MARIEKATHRINE POPPEL

Cand. Scient Adm. PhD-student.

Domestic Violence: categorization in Greenland's pre-colonial and colonial periods.

Men's violence against women has had different meanings and interpretations in different periods.

In the pre-colonial and colonial periods for instance the power in the small communities in Greenland was in the hands of the ittu (the head of the family). The Ittu used violence as a resource to obtain or sustain his power in the family.

In the Narratives of Aron from Kangeq (Thisted 1999) violence can be categorized as: physical violence, as a reaction to powerlessness, revenge and jalousie; a "cultural death sentence", as reaction to loss of supporters; and isolation, as a reaction to psychical violence and integrity violation.

Domestic violence is related to social, economic and cultural circumstances in the communities, and by categorizing these it is possible to discover some social values within the families in the pre-colonial and colonial periods.

My paper will describe, categorize and analyze domestic violence in the pre-colonial and colonial periods.