Analysing the effects of spatial configuration on human movement and social interaction in Canadian Arctic communities

In the archaeological record, the rise of sedentary communities is often a gradual process involving increasing settlement nucleation, and the indigenous development of more complex levels of community organization. In contrast, the creation of permanent nucleated settlements in the Canadian Arctic by the Federal Government in the 1950s and 1960s introduced Inuit families to settled community life almost overnight. The layout and design of these new arctic towns were based upon Euro-Canadian concepts of community structure, administrative control, and social cooperation. Roads, utility hookups, and building codes replaced cultural values, familial ties, and the requirements of traditional activities in determining the placement of roads and homes within settlements. Axial analysis is used to examine the effect that the spatial configuration of Canadian arctic communities has had on patterns of movement and social interaction among Inuit inhabitants. Analysis of field observations conducted over a two-month period in the hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut Territory indicate that integration is a much better predictor of vehicular than pedestrian traffic, and that each is characterized by a different pattern of movement. I argue that this unique pattern of pedestrian movement is generated by cultural values in Inuit society which stress the need for regular face-to-face contact among members of extended families. These results may have important implications for northern community planning. Introduction In 1950, V. Gordon Childe published an article in The Town Planning Review entitled “The Urban Revolution” in which he defined the traits associated with the origins of urbanism in the archaeological record. Among the attributes he outlined was the presence of conspicuous order in the spatial configuration of towns and cities. The formalization of building and activity locations within settlements was viewed as evidence for the existence of architects and planners who possessed the power to make decisions regarding the location of new buildings and facilities. Out of these decisions emerged the urban grid – a mechanism for generating and sustaining patterns of human movement and encounter which defined a shared way of life. In the archaeological record, the emergence of urbanism represents the culmination of