Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-s6l46 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T14:31:15.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inuit Natality Rhythms in the Central Canadian Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Richard G. Condon
Richard G. Condon
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Seasonal variation in human natality is examined over a period of several decades for an isolated Inuit settlement in the central Canadian Arctic. The results substantiate earlier reports of the existence of a birth season in the first half of the year. The 2-decade period coinciding with the gradual concentration of the regional population into the settlement experienced a temporary disruption of this traditional rhythmic pattern. Family planning has been introduced in the modern period, yet birth seasonality is even more pronounced than during previous decades. Both planned and unplanned births occur predominantly in the first half of the year, indicating the paramount importance of behavioural and social responses to extreme seasonal variation.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 1982 , pp. 167 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © 1982, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amoroso, E. & Matthews, L. (1955) The effect of external stimuli on the breeding cycle of birds and mammals. Br. med. Bull. 11, 87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aschoff, J. (1965) Circadian rhythms in man. Science, N.Y. 148, 1427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Batschelet, E., Hillman, D., Smolensky, M. & Halberg, F. (1973) Angular linear correlation co-efficient for rhythmometry and circannual changes of human births at different latitudes. Int. J.Chronobiol. 1, 183.Google Scholar
Birket-Smith, K. (1928) The Greenlanders of the present day. In: Greenland, Vol. 2, pp. 1–207. Commission for the Direction of the Geological and Geographical Investigations in Greenland, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Brimblecombe, F. & Barltrok, D. (1978) Children in Health and Disease. Bailliere Tindall, London.Google Scholar
Chang, K.S.F., Chan, S.T., Low, W.D. & Ng, C.K. (1963) Climate and conception rates in Hong Kong. Hum. Biol. 35, 366.Google ScholarPubMed
Condon, R.G. (1981) Inuit Behaviour and Seasonal Change: A Study of Behavioural Ecology in the Central Canadian Arctic. PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Cook, F.A. (1897) Some physical effects of arctic cold, darkness, and light. Med. Rec. N.Y. 51, 833.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. (1964) Recent variations in the season of birth in Puerto Rico. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 52, 1149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowgill, U. (1966a) The season of birth in man: the northern New World. Pap. Kroeber anthrop. Soc. 35, 1.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. (1966b) Season of birth in man: contemporary situation with special reference to Europe and the southern hemisphere. Ecology, 47, 614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowgill, U. (1966c) Historical study of the season of birth in the city of York. England. Nature, Lond. 209 1067.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowgill, U. (1970) The people of York. Scient. Am. 222, 104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farner, D.A. (1959) Photoperiodic control of annual gonadal cycles in birds. In: Photoperiodism and Related Phenomena in Plants and Animals, p. 717. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hafez, E. (1952) Studies on the breeding season and reproduction of the ewe. I. The breeding season in different environments. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 42, 189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafez, E. (1959) Studies on the breeding season and reproduction of the ewe, II. The breeding season in one locality. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 42, 199.Google Scholar
Halberg, F. (1970) Body temperature, circadian rhythms, and the eye. In: La Photoregulation de la Reproductionchez les Oiseaux, pp. 497–528. Edited by Benoit, J. and Assenmacher, I.. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.Google Scholar
Hellbrugge, T. (1960) The development of circadian rhythms in infants. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 25, 311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenness, D. (1922) The Life of the Copper Eskimos. Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1918. Vol. 7, part A. Acland, King's Printer, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Johnson, J.T., Ann, T.B. & Palan, V.T. (1975) Seasonality of births for West Malaysia's two main racial groups. Hum. Biol. 47, 295.Google ScholarPubMed
Kirk, D. (1961) The influence of business cycles on marriage and birth rates. In: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pp. 241–260. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Knobloch, H. & Pasamanick, B. (1958) Seasonal variation in births of mentally deficient. Am. J. publ. Hlth, 48, 1201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Llewellyn, J. (1932) Light and sexual periodicity. Nature, Lond. 129, 868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lobban, M. (1960) The entrainment of circadian rhythms in man. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 25, 325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lobban, M. (1967) Daily rhythms of excretion in Arctic-dwelling Indians and Eskimos. Q. J. exp. Physiol. 52, 401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luce, G. (1970) Biological Rhythms in Psychiatry and Medicine. National Institute of Mental Health, Maryland.Google Scholar
Malina, R.M. & Himes, J.H. (1977) Seasonality of births in a rural Zapotec municipio. Hum. Biol. 49, 125.Google Scholar
Pasamanick, B., Dinitz, S. & Knobloch, H. (1959) Geographic and seasonal variations in births. Publ. Hlth Rep., Wash. 74, 285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pasamanick, B., Dinitz, S. & Knobloch, H. (1960) Socio-economic and seasonal variations in birth rates. Milbank meml Fund q. Bull. 38, 248.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quetelet, L.A.J. (1826) Memoire sur les lois des naissances et de la mortalité a Bruxelles. Nouv. Mém. Acad. Sci. Bruxelles, 3, 495.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, K. (1932) Intellectual Culture of the Copper Eskimos. Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924, Vol. 9. Geyldendal, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Reinberg, A. (1973) Biological rhythms and energy balance in man. In: Energy Balance in Man. Edited by Apfelbaum, M.. Masson, Paris.Google Scholar
Reinberg, A. (1974) Aspects of circannual rhythms in man. In: Circannual Rhythms: Annual Biological Rhythms. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Scaglion, R. (1978) Seasonal births in a Western Abelam village, Papua New Guinea. Hum. Biol. 50, 313.Google Scholar
Scaglion, R. & Condon, R.G. (1979) Abelam yam beliefs and sociorhythmicity: a study in chronoanthropology. J. biosoc. Sci. 11, 17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharp, G. (1960) The effects of light on the morning increase of urine flow. J. Endocr. 21, 219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, H. & Bohlen, J. (1973) Latitude and the human circadian system. In: Biological Aspects of Circadian Rhythms. Edited by Mills., J. N.Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Smolensky, M., Halberg, F. & Sargent, F. (1972) Chronobiology of the life sequence. In: Advances in Climatic Physiology. Edited by Itoh, S., Ogata, K. and Yoshimura, H.. Igaku Shoin, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Stefansson, V. (1913) My Life with the Eskimo. MacMillan, New York.Google Scholar
Stefansson, V. (1919) The Stefansson-Anderson Arctic Expedition: preliminary ethnological report. Anthrop. Pap. Am. Mus. nat. Hist. 14, 445.Google Scholar
Stefansson, V. (1921) The Friendly Arctic. MacMillan, New York.Google Scholar
Stoeckel, J. & Choudhury, A.K.M.A. (1972) Seasonal variation in births in rural East Pakistan. J. biosoc. Sci. 4, 107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Takahashi, E. (1964) Seasonal variation of conception and suicide. Tohoku J. exp. Med. 84, 215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Usher, P. (1965) Economic Basis and Resource Use of the Coppermine-Holman Region, N.W.T. Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Weyer, E.M. (1932) The Eskimos. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Wurtman, R. (1975) The effects of light on the human body. Scient. Am. 233, 69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zelnik, M. (1969) Socioeconomic and seasonal variations in births: a replication. Milbank meml Fund q. Bull. 47, 159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed