Divided but together: variation in 18th-century Labrador Inuit housing as seen in House 3 at Double Mer Point (GbBo-2)

Abstract

The sod winter house has been a source relied upon heavily by archaeologists who study the Labrador Inuit past. Research has focused on how the size and construction of houses have changed through time and used those changes as evidence of larger social changes in Labrador Inuit society (Jordan 1978; Jordan and Kaplan 1980; Kaplan 1983, 1985; Kaplan and Woollett 2000; Murphy 2011, 2012; Murphy and Rankin 2014; Richling 1993; Schledermann 1976a, 1976b; Taylor 1976; Whitridge 2008; Woollett 1999, 2003, 2007). However, there are also differences in the design of houses that reflect variation in Inuit housing at certain points in the past. Recently, those designs present during the Communal House Phase of Labrador have been highlighted (Kaplan 2012; Murphy 2011, 2012; Murphy and Rankin 2014), but little work has focused on explaining the reasons for the many different house designs. This thesis offers an explanation for the design of House 3, a house occupied at the winter community of Double Mer Point during the latter half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century.