frozen and aged food. I pity children my daughter's age (3 years old) who won't even try it. My daughter gets lots of fruits, vegetables and land food. She likes candy and gum but prefers land food to junk food. Some parents try to keep their children quiet and happy by giving them junk food whenever they start fussing."

"You have the frozen food and I'll have the fresh food. I need to hunt to get out of town, away from pressures, away from work. When I go out I stay for a whole day to give me time to myself to do a lot of things, let out all my steam, pressure from my job. By the time I get back home I feel like a fresh guy.

Makes me feel like doing my work when I get back. When tourists come to town I arrange all their equipment and get the gear down to the beach but I'm not going out and it makes me angry, it makes me want to go out here now. I can't concentrate so I have to go. Do something I want to do with my own time. When I take tourists out I enjoy it, but it still is not like doing just what I want."

Money

Now that money is the major currency of exchange in the North, as it is in the South, it has affected the sharing practices of the Inuit and has created some confusion in their system of generalized reciprocity.

Loans

Money is often shared among the community members.

"Money is borrowed by some people as is done in the South, they expect to pay it back. Others borrow money northern style - but may repay it in kind over time."

"If money is loaned out it is sometimes difficult to ask for it back, but some people have to do so."

"We use money to pay our bills. We don't share money, money is for White man's ways. Money can be loaned but not given away. When relatives need money, I lend it to them. Equipment is exchanged in the past and today - if we keep living like that then we can be happy."

"Full-time hunters are not usually assisted by their families, but some will give gas or loan a skidoo, but not like it was in the past because money is involved. A one-week trip by boat costs about $500 in gas and oil. Brothers don't help each other as they did in the past because one brother may be paying on a boat and has no money left."

"Announcements are sometimes made by people over the radio asking for a loan of $50 or $100. They say they will repay the loan when their baby-bonus cheque arrives."

Money is actually not given freely between many individuals; parents give money to their children but children don't give money back. Parents wish their children would return the money at sometime. A few people expect people to give them money just as they expect food from a hunter.