Seth, can you report what version of automake you're using? Kees' hypothesis suggests that you're using 1.9.
Yeah, I'm running 1.9.4. I realized this could pose a problem after Kees mentioned it. I've not had the time to do another compile, though. Do we know the nature of the automake bug? If so, is anyone interfacing with the automake group to resolve the issues? (I believe that the version that I have is still a beta.) I can't see it being good if Inkscape can't build when automake 2.0 comes along (whenever that will be).
Do you have the ability to try out other versions of automake? If he is correct (as he usually is), you should find that automake 1.8 compiles correctly. It also suggests that there is breakage in our build system's detection of automake versions.
I can go ahead and grab/compile automake 1.8.x and give it a go. I have a feeling that the build system is a bit messed up as I'm using some items from Debian packages and some self-compiled. Invariably this causes problems, but attempting to purge my system of the Debian versions makes APT want to uninstall my entire system (everything depends on gcc!).
Looks like it's time to roll my own distro.
I'll post the results when I run an automake 1.8 compile.
--Seth