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The ideology of home—essentially the notion that "a woman's place is in the home"— tends to shape the expectations and assumptions of both men and women regarding the interests and abilities of women on the water. In "At Home Afloat: Gender and Domesticity in Northwest Coast Marine Travel Accounts," I analyze those expectations and their effects in a regional context. Reading accounts by female boat tourists between 1861 and 1990, I question the ways that gender influences the roles women play at sea, the spaces they occupy on boats, and the language they use to construct their experiences, their surroundings, and their contact with native peoples. In this dissertation I show women—traditionally forbidden in marine environments —participating in Northwest Coast steam tourism from its initiation, and influencing steamship company promotional language. I trace a history of women who enter the local recreational boating community and alter it with their home-making skills and their demand for "houseboats," and I map how domestic ideology can divide the built space of the boat into gender-specific territories. Women who labor in marine occupations (fishers, towboaters) cope with the limitations of a "masculine" environment. My work shows how female tourists, who typically cruise as "mates" with their captains/husbands, cope with these same limitations while bearing the added responsibility of answering to the patriarchal head of household; as a result, women who gain access to boats through their domestic abilities can be "ghettoized" in the galley. This project hypothesizes that "feminine discourse" (shaped by the Victorian cult of the home), together with the limitations of steamship transportation, led nineteenth-century female boat travellers to portray native women as "counterfeit ladies" and to seek homescapes in the mixed land/seascape. After the turn of the century-with the rise of the myth of the disappearing Indian, and the growing popularity of small-boat cruising—female boat tourists use feminine discourse to question their own position as outsider in the native world. Finally, I show that although literary works rely on seascape metaphors to symbolize woman's escape from the "social moorings" of gender expectations, these travellers tend to depict themselves in traditional domestic roles and find the waterscape largely "indescribable." Their accounts focus on "enfolding" nature into the ship's household, and emphasize female connections to the land.

No description available.

No description available.

Elevated toxaphene levels have been reported in the biota of the Arctic. The purpose of this study is to measure total toxaphene levels in food samples commonly consumed by the Canadian Inuit and study the relationship between concentrations of total toxaphene and individual congeners. A total of 127 Inuit food samples were collected for toxaphene analysis. Total toxaphene and the specific toxaphene congeners including Parlar #26, #40/41, #42, #44, #50 and #62 were detected in the food samples. Total toxaphene concentrations ranged from 13 to 2800 ng/g and various congener concentrations ranged from 0 to 610 ng/g. Concentrations of total toxaphene were strongly correlated with congener concentration in marine mammals and weaker in fish. The sum of congeners Parlar #26, #50 and #62 accounted for 0--15% of total toxaphene in fish and 0--66% in marine mammals. Regression models were used to estimate total toxaphene based on individual or combinations of congener concentrations. Dietary intake was estimated to be 1.07 and 0.78 mug/kg body weight per day in Chesterfield Inlet and Igloolik. Our results show that there is no general conversion factor that can be used to estimate total toxaphene concentrations based on congener measurements.

Over 60% of the population in K'asho Got'ine, NWT, obtained less than 2/3 of the Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI) for vitamin A and calcium, as reported in a previous nutritional assessment. Focus group discussions and a food preference assessment were conducted with adults in order to identify the cultural, ecological, and socioeconomic factors (food attributes) as well as the individual preferences which influence the consumption of vitamin A and calcium-rich traditional and market foods in K'asho Got'ine. The major attributes limiting intakes of traditional food rich in vitamin A and calcium included: lack of equipment for hunting/fishing; seasonality; distance traveled to obtain certain foods; occasional unhealthy appearance of food; no hunter/fisher in the household. The major food attributes reported as barriers to greater intakes of selected market foods were: cost, freshness, intolerance to certain items, availability and unfamiliarity. Foods that received the highest preference scores were rabbit liver, loche liver, and Canada goose meat (smoked/dried) for vitamin A-rich foods and connie eggs, rabbit flesh, woodland and barrenland caribou head for calcium-rich foods. Criteria for selection of traditional and market foods to promote in the community included: (1) convenience of the food; (2) difficulty to overcome barriers to increasing food consumption; (3) concentration level of contaminants in certain traditional food; and (4) food preference score. This study identified available and underutilized traditional and market foods rich in vitamin A and calcium which are most acceptable to the community, and may be promoted in future nutrition intervention programs.

Rates of carbon and peat accumulation were studied in a series of peat landforms within discontinuously frozen peatlands near Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories. An extended distribution of the White River volcanic ash layer was used as a chronostratigraphic horizon to ensure a consistent time span of peat deposition among peat cores and to allow a large core sample size without the expense of radiocarbon dating. Apparent recent carbon accumulation rates measured over the past 1200 years were not significantly different among rich fen, peat plateau, and collapse fen (means 13--14 g C M-2 yr-1). Poor fen and bog mean accumulation rates were 20--22 g C M-2 yr -1 and were not significantly different from each other. Microtopography and water table position appear to be important controls on both carbon and vertical peat accumulation rates. A regional survey incorporating measurements from other parts of the southwestern Northwest Territories and the southeastern Yukon shows rates similar to those near Fort Simpson. / The aggradation of permafrost results in 50 and 65% decreases in carbon and vertical peat accumulation rates, respectively. Carbon and peat accumulation continue to decrease significantly with both increasing permafrost maturity and the number of ground fires. The internal degradation of permafrost results in nearly a doubling in carbon accumulation rates, yet permafrost degradation at the margins of a peat plateau results in carbon accumulation rates similar to the peat plateau. / Clymo's (1984) carbon accumulation model was applied to cores from each landform in addition to a core spanning the entire developmental history of the peatland. Results indicate that true carbon accumulation and sequestration efficiency rates in ombrotrophic peatlands are lower in the upper Mackenzie Valley than for other boreal regions, primarily owing to high decomposition rates. The cessation of carbon accumulation is being approached. The model also serves to highlight the dangers of using apparent and true carbon accumulation rates interchangably. / Apparent and true carbon accumulation rates are significantly lower than published rates from other parts of northern Canada, Finland, and the Former Soviet Union. Low and variable summer precipitation in the region may be a significant factor through increased aerobic decomposition and/or decreased plant production caused by moisture stress.

In areas of transported overburden there is frequently a weak relationship between soil and the underlying mineralized bedrock. Vegetation has the capability to absorb metals from the underlying substrate via its extensive root systems. These metals are translocated to the various organs of the plant such as leaves, twigs bark and roots without negatively impacting on the normal functioning of the plant. The analysis of the vegetation may therefore be used to locate deeply buried mineral targets. The main focus of this investigation was to determine the suitability of A. karroo and B. albitrunca for biogeochemical prospecting for gold in the Blue Dot Mine area. The appraisal of the suitability for both plant species requires an understanding of element absorption and distribution patterns in relation to variable composition of bedrock and associated underlying gold mineralization.

Graduation date: 1993

Graduation date: 1981