The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Qupperneq 41

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
39
Receives Social Research Council Award
John Stephen Matthiasson
John Stephen Matthiasson, of 1117
Wolseley Avenue, Winnipeg, who has
been pursuing doctorate studies in
Anthropology at Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, has been awarded
a $7,000 Social Science Research Coun-
cil, of New York, fellowship, for a
year’s field work among the Eskimos
of Pond Inlet, on Baffin Island.
The field of study will foe “Eskimo
Legal Acculturation”, the nature of the
adjustment made by Eskimos in the
Canadian Arctic to Canadian law.
Pond Inlet, the locality of the pro-
jected research, is a community of fifty-
seven people-seven white persons and
fifty Eskimos—on the north-eastern
shore of Baffin Island.
It is hoped that the study, with the
conclusions arrived at, will be useful
in several ways; that it will give anthro-
pologists further insight into the na-
ture of primitive law, and the psycho-
logical impact of the transition from
one culture to another. Also, the find-
ings should prove useful to admini-
strators concerned with problems of
the Eskimos, especially in the matter
of violations of Canadian law.
In order to facilitate the study, and
to ensure good relations with the
Eskimo population, the researcher
hopes to live with an Eskimo family
during the period of his field work.
Pond Inlet is one of the most inac-
cessible posts in the Canadian Arctic,
where a Government ship calls once
a year, and the native Eskimos still live
under primitive economic and dom-
estic conditions.
John Matthiasson received his B.A.
dergee from the University of Mani-
toba (United College) in 1959. Then
came two years of graduate study in
Sociology at Michigan State Univer
sity, followed by two years of study
in Anthropology at Cornell University.
He has now completed the required
course work for his Ph.D. degree, and
has successfully passed the written and
oral examination in this phase of his
work. There remain a year of field
work and -the writing of a thesis before
receiving his Ph.D. degree.
While pursuing a normal course of
postgraduate studies, John has been
employed as a teaching assistant. He
was Psychology and Laboratory As-
sistant and Special Research Assistant
in his two years at Michigan State Uni-
versity, and Teaching Assistant in his