Dr Friederike Hillemann (MPI-EVA): 'Socio-economic correlates of Inuit food production and sharing' School of Psychology and Neuroscience Seminar

Dr Friederike Hillemann (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) will be hosted by Kirsty Graham for this online talk.

In the North American Arctic, mixed cash-subsistence economies have been well-established for decades, and Inuit today continue to harvest and share local foods, whether hunted, fished, gathered, for their high cultural and nutritional value compared to imported food. However, involvement with traditional subsistence activities is variable within Indigenous Arctic communities. I will present analyses of individual and social determinants of Inuit food production to show how and why harvesters vary in their contributions. Access to subsistence resources is strongly affected by the increasing costs of hunting activities, with consequences for people's food sharing potential, food security, and socio-cultural identity. I discuss potential implications for the long-term resilience of Arctic food systems to ongoing social, economic, and profound environmental change.