The Hudson Bay Eskimos

Unpaginated      |      Vol_VIII-0059                                                                                                                  
EA-Anthropology

(Kaj Birket-Smith)

THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMOS

	Page
Introduction	1
Exploration and Contact with White Men	4
Physical Anthropology and Linguistics	6
Culture	7
Bibliography	17

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EA-Anthropology

(Kaj Birket-Smith)

       

THE HUDSON BAY ESKIMOS

       

Introduction

        The term Hudson Bay Eskimos is here defined as comprising there tribal

groups to the west and northwest of Hudson Bay — the Caribou, Netsilik, and

Iglulik — all of which, though closely related to each other physically,

Linguistically, and culturally, are still sufficiently distinct to consider

themselves separate units. Each group is again a loose congeries of "tribes"

in the usual Eskimo sense of the word, i.e., not in a political or economic

meaning but as a convenient designation of minor local communities. In con–

sequence, the number both of "tribes" and of the families they comprise is far

from being stable and is, in effect, arbitrary. The following are, however,

more or less generally accepted:

        I. Caribou Eskimos. In the treeless country west of Hudson Bay from

the timber line in the south to the watershed between Back River and Thelon

River-Baker Lake in the north; on the upper course of the Thelon and west of

the Dubawnt they seldom, or never, come. (1) Padlermiut ("willow* people")

from Churchill northward to Dawson Inlet and inland where lakes Hikoligyuaq

and Maguse are important centers of population. The westernmost Padlermiut

*Padlirk or pallark is, properly, the fu zz of the pussy willow.

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are known to the inhabitants of the coast as Ahiaqmiut ("the out-of-the-way–

ones") and those near Maguse Lake are often called Tahiuharmiut ("people of

the place like a lake"). (2) Harvaqtormiut ("people of the place abounding

in rapids") on the lower Kazan and to the northwest thereof. (3) Hauneqtormiut

("people of the place where bones abound") on the coast between Dawson and

Rankin Inlets and inland toward the Kazen. (4) Qaernermiut ("people of the

flat land," formerly erroneously called Kinipetu) in the Baker Lake region,

extending as far as Schultz Lake. Qaerneq being the name of the country be–

hind Rankin Inlet, it is probable that their territory has shifted to the north–

west. The northwesternmost Qaernermiut are sometimes called Ahiaqmiut ("salmon

berries people").

        II. Netsilik Eskimos ("people of the sealing places" ). North of the

Caribou Eskimos on the middle and lower courses of Back River and the coast

from Queen Maud Gulf in the west to Simpson Peninsula in the east, whence a

number of families have migrated to Repulse Bay within the present century.

(1) Ualiarlit ("western ones") on lakes Pelly, Garry, and Macdougall. (2)

Haningayormiut ("people of that which lies opposite") between Lake Macdougall

and Lake Franklin. (3) Utkuhigyalingmiut ("people of the soapstone place")

at the mouth and the lower part of Back River. (4) Ugyulingmiut ("people

of the bearded-seal place"), originally on the Adelaide Peninsula but, after

a famine that greatly reduced their numbers, they joined the Utkuhigyalingmiut.

(5) Netsilingmiut ("people of the ringed-seal place") on the Boothia Isthmus.

The Ilivilermiut ("mainland people") now inhabiting Adelaide Peninsula, the

Qeqertarmiut ("island people")at the mouth of Murchison River, the Kitlermiut

("people living westernmost out by the sea") on Boothia Peninsula north of the

Isthmus, and the Arvertormiut ("people of the place where bowhead-whales abound")

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at Bellot Strait are all subtribes of the Netsilingmiut proper. The slow

pushing to the west, which probably took place in the 19th century and re–

sulted in the occupation of Adelaide Peninsula and King William Island, was

mainly due to the shortage of driftwood at Boothia Peninsula. (6) Sinimiut

("people of the edge") on the east coast of Boothia Peninsula, now practically

extinct as a result of disease in the beginning of the 20th century. Their

country was taken over by the (7) Arviligyuarmiut ("people of the bowhead

whaling place") at Pelly Bay. As early as the latter half of the 19th century

members of this tribe came to the Hudson Bay region attracted by the whalers

and later by the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company trading post at

Repulse Bay.

        III. Iglulik Eskimos ("people of the house plare" — village). On the

west side of Roe's Welcome from Chesterfield Inlet to Repulse Bay, on Melville

Peninsula, and northern Baffin Island. (1) Aivilingmiut ("people of the walrus

place") on the coast between Chesterfield Inlet and Cape Wilson whence they

have immigrated to Southampton Island after the extermination by disease of the

aboriginal population, the Sadlermiut in the winter of 1902-03. (2) Igluling–

miut ("people of the house place") on the east coast of Melville Peninsula

north of Cape Jermain and on both shores of Fury and Hecla Strait. (3) Tununer–

miut ("people of the backside of the land") at Ponds and Admiralty inlets in

northern Baffin Island.

        It is scarcely possible to give a pr e é cis of the numbers of these groups.

The constantly roving habits of the population and the fact that each person

may appear under several names make illusory the idea that a real census has

been taken. However, according to the investigations of the Fifth Thule Ex–

pedition 1921-24 the total number of the Caribou, Netsilik, and Iglulik Eskimos

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was 467, 259 (excluding an indefinite but small number of immigrants to Hudson

Bay), and 504, respectively. Even though these numbers no doubt are rather

too small they indicate a remarkably sparse population. This is confirmed by

the official population statistics of 1947.

       

Exploration and Contact with White Men

        The first contact with the Hudson Bay Eskimos dates back to the beginning

of the seventeenth century, after Baffin discovered Lancaster Sound, when sev–

eral expeditions, in their vain attempts to find a Northwest Passage, sailed

along the western shores of Hudson Bay. In general little is known about these

voyages, and they contributed little information on the inhabitants of the

country. Some meager details are contained in the few existing reports of the

expeditions of the following century, whereas some general descriptions of

Hudson Bay from the same period have either practically nothing on the people

or refer to those east of the bay.

        A new era in the history of these regions opened up when the search for

the Northwest Passage was revived in the early part of the nineteenth century.

On their first expeditions in 1818 and 1819-20, respectively, both John Ross

and W. E. Parry visited northern Baffin Island. It was, however, their second

journeys which resulted in their most important contributions to Eskimology.

During their stay at Winter Island and Iglulik, Parry and his second-in-command,

G. F. Lyon, had intimate connections with the native population and gave excel–

lent accounts of their life. While Ross's description of the Netailik Eskimos

cannot compare with these, it nevertheless contains much valuable information.

        In the following years these regions were explored by an increasing number

of expeditions all of which, however, were more engaged in geographical discoveries

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and the search for traces of the ill-fated Franklin expedition than in ethno–

graphical observations. Three expeditions form, to some extent at least, ex–

ceptions to the rule, viz., M'Clintock's voyage on the Fox and Hall's and

Schwatka's sledge journeys to King William Island. Valuable notes, though of

a casual and sporadic character, are included in the reports of some later

journeys, e.g., those of J.B. and J.W. Tyrrell, Hanbury, Low and others.

Amundsen spent the years 1903-05 among the inhabitants of King William Island,

as the leader of the Gjøa expedition, and gave a sketch of their life which

forms an excellent supplement to that of Ross.

        The fundamental ethnographical work on this region is Franz Boas's des–

cription of the Eskimos of Baffin Island and Hudson Bay, based upon the notes

of Captain George Comer. Not until the Fifth Thule Expedition of 1921-24,

however, were these people subjected to scientific investigation, viz., by

Knud Rasmussen, Therkel Mathiassen, and Kaj Birket-Smith. Their researches

have been continued by archaeologists and ethnologists, including Tom Manning,

Graham Rowley, and Jean Gabus.

        It will be seen that although our knowledge is or rather recent date,

contact with white men began in the early days of arctic exploration. Of para–

mount importance was the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670 and

the construction of Fort Prince of Wales at Churchill around 1718, whence a

regular trade with the Eskimos on the west coast of Hudson Bay was carried on.

The influence of this trade was, however, rather superficial, and the effects

of acculturation were not pronounced until American whalers appeared in Hudson

Bay around 1860. The influence of this contact was greatest among the Aiviling–

miut. Still, they retained most of their old habits except for the introduction

of certain foreign goods, and among the groups farther away from the whaling

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grounds there was hardly any change at all. Whaling was at its height about

1870; since 1900 only a few whalers have wintered in Hudson Bay. In 1903 a

station of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a Hudson's Bay Company trad–

ing post were established at Fullerton, but were removed to Chesterfield a

few years later. Here a Roman Catholic mission was also established in 1912.

Since then contact in the Hudson Bay area has vastly increased, with the

establishment of additional trading stations, and the operations of weather

reporting stations and air bases.

       

Physical Anthropology and Linguistics

        Physically the Hudson Bay Eskimos are typical representatives of their

race, especially as it occurs among the eastern tribes. The average stature,

calculated from measurements of 105 adult males, is 160.6 cm., i.e.., sub–

medium without being small in the anthropological sense of the word. The hair

is black and generally straight, although slightly wavy hair is not so uncom–

mon as might be supposed. The beard is decidedly less prolific than among

Europeans. The color of the skin is rather light and of a grayish-yellowish

tone. A bluish, so-called "Mongolian" patch is commonly observed across the

loins of infants. The iris of the eye is almost always brown, and there is

sometimes an epicanthic ("Mongolian") fold, though not as commonly as often

supposed. The head is relatively large, with a mean cephalic index of 77.3,

i.e., mesocephalic with a distinct leaning toward dolichocephaly. The cheek

bones are wide, the jaws massive, and the face often gives a flat impression.

As a rule it is mesoprosopic, with a mean facial index of 86.4. The nose is

usually well shaped, with a straight or slightly sinuous ridge. The mean nasal

index of 71.3 is within the mesorrhinic group, but close to leptorrhinism.

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The body is robust and muscular, with a well-developed chest. The length of

the leg is remarkably great compared with the short-legged Greenlanders. On

the other hand, the arms are rather short, as are also the hands and feet.

        The language of the Hudson Bay region Eskimos is closely related to that

of other eastern Eskimos. With very little practice a native of Greenland or

Labrador is able to converse freely with them. Although there are some slight

differences in the vocabulary, the most striking difference is in certain

phonetic distinctions. Most prominent among these is a retrogressive labial–

ization and vularization of the consonants which has taken place in Greenland.

In Labrador, on the southern part of Baffin Island, and among the Iglulik

Eskimos we find uvularization, but no labialization; among the Netsilik and

Caribou groups neither of them occurs.

       

Culture

        The establishment of trading posts and missions within the territory of

the Hudson Bay Eskimos has caused profound changes in native life during the

last few decades. Rifles and steel traps have superseded the old-fashioned

bows and stone traps; matches have displaced the use of fire drill or pyrites;

flour, tea, sugar, etc., have been introduced; and cast-off European clothing

is often worn in summertime. The social and religious life has been affected

far less. In the following sketch these recent traits are ignored, and only

aboriginal conditions are taken into consideration. For convenience, the present

tense is used throughout.

        Numerous house ruins at the coast testify that the so-called Thule culture

once prevailed in these regions, but succumbed when groups from the interior,

the ancestors of the present Netsilik and Iglulik people and close relatives

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of the Caribou group, pushed down to the sea. This event, which is supposed

to be mainly the outcome of an upheaval of the land that caused the great whales

and walruses to disappear from the shallow waters of the Northwest Passage,

probably took place only a few centuries ago. There isevidence that an off–

shoot of the Thule culture survived on the west coast of Hudson Bay up to the

middle of the eighteenth century; it existed on Southampton Island until 1902-03,

when the original inhabitants were exterminated by disease. Moreover, it is

likely that the Thule people, at Least to some degree, mixed with the intruders.

Netsilik and even more so Iglulik culture still contain a rich inheritance from

their Thule predecessors; their implements and methods of sea-mammal hunting

as well as a considerable number of other culture elements all seem to be more

or less copied from Thule patterns.

        We find the simplest culture type among the Caribou Eskimos. Of these

only a few Qaernermiut families have an intimate connection with the sea, and

it is evident that it dates only from the wintering of the American whalers in

the 19th century. Only the Hauneqtormiut and scarcely half of the Padlermiut

visit the coast of Hudson Bay every summer, where they are engaged in hunting

walrus, and ringed and bearded seals at the ice edge. Kayaks and harpoons are

the common implements used. Nevertheless, even this group is far from being

attached to the sea. Their annual sojourn at the coast does not exceed two

months, and winter camps are never found there. The meat of sea mammals is

rarely eaten when caribou meat is at hand; blubber is used only for lighting,

never for heating or cooking.

        Probably more than half of the Caribou Eskimos live on the arctic prairies

all the year round without ever coming down to the sea, and depend entirely

upon caribou hunting and on fishing in rivers and lakes. In autumn the founda–

tion of the following year's economy is laid by the important hunts when the

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caribou herds, during their migration southward, cross the rivers and lakes.

For this purpose line of stone cairns, sometimes several miles long, are built

in such a manner that the animals, on coming over a ridge, are suddenly confronted

by them. The caribou then move along, guided by the lines of cairns, to the

place where the hunters lie in wait with kayaks and lances or, if the row does

not end at a river or a lake, with bows and arrows. During the autumn trout

run, fishing is also pursued with leisters at stone weirs. In this manner a

store of food is collected sufficient for a great part of the winter, while at

the same time caribou skins are procured for winter clothing. Some caribou [ ?]

always remain on the prairie even in the most severe winter, and these are

hunted by means of pitfalls. Musk-ox hunting is now prohibited by the Canadian

government, but fox trapping has become important. The occupation subject to

fewest changes perhaps is fishing, which is first practiced with the leister,

later with the hook. It seems that formerly the Caribou Eskimos were also aware

of the method of fishing with harpoons from snow huts on the lake ice. Never–

theless, there usually occurs a period of want at the end of the winter. Only

with the arrival of the caribou herds in spring is the turning point reached.

The first to come are the cows with young, then the cows with year-old calves,

and lastly, well into the summer, the old bulls. The hunting methods are essen–

tially the same as during the autumn. When the summer trout run starts, fishing

is carried on at the weirs.

        The Netsiliks at Back River now live in much the same way as the inland

Caribou Eskimos, but, formerly at least, the Utkuhigyalingmiut visited the sea

in the late winter and carried on sealing at the breathing holes, not so much

for the sake of eating at the time but to procure oil for the next autumn and

early winter. As a whole, life in summer and autumn among all Netsilik people

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differs little from that of the Caribou group. The principal difference is

in the way they spend the winter.

        When the autumn caribou hunts have ceased and the women have finished

the new winter clothing, the Netsilik Eskimos start for the sea ice where the

seals have their breathing holes. Here hunting is carried on with harpoons.

When most of the seals in a given vicinity have been secured, the camp is moved

to another place on the ice. Sometimes a snow house is built over one of the

narrow cracks formed by the currents, and the seal is harpooned from the inside

of the hut. Another method, where two hunters work together, one lying on his

belly looking into the water and guiding the harpoon while his companion holds it

ready to thrust, is now obsolete.

        In late spring when the seals climb up on to the ice and bask in the sun,

the hunter pretends to be a seal and, with seal-like behavior manages to get

near enough so he can use his harpoon. This method is not much practiced, how–

ever, because basking seals are not numerous until so late in the spring that

the ice is more or less covered with water pools.

        Thus the winter and spring occupations of the Netsilik group show an adap–

tation to the sea ice foreign to the Caribou Eskimos. Among the Iglulik the

connection with the sea is even closer, although not nearly so intimate as,

for example, among the inhabitants of southern Greenland or the west coast of

Alaska. The Iglulik, like the Netsilik Eskimos, spend most of the year in

caribou hunting, trout fishing, and sealing on the ice; but, as soon as the

ice breaks up, seals, walrus, and, more rarely, white whales (beluga) are pur–

sued from kayaks, and this form of hunting is continued as long as there is

open water. The length of the open season varies, of course, according to local

conditions, but generally lasts from the beginning of August to the middle of

September.

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        The prominent place occupied by caribou hunting means that bows and arrows

are of paramount importance among the weapons. The bow stave is of wood, or

spliced together of pieces of antler or musk-ox horn, and is simple or double–

curved, or with reflex wings. In most cases there is a backing of sinew braid

of the types known as secondary eastern or primary arctic, the latter only among

the Netsilik Eskimos. The arrows are provided with heads of antler, either

barbless or with single or double barbs, and sometimes with a separate iron

blade. The feathering consists of two tangentially placed feathers. The re–

lease is the so-called Mediterranean. Bows and arrows are carried in cases and

quivers of skin.

        There are different types of harpoons. The ordinary ice-hunting harpoon

has a detachable toggle head with a line of sealthong or braided sinew. It is

placed on a shaft of wood or antler with a firmly attached, long and slender

foreshaft, likewise of antler. For walrus hunting on the ice a similar harpoon

with a heavy wooden shaft and a short ivory foreshaft is used. Narwhal and

white shale are hunted by means of harpoons similar to the walrus harpoon; the

foreshaft is, however, detachable, and to the end of the line a float made of

a whole sealskin is attached; a drag, consisting of a piece of sealskin is stretch–

ed over a wooden frame, is made fast to the line in front of the float. For

sealing from the kayak they use a light harpoon, likewise with a detachable

foreshaft, but the line is lashed to the shaft to which also a bladder, instead

of the big float, is made fast.

        The lance for caribou hunting is a simple spear with an iron blade set

into a long shaft of wood or antler, whereas the walrus and sealing lance is

heavier and has a blade inserted into a detachable foreshaft of bone or ivory.

Among the Iglulik, birds are caught with a two- or three-pronged bird dart,

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sometimes with sideprongs, and thrown by means of a throwing board. Fish are

speared with a three-pronged leister used in connection with a fish-shaped de–

coy. Barbed harpoons (among the Netsilik Eskimos) and gaffhooks are also used

for fishing. The fish hook is made of iron and inserted into a sinker of antler

or musk-ox horn. The line is of braided sinew and fastened to a curved reel

of antler or wood. Simple gorges are used for catching fish and gulls, and

bolas occur both at Back River and among the Haunequormiut. Snares and stone

traps (deadfalls, box and tower traps) for foxes should also be mentioned.

Wolves are killed with relled-up strips of baleen or musk-ox horn which straighten

out when the blubber in which they are enveloped is digested. Besides the hunt–

ing implement proper, several small accessories are used: wooden pegs on which

the harpoon is placed while waiting at the breathing holes, curved antler probes

with which the shape of the hole is investigated, indicators of swan's down or bone

for showing when the seal arrives, scoops for removing ice from the breathing

hole, bone needles for closing the wounds of the seal, etc.

        The means of communication may also be considered hunting devices as they

are indispensable in the daily struggle for food. They comprise dog sledges

and kayaks; the open skin boat or umiak is quite unknown. The sledge can be

used during three-fourths of the year. The construction is simple, as among

all eastern Eskimos. It consists merely of runners and cross slats lashed to–

gether with sealthongs or babiche. Iglulik sledges often have uprights made of

antler. A typicak Iglulik traveling sledge is about 5 meters long, whereas

among the southern Caribou Eskimos, who have easy access to wood, it may attain

nearly double that length with a width of less than 50 cm. Especially in the

Netsilik territory, where wood is extremely scarce, runners are sometimes made

of rolled-up and frozen musk-ox skins. A large bear hide may also be used as a

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substitute for a sledge. In the winter a shoeing of peaty muck is applied

to the runners and smeared with water that freezes to a crust of solid ice;

bone shoeing is preferred for use in the wet spring snow. The dogs are harness–

ed fanwise to the sledge and are driven with a short-handled whip. As a rule

they are very few in number owing to the shortage of food. The kayak for in–

land hunting at the deer crossings is a long and narrow craft, 6 or 7 meters

being no unusual length. The Caribou Eskimos use deerskin for covering, where–

as otherwise sealskin is preferred. For sea-mammal hunting the Iglulik Eskimos

also have a heavier and more solidly built kayak. Two-bladed paddles are the

only one used.

        In contrast to the early Thule population, the present Hudson Bay Eskimos

always live in snow huts during the winter. Suitable snow is found by means of

an antler probe, and the blocks are cut out with a knife of the same material.

The huts are dome-shaped, with a long entrance passage and a sheet of freshwater

ice for a window. Some Iglulik Eskimos line their huts with sealskin, but this

custom is not found among the two other tribes. For heating the Netsilik and

Iglulik have soapstone blubber lamps. The Caribou Eskimos, however, never

heat their habitations and only use small saucer-shaped lamps for lighting, all

cooking being done over fires in open shelters annexed to the passage. The rest

of the furniture is simple: soapstone cooking pots, drying racks (where blubber

lamps are found), wooden trays and skin water pails, ladles of musk-ox horn,

skin bags, deerskin blankets, etc. Fire is obtained with a drill or two lumps

of pyrites.

        In summer the snow huts are displaced by tents, two types of which are in

use. The common Caribou Eskimo tent is conical and covered with a deerskin

sheet somewhat like the Indian tipi but, unlike the latter, closed at the top,

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the fire being immediately at the side of the entrance. The conical tent is

also said to be the oldest type among the Netsilik people, but many of them

have adopted the Iglulik type. The latter has, almost in the middle of the tent,

a single pole with a short cross-bar, or two or three obliquely set poles crossed

at their upper ends. Two similar posts are placed at the entrance and connected

with the former or the central pole with a stout sealthong. The tent cover is

either caribou or sealskin. In the spring and autumn, when snow huts and tents

are uncomfortable or even impossible to use, other dwellings may be found: snow

shelters with skin roofs, houses of freshwater ice, etc.

        The dress is nearly always of deerskin, seal- and musk-ox skins being used

only to a very limited extent. The men wear an inner set of clothes with the

hair inside, consisting of a hooded coat, trousers, and stockings, and an outer

set with the hair outside, consisting of coat, wide breeches, and boots. To

these are added shoes, in summer made of depilated skin and in winter of hairy

skin with a double sole. Women wear only one pair of trousers. The main dif–

ference in the dresses of the two sexes are the enormous hood and the long hind

flap of the women's coat, and the baggy woman's boots with a sewn-on legging at

the top. Tattooing is common among the women.

        The principal materials in use are wood, antler, walrus ivory, and skins.

Stone was used formerly; scrap iron is now common but is always worked cold.

The ordinary men's tools are whittling knives, adzes, and bowdrills. The ulu

is the universal instrument of the women, who have also bone and stone scrapers

for skin dressing. All skins are prepared by scraping and, if depilated, with

hot water; urine tanning is unknown except, perhaps, to some Caribou Eskimos at

the coast. Skin dressing and sewing have reached a high degree of perfection,

but all work in wood and antler is rather poor, and there is nothing like the

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decorative skill shown by the East Greenland and Alaska Eskimos.

        The family is the fundamental unit in society. Polygyny on a limited

scale is common among the most skillful hunters, but shortage of women owing

to the killing of newly born girls often entails polyandry among the Netsilik

tribes. Besides the family there is no social grouping of a permanent char–

acter, and even though an especially prominent personality is generally accept–

ed as the leader of the camp, the acknowledgment of his authority is entirely

voluntary. On the other hand, the camp is an economical unit in so far as the

inhabitants have certain customary obligations toward each other in the division

of large game or, in the case of small seals and caribou, in the distribution

of presents of meat. Trapping grounds and hunting fields are considered res

nullius , and personal possession is in the main conditioned by actual use of

the property. A rather considerable trade is carried on, especially between

the Back River and Caribou groups, but the importance of this intercourse prob–

ably increased after the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company posts at the

bay.

        According to the view of the Hudson Bay Eskimos, a person consists of a

body, a name, and a soul. The name, in fact, is a kind of soul that is trans–

mitted from a dead person to a newly born child. When a person dies, the body

is wrapped up in skins and left in the open surrounded by a ring of boulders.

The soul, according to the Caribou Eskimos, goes to the sky and is later brought

back to the earth by the Moon Spirit. The Netsilik and Iglulik Eskimos believe

that the soul [ ?] goes either to the sky or to the underworld, and both places are

equally pleasant. The former, however, also know a third land of the dead, just

below the crust of the earth. This, however, is a dismal place inhabited only

by the souls of unskillful hunters and untattooed women. The soul is essential

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to life and good health, and if it is stolen away, the person to whom it happens

will sicken and finally die. Human beings and animals have souls. In addition,

however, all things, including inanimate objects, have this "owner" inua , which

should not be confounded with the souls. Most important of all among the Cari–

bou Eskimos is Hilap-inua; hila ( sila ) means "air," "weather," "universe" and,

in a deeper sense, the magical power that permeates existence, and Hilap-inua

is a personification of that power. Sometimes Hilap-iuna is also spoken of as

Pinga, "he (or she) up there." There seems to be no indication, however, that

Pinga is regarded as a Supreme Being or creator of the world. Other spirits of

distinction are the Moon Spirit and Nuliayuk, the woman living on the bottom of

the sea, often referred to simple as Kavna, "she down there" or Takanakapsaluk,

"the terrible one down there." She is the master of the sea mammals and will

keep them back when she is offended, for which reason she is especially feared

by the coast tribes, whereas she is not known inland at all.

        In order to obtain good luck and avoid evil the Eskimos resort to magic

spells, amulets, and, above all, to the observance of numerous taboos. Amulets

are common especially among the Netsilik. Generally they consist of belongings

of deceased persons or pieces of animals which are supposed to confer super–

natural force to the owner. It is a characteristic fact that a person may lose

his amulets and still retain their power. Taboos mostly consist in abstinence

from certain foods and activities such as sewing and hunting. Many of them are

connected with childbirth, menstruation, and death, while other are observed

in deference to the game animals, many of which are supposed to be extremely

sensitive to offense; as a general rule everything belonging to land and sea

animals should be kept strictly apart.

        When danger is imminent the Eskimo will fall back upon the assistance of

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the shaman ( angatkoq ). A shaman may be either male or, more rarely, female

and obtain his power through the help of his assisting spirits. As a rule he

has to undergo training under the guidance of another shaman, but the psycho–

logical qualification for his success, of course, is his ability to be entranced.

He wears a belt hung with all sorts of objects — pieces of skin given by people

he has helped, or miniature carvings said to be the implements of the spirits;

buthis most effective aid for obtaining connections with the spirit world is

the drum. The principal tasks of the shaman are the healing of the sick and the

ensuring of fine weather and good hunting. There is, however, a remarkable dif–

ference between inland and coast shamanism. The former is much more simple than

the latter, which often involves elaborate conjuring performances, tricks, and

ventriloquism, one of the main feats being the visit of the shaman to Nuliayuk

in order to fetch the game, when it has disappeared. Compared to the highly

specialized Siberian shamanism, however, even that of the Netsilik and Iglulik

people remains at a low stage of development.

---

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Amundsen, R. The Northwest Passage . London and New York, 1908.

2. Birket-Smith, Kaj Five Hundred Eskimo Words. Report of the Fifth Thule

Expedition, Vol. III, p. 3. Copenhagen, 1928.

3. ----. The Caribou Eskimos. Ibid . Vol. V. Copenhagen, 1929.

4. ----. Anthropological Observations on the Central Eskimo.

Ibid . Vol. III, p. 2. Copenhagen, 1940.

5. ----. Ethnographical Collections from the Northwest Passage.

Ibid . Vol. VI. P. 2. Copenhagen, 1945.

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6. Boas, F. The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay. Bull. Amer.

Mus. Natur. Hist . Vol. XV, New York, 1907.

7. Gabus, J. Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous . Lausanne, 1944.

8. Lyon, G. F. Private Journal . London, 1824.

9. Mathiassen, Th. Archaeolgy of the Central Eskimos. Report of the Fifth

Thule Expedition . Vol. IV. Copenhagen, 1927.

10. ----. Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Ibid . Vol. VI,

p. 1. Copenhagen, 1928.

11. Parry, W. E. Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North–

West Passage . London, 1824.

12. Rasmussen, K. Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Report

of the Fifth Thule Expedition . Vol. VII, p. 1. Copen–

hagen, 1929.

13. ----. Observations on the Intellectual Culture of the Caribou

Eskimos. Ibid . Vol. VII, p. 2. Copenhagen, 1930.

14. ----. Iglulik and Caribou Eskimo Texts. Ibid . Vol. VII, p. 3.

Copenhagen, 1930.

15. ----. The Netsilik Eskimos. Ibid . Vol. VIII. Copenhagen,

1931.

16. Ross, J. Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage .

London, 1835.

17. Turquetil, A. L'Esquimau . Montreal, 1927.

       

Kaj Birket-Smith