Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic
In 1903-04, men and officers of the Era and the Neptune and local Inuit socialized extensively while the two ships wintered near Fullerton Harbour (Nunavut). Square dances, the most popular shipboard events, functioned as sites where racial differences were manipulated and enacted through social per...
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Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto
2011
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ftuninewbrunojs:oai:ojs.journals.lib.unb.ca:article/18574 2023-05-15T15:11:47+02:00 Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic Davis-Fisch, Heather 2011-05-01 text/html application/pdf https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574 eng eng Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574/20168 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574/20169 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574 Copyright (c) 2015 Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada; Volume 32, Number 1 (2011) 1913-9101 1196-1198 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 2011 ftuninewbrunojs 2022-07-11T11:51:01Z In 1903-04, men and officers of the Era and the Neptune and local Inuit socialized extensively while the two ships wintered near Fullerton Harbour (Nunavut). Square dances, the most popular shipboard events, functioned as sites where racial differences were manipulated and enacted through social performance. Examining Inuit women’s choice to wear "white" clothing to these dances allows one to see a specific way that costuming and social performance facilitated intercultural sociability and interracial sexual relationships. Providing clothing that made Inuit women appear more "white" and teaching them square dances allowed whalers to contain, ostensibly, the threat posed by "going native" through miscegenation; however, the clothing also highlighted the women’s racial alterity. Non-Inuit men also produced social performances to facilitate interracial sexual liaisons: the relationships that whalers developed with Inuit women resembled the spousal exchanges practiced in many Inuit communities and their behaviour toward Inuit children mimicked the traditional behaviour of Inuit men toward their families. The sexual and social performances produced by Inuit women and non-Inuit men were recognized as "pretend" by those who witnessed and participated in them, but they also created an actual sense of intercultural community among whalers and Inuit. Considering the community as constituted through performance locates it as a specific site at which ethnicity, like gender, emerges as a performative rather than expressive marker of identity, demonstrating how racial and ethnic identities are "tenuously constituted in time [. . .] instituted through a stylized repetition of acts [. . .] through the stylization of the body" (Butler 519). Résumé En 1903-1904, l’équipage et les officiers des navires Era et Neptune ont noué des relations importantes avec les Inuits de Fullerton Harbour, au Nunavut, pendant que leurs vaisseaux y hivernaient. La danse carrée, l’activité la plus populaire à bord du bateau, permettait aux ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic inuit inuits Nunavut University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals Arctic Nunavut |
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Open Polar |
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University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftuninewbrunojs |
language |
English |
description |
In 1903-04, men and officers of the Era and the Neptune and local Inuit socialized extensively while the two ships wintered near Fullerton Harbour (Nunavut). Square dances, the most popular shipboard events, functioned as sites where racial differences were manipulated and enacted through social performance. Examining Inuit women’s choice to wear "white" clothing to these dances allows one to see a specific way that costuming and social performance facilitated intercultural sociability and interracial sexual relationships. Providing clothing that made Inuit women appear more "white" and teaching them square dances allowed whalers to contain, ostensibly, the threat posed by "going native" through miscegenation; however, the clothing also highlighted the women’s racial alterity. Non-Inuit men also produced social performances to facilitate interracial sexual liaisons: the relationships that whalers developed with Inuit women resembled the spousal exchanges practiced in many Inuit communities and their behaviour toward Inuit children mimicked the traditional behaviour of Inuit men toward their families. The sexual and social performances produced by Inuit women and non-Inuit men were recognized as "pretend" by those who witnessed and participated in them, but they also created an actual sense of intercultural community among whalers and Inuit. Considering the community as constituted through performance locates it as a specific site at which ethnicity, like gender, emerges as a performative rather than expressive marker of identity, demonstrating how racial and ethnic identities are "tenuously constituted in time [. . .] instituted through a stylized repetition of acts [. . .] through the stylization of the body" (Butler 519). Résumé En 1903-1904, l’équipage et les officiers des navires Era et Neptune ont noué des relations importantes avec les Inuits de Fullerton Harbour, au Nunavut, pendant que leurs vaisseaux y hivernaient. La danse carrée, l’activité la plus populaire à bord du bateau, permettait aux ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Davis-Fisch, Heather |
spellingShingle |
Davis-Fisch, Heather Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
author_facet |
Davis-Fisch, Heather |
author_sort |
Davis-Fisch, Heather |
title |
Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
title_short |
Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full |
Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Girls in "White" Dresses, Pretend Fathers: Interracial Sexuality and Intercultural Community in the Canadian Arctic |
title_sort |
girls in "white" dresses, pretend fathers: interracial sexuality and intercultural community in the canadian arctic |
publisher |
Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574 |
geographic |
Arctic Nunavut |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Nunavut |
genre |
Arctic inuit inuits Nunavut |
genre_facet |
Arctic inuit inuits Nunavut |
op_source |
Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada; Volume 32, Number 1 (2011) 1913-9101 1196-1198 |
op_relation |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574/20168 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574/20169 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/18574 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada |
_version_ |
1766342577998528512 |