Povungnituk Soapstone Carving

Soapstone Eskimo Carving, Povungnituk Eskimo

This Inuit soapstone sculpture depicts a woman scraping a seal hide. The sculpture is the work of an indigenous artist from from Povungnituk, Quebec, an Inuit community far North in the Canadian Arctic. What defines the gender of this figure is the ulu or woman’s knife being used. Inuit gender roles are more focused on the reciprocity of labor distribution rather than the inherent gender of a task. Men would generally hunt, fish, and provide other raw materials for the women to process and refine into food, clothing and other goods. This reciprocal labor distribution helps both the men and women survive in the harsh conditions of the Arctic. It was not uncommon for women to be strong hunters as well as carrying out domestic tasks. The figure may represent an ideal Inuit woman; strong, skillful, hardworking and able to do tasks necessary to keep her husband and children warm and fed.