Eskimo women and a menstrual cycle study: some ethnographic notes

This article examines ethnographic data collected from indigenous Alaskan women who participated in a menstrual cycle study conducted by The Tremin Trust Research Program, initially known as the Menstruation and Reproductive History Program (MRH). In the 1960s, the MRH program was expanded to Alaska to study non-Caucasian women's menstrual cycles. In addition, an ethnographer collected data through participation observation from some 345 women who participated in the MRH study. These data were recorded in field notebooks during site visits to Alaskan villages. Major themes and contextual information were identified in the data that described the daily lives of the women and their experiences as research participants. Eskimo women described the cultural conflicts that arose during the conduct of the menstrual studies and problems encountered when the investigators failed to account for the traditional gender roles in Eskimo society. Cultural differences were apparent when the women described the culturally inappropriate health education provided by the research team. The goals of the menstrual cycle study emphasized research progress rather than the health needs of the research participants; this emphasis accentuated the severity of health problems and the lack of health services experienced by Eskimo women.