Summary: | This thesis discusses the impact of the snowmobile on the Inuit society in northern Canada and more specifically in Kangiqsualujjuaq (Nunavik). By drawing the portrait of traditional and modern habits of mobility, it is possible to understand the influence of the snowmobile--considered as micro-technology--on the fundamental structures of the Inuit society. More generally, the research illustrates the evolution of the means of transportion starting from the pre-contact period to the 1990's. Westernization of the Inuit society is not the consequence of only one item but the combination of many. Even if it is difficult to evaluate the influence of a particular technology on a cultural system, snowmobile has had an important impact on the social, cultural and economic values of the Inuit society. The results of the introduction of this vehicle are not only the consolidation of the westernization way of living, because the snowmobile also gives to the Inuit society, the technology needed to practice traditional activities in a contemporary context.
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