Domestic function and Inupiaq households.
OBJECTIVE
This paper examines domestic transitions among Inupiaq households, including changes in household composition, household functions, kin networks, and possibly in cultural ideologies such as ethics of cooperation, achievement, and economic attainment.


METHODS
STN survey data included extensive information on the characteristics of households. This survey data is combined with STN project data from ethnographic accounts and focus groups; socio-economic trend data; and demographic and epidemiological information about community change to gain a clear picture of Inupiaq family structure.


RESULTS
Household data reveal that Inupiaq households living under one roof are rarely an independent entity, either economically or in other ways. Members of one household seldom carry out all the social and economic functions needed to sustain the household. Instead, relatives or friends from two or more households frequently form social networks that support several households.


CONCLUSIONS
Inupiaq families were found to be opportunistic, flexible, and creative in responding to the challenges of daily life. Domestic functions are divided among a network of kinspeople--people who may live in several separate households and even in separate communities--but who consider themselves related.
Craver
Amy
A
Institute of Social and Economic Research, UAA, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA.
D000413:Alaska; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001110:Arctic Regions; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D004930:Inuit; D012426:Russia; D012922:Social Change