| Summary: | The dissertation helps to explain the regionally diverse nature of a major North American Arctic arts and crafts industry. A spatial diffusion analysis of Alaskan and Canadian government production facilities among post-World War II rural Eskimo communities reveals regional variations in both the times and intensities of adoption, and in the cultural and political economic significance of such adoption. The Alaskan and Canadian governments first promoted arts and crafts production facilities among rural North American Eskimo communities after the end of World War II as part of their northern development programs. Although the Alaskan government promoted facilities among only a few communities in the northwest and southwest corners of the state, the Canadian government promoted facilities among more than forty communities throughout the central and eastern regions of the Arctic. Also, the Alaskan facilities have produced primarily ivory curios for a local tourist market, whereas the Canadian facilities have produced stone carvings and prints for the international fine arts market. Furthermore, these latter facilities have provided many Canadian Eskimos with a major source of income and , according to outside observors, a renewed source of cultural pride. Several methodologies are employed in the diffusion analysis. Cartographical techniques reveal two major patterns diffusing outward from the Bering Straits Region in Alaska and the Arctic Quebec Region in Canada. These patterns differ in their rates and intensities of adoption, and in the types of facilities adopted. Historical and statistical techniques confirm a major hypothesis of the study: the diffusion patterns were effected by the rural Eskimos' regionally varied needs for a government sponsored arts and crafts industry, and by the Alaskan and Canadian governments' respective interests in providing rural Eskimos with such an industry. These findings reflect recent developments in the Third World diffusion theory literature: diffusion processes are often ...
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