Patrick, Donna, 2003 Language, Politics and Social Interaction in an Inuit Community, Berlin and New York, Mouton de Gruyter, Language, Power and Social Process, 8, 269 pages.

Chapter one introduces the research in question: its guiding questions, its relevance, the method followed and theoretical framework adopted. Patrick explains that this book is about linguistic practices in Great Whale River, more specifically about the continued use of Inuktitut among the local Inuit; a vitality that she attributes to broader social processes: “The central argument of this book is that in order to understand the vitality of Inuktitut at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we need to look at both the wider historical, political, and economic processes and at their relation to everyday language practices at the micro-level of interaction” (p. 4). The work is interdisciplinary, inspired by a number of theoretical approaches, firmly anchored in Bourdieu’s (1977, 1982) concept of the linguistic marketplace and symbolic domination. The second chapter contextualizes the study. The research site, Great Whale River, is presented as a settlement composed of three smaller, distinct communities—Inuit (Kuujjuarapik), Cree (Whapmagoostui), and Qallunaat, or Euro-Canadian (Poste-de-la-Baleine)—in which four languages (all thriving) have “currency”: Inuktitut, Cree, French, and English. As Patrick explains, the politics of ethnicity, nationalism, and Aboriginal empowerment over the past 30 years (in Canada and internationally) have molded the context in which current linguistic practices and social processes must be understood. To this end, she briefly discusses political milestones such as modern land claims, the evolution of formal schooling in the North, and Canadian constitutional talks of the early 1990s. These developments are interpreted as both reflecting and contributing to a climate of increased Aboriginal empowerment. Through such illustrations, Patrick shows how the interactions between Aboriginal and Euro-Canadians in Great Whale River are evolving in a national and international context of negotiations of power and identity, where ways of acting out ethnicity (including but not limited to language use) take on particular symbolic importance. Chapter three goes further back in the colonial history of Canada to exemplify the evolution and impact of contact between the two Aboriginal communities, Cree and Inuit, and between these groups and the incoming Europeans. The influences of explorers, traders and missionaries, and, later, of the Canadian and Quebec governments (i.e. both English and French influences) are discussed. Patrick shows, through critical analysis of archival documentation as well as life history interviews, how Inuit, Cree, French and English have represented the other group in relation to themselves and how perceptions of ethnicity have thus been constructed, reflected and perpetuated. Such representations of the groups of people co-inhabiting Great Whale River have shaped and served to justify the social interactions and language practices that are the focus of the book. Chapter four begins the more specific discussion of the case study in Great Whale River based on data collected through questionnaires, interviews, and participant observation. Patrick describes patterns of interaction and language use in terms of two competing and overlapping “markets,” each with its own system of exchange. The “dominant” (i.e. capitalist) market is shaped by “Southern Canadian” values, attitudes and practices and, due to various historical factors, is dominated by English. Although Inuktitut is most clearly associated with the “alternative” (i.e. “traditional”) market, Patrick suggests that its maintenance is intricately, and paradoxically, tied to its modernization and incorporation into the dominant market’s institutions, such as the workplace and schools. French is shown as an increasingly important language, though it is described as “a necessity but not a priority” (p. 128). Inuktitut, English and French are associated with different “forms of power and prestige” (p. 151), where their use is “exchanged” for jobs, relationships, material resources, ethnic and “national” social identities. Chapter five effectively moves from the …