In a riveting narrative, psychological anthropologist Jean L. Briggs takes us through six
months of dramatic interactions in the life of Chubby Maata, a three-year-old girl growing
up in a Baffin Island hunting camp. The book examines the issues that engaged the child -
belonging, possession, love - and shows the process of her growing. Briggs questions the
nature of "sharedness" in culture and assumptions about how culture is transmitted. She
suggests that both cultural meaning and strong personal commitment to one's world can
be (and perhaps must be) acquired not by straightforwardly learning attitudes, rules, and
habits in a dependent mode but by experiencing oneself as an agent engaged in
productive conflict in emotionally problematic situations. Briggs finds that dramatic play is
an essential force in Inuit social life. It creates and supports values; engenders and
manages attachments and conflicts; and teaches and maintains an alert, experimental,
constantly testing approach to social relationships.
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