The first is that it moves our understanding of this activity and of Inuit participation beyond the simplistic notion that polar bear sport hunting is a business like any other. Rather, it makes it clear that the wage earned from guiding, and other forms of sport hunt employment, is not of itself the object for Inuit, or, as pointed out by [34], “…(monetary income) is… the means to accomplish and facilitate the harvest, and not an end in itself.” While this is easily appreciated when observing a solitary hunter waiting at a seal's winter breathing hole, it can be overwhelmed by the sums from a single sport hunt, not to mention a full season of ten hunts, brings to Clyde River. Here, these “macro-data” are translated into what they mean for the community through the individuals who work on the hunt.
The other aspect brought out through this analysis is how important these moneys are not only to those who work as guides but also to the Clyde River as a community. To a large degree, the considerable wage earned through sport hunt employment affords the men time in hunting, and the returns that come with that investment, that might otherwise be lost were they to work “normal” 8 h a day jobs in order to acquire and maintain needed equipment (or, given the paucity of employment in the community, they might be unable to hunt at all). In turn, the volume of harvest resulting from their efforts, which in the case of ringed seals is nearly three times that of overall community production (40 seals versus 15 per individual annually), suggests, and is supported by anecdotal data, that at the least each contributes significantly to the flow of food in his respective extended family.
In any number of respects, polar bear trophy hunting is objectively different from Inuit subsistence hunting. However, these differences do not negate the fact that sport hunt wages are an important factor in the material maintenance of traditional subsistence production, as demonstrated here production in the realm of 8000 kg annually. Nor does the fact that Inuit work on polar bear sport hunts trivialize the cultural role and importance of subsistence. Rather, this examination underscores the degree to which Inuit invest themselves in the maintenance of their social economy.