Growing up North

The archaeologists who study childhood are ourselves the end product of an approach to learning that is antithetical to how learning occurred in one of the most evocative of foraging cultures: the Inuit. Archaeologists-to-be in most societies undergo direct instruction – ie formal teaching – throughout the many years of their education, starting in preschool. At all levels, from preschool through doctoral studies, learners are encouraged to ask, and are rewarded for asking, questions about everything. Each learner encounters many teachers, who provide active instruction and formally and rigorously evaluate the learner’s progress in acquiring the information or skills being taught. In stark contrast to this, Inuit children were expected to learn on their own, through observation and experimentation. Both direct instruction by adults, and the asking of questions by children, were actively discouraged. In today’s jargon, Inuit foragers emphasise experiential learning. This paper will summarise some of the ethnohistorical information concerning Inuit learning and explore some of the archaeological correlates and implications of emphasising that mode of learning.