Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide
Inuit suicide is the most significant mental health issue in the newly created Nunavut Territory of Canada's eastern Arctic. Suicide rates in Nunavut are 6 times those of Canada's southern provinces. Consistent with other Canadian populations, males aged 15-29 years of age are most at risk...
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ftrepec:oai:RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:12:p:2625-2636 2024-04-14T08:08:17+00:00 Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide Tester, Frank James McNicoll, Paule http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00504-5 unknown http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00504-5 article ftrepec 2024-03-19T10:29:52Z Inuit suicide is the most significant mental health issue in the newly created Nunavut Territory of Canada's eastern Arctic. Suicide rates in Nunavut are 6 times those of Canada's southern provinces. Consistent with other Canadian populations, males aged 15-29 years of age are most at risk. Various social constructions have been used to make sense of Inuit suicide, a phenomenon of historical interest to anthropologists, who popularized the idea of elderly Inuit voluntarily abandoning their lives to the elements so as not to burden their surviving relatives. An examination of the literature and research dealing with Inuit suicide suggests that three typologies have typically been used to explain the problem: organic or quasi-organic explanations, social explanations involving concepts of social change and social disruption, and socio-psychological models of two types; a risk assessment approach focusing on the circumstances surrounding the deceased or the person with suicidal thoughts and another dealing with norms, values, thought processes and relationships within Inuit culture. We argue that these approaches offer incomplete explanations of the current problem. Attempts to complete the picture by identifying risk factors have produced contradictory and unsatisfactory results. We conclude that the impact of colonial relations of ruling has much to do with the current problem and advocate an approach that combines narrative research and intergenerational communication with community action to address the problem. Low Inuit inuusittiaqarniq (self-esteem) is an important factor in Inuit suicide, but rather than a psychological problem, has its roots in a history of colonialism, paternalism and historical events. Canada Inuit suicide Social construction Narrative research Self-esteem Colonialism Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic inuit Nunavut RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) Arctic Nunavut Canada |
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RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) |
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description |
Inuit suicide is the most significant mental health issue in the newly created Nunavut Territory of Canada's eastern Arctic. Suicide rates in Nunavut are 6 times those of Canada's southern provinces. Consistent with other Canadian populations, males aged 15-29 years of age are most at risk. Various social constructions have been used to make sense of Inuit suicide, a phenomenon of historical interest to anthropologists, who popularized the idea of elderly Inuit voluntarily abandoning their lives to the elements so as not to burden their surviving relatives. An examination of the literature and research dealing with Inuit suicide suggests that three typologies have typically been used to explain the problem: organic or quasi-organic explanations, social explanations involving concepts of social change and social disruption, and socio-psychological models of two types; a risk assessment approach focusing on the circumstances surrounding the deceased or the person with suicidal thoughts and another dealing with norms, values, thought processes and relationships within Inuit culture. We argue that these approaches offer incomplete explanations of the current problem. Attempts to complete the picture by identifying risk factors have produced contradictory and unsatisfactory results. We conclude that the impact of colonial relations of ruling has much to do with the current problem and advocate an approach that combines narrative research and intergenerational communication with community action to address the problem. Low Inuit inuusittiaqarniq (self-esteem) is an important factor in Inuit suicide, but rather than a psychological problem, has its roots in a history of colonialism, paternalism and historical events. Canada Inuit suicide Social construction Narrative research Self-esteem Colonialism |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Tester, Frank James McNicoll, Paule |
spellingShingle |
Tester, Frank James McNicoll, Paule Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
author_facet |
Tester, Frank James McNicoll, Paule |
author_sort |
Tester, Frank James |
title |
Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
title_short |
Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
title_full |
Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
title_fullStr |
Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
title_full_unstemmed |
Isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of Inuit suicide |
title_sort |
isumagijaksaq: mindful of the state: social constructions of inuit suicide |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00504-5 |
geographic |
Arctic Nunavut Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Nunavut Canada |
genre |
Arctic inuit Nunavut |
genre_facet |
Arctic inuit Nunavut |
op_relation |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00504-5 |
_version_ |
1796305717689319424 |