Youth Suicide and Problems of Modernization in Greenland (From Self-Sufficiency in Northern Justice Issues, P 321-336, 1992, Curt Taylor Griffiths, ed. -- See NCJ- 141302)

• NCJ Number: 141316
• Author(s): J Thorslund
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Northern Justice Soc
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: From a workshop at the fifth meeting of the Northern Justice Society held in Sitka, Alaska, April 1991.

Annotation

This discussion of suicide and modernization among young male Inuits in Greenland focuses on the development of a general theory that can explain the persistently high number of suicides in this group; suicide prevention measures are also recommended.

Abstract

The first phase of this study collected information from a number of public files regarding suicides in Greenland from 1977 to 1986 (403 suicides). The second phase examined interpretations and traditions of suicide among the Inuit, as found in traditional tales, modern prose, poetry, public debate and a nationwide questionnaire distributed to youth aged 15 to 30. The third phase focused on the psychology and development of Inuit youth through an analysis of literature on socialization among the Inuit in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, supplemented by field observations from 2 years of teaching among students in Nuuk from 1986 to 1988. Results from the first phase indicate that suicides are most often committed by youths with a casual relationship to both modern and traditional occupations, as well as among hunters and fishermen. A majority of the suicides involved persons who had socially traumatic experiences in their childhood. The second phase of the study revealed an old tradition of the acceptance of suicide among the Inuit in Greenland. Suicide among the aged, ill, and hungry is widely known and described among the Inuit. Generally, suicide has been widely accepted among the Inuit as a solution when problems are too complex and overwhelming to resolve by other means. The third phase of the study found that modernization has transformed the conditions of socialization and the developmental possibilities of the psychic structure of the Inuit, particularly young males. The Inuit culture has had concepts of autonomy, aggression, and individualization not well suited to the psychic requirements of a capitalistic culture. The theory of suicide developed focuses on how the characteristics of modernization have interacted with Inuit culture to yield a breakdown of traditional norms of behavior and attitudes, leading to isolation, conflict, and psychological stress. According to the theory developed, these forces have contributed to four general types of motives for suicide. These four types of suicide are explained and ways of preventing them are suggested.