We're talking about, I would suggest, two very different worlds. Prior to living in settlements, people were nomadic and living in much smaller groups with much greater interdependence, and it has been said with greater equality between the sexes out of necessity. There were occurrences of violence, but they were handled. When we think, in 2016, about shaming as a means of social control, or gossip as a means of social control, or some form of justice, it seems completely irrelevant now, but those were very effective tools, because people had to depend on each other for survival. If you're being ridiculed, and possibly with the threat of banishment, that was pretty significant. No one would advocate returning to drum dancing as a means of settling disputes, but that is something that was used, and it was effective because there were respected leaders.
That's a very large area of study, and there are experts you could certainly meet with. There's a very well-known woman, who's our friend and colleague. Her name is Yvonne Niego. She's Inuk. She recently retired from the V detachment of the RCMP in Iqaluit and is now a senior official working with the Department of Justice at the Government of Nunavut. I spoke to Yvonne within the last year or so just to get an update on what is the status of an intervention or response protocol in the communities. Yvonne said, “In theory, there's a police officer, there's a social worker, and there's a nurse.” In theory, that should be the immediate response. Maybe those positions are filled, or maybe not. Maybe those people are getting along and talking to each other, or maybe not. There's the theory and then there's the practice, and it results in a whole lot of gaps.
You ask a very complicated question. I think I can best help you by referring you to experts like Yvonne Niego and many others.