Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos/Chapter 12

If we now proceed to determine the position of this Eskimo tribe within the whole Eskimo culture on the basis of the foregoing description of its material culture, it must first of all be declared that it belongs to the great subdivision of the Eskimos who are called Central Eskimos. This great group, whose mutual relationship has been proved by Boas, comprises the Eskimos between Davis Strait in the east and Coronation Gulf in the west and it includes the tribes: Copper, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Baffin Land and Labrador Eskimos; each of these groups again comprises several subgroups with their own names, but otherwise form separate groups connected by the ties of relationship and culture. The characteristic features of the Central Eskimos, in contradistinction to the Greenlanders and Western Eskimos, are their wandering life, as a result of which the snow house and the tent are the only forms of dwelling, the great importance of caribou hunting, the advanced development of icehunting, the material of their clothing, its cut and preparation, the form of sledge and its draught, a number of characteristic types of implements, the many taboo rules and the sharp separation between sea and land, as well as certain negative features such as the lack of the woman's boat and urine tanning. Of the Central Eskimo tribes the Baffin Land and Labrador Eskimos, who are very closely related to each other, form a separate group occupying a position midway between the Central Eskimos proper, further to the west, and the Greenlanders, whom they resemble in the greater importance of the hunting of aquatic mammals, in the wider use of sealskin clothing, in the use of the women's boat and permanent winter houses, whereas by their snow houses, clothing and most implements they are connected with the other Central Eskimos.

It has been shown elsewhere^[1] how, in earlier times, a culture ​prevailed in the central regions, the Thule culture, connected with permanent winter houses of stone and whale bones, based upon the hunting of aquatic mammals — whaling to a great extent — a culture whose forms of implements differ greatly from those used by the present-day Central Eskimos, but in many respects resemble those now used in Alaska.

An examination of the culture elements of the Iglulik Eskimos and their diffusion among other Eskimo tribes shows that, as regards the greater part of them, they have them in common with the other Central Eskimos, but not with the Eskimos to the west and east. Of these especially Central elements in the culture of the Iglulik Eskimos may be mentioned: The ice-hunting implements: the harpoon of the particular type, the flat harpoon heads, rests for ice-hunting harpoons, clasp for the ice-hunting harpoon line, breathing hole searcher, seal hook, seal indicator; furthermore, the composite bow of antler, arrow heads without barbs and with obliquely cut rear end, the heavy, long sledge with uprights of antler and mud shoeing, the method of spanning the team in fan-shape with a leader dog, the heavy, long whip, pack-dogs, the perfect snow house, the special form of snow shovel and snow beater, the snow probe, the autumn ice-houses, the shape of the tent, the sharp-cornered square cooking pots and narrow lamps coming to a point at both ends, sleeping rugs with fringes, dippers of musk-ox horn, water scraper of caribou scapula, the preparation of caribou skins and the implements for this, the cut of the clothing, the fringes, hair-sticks, tatooing designs, poverty of decorative art, the bead patterns, pipes, burial customs (no stone grave), fisticuffs, nuglutang, and finally, the whole of their intellectual culture with its countless taboo rules. All these features. show with certainty that the Iglulik Eskimos are typical Central Eskimos. The groups of other Central Eskimos whom they most closely resemble are the Netsilik and Caribou Eskimos, that is to say the tribes on the west and east of their own area. The Iglulik Eskimos' "summer culture" — everything concerned with hunting and fishing inland — is almost identical with that of the Caribou Eskimos; the latter's culture has no real "marine" side, and the little they have is that of the Aiviliks. The same resemblance is even more conspicuous in the Netsiliks, whose culture is closer to that of the Igluliks than all others, although the "marine" side among the Igluliks has developed rather more than among the Netsiliks, presumably as a result of geographical conditions: the abundant supplies of walrus and narwhal. That the Iglulik Eskimos must, in spite of these resemblances, nevertheless be looked upon as a separate tribe ​appears from the fact that they themselves do so, and that they have a certain cultural individuality which separates them from their neighbours.

Then there are some features in which they are different to the other Central Eskimos proper, but resemble the Eskimos in Baffin Land (and Labrador): the skin lining of the snow houses, the kayak harpoon with its socket-piece and moveable foreshaft, the screw wound-plug, the loose lance heads and the bird dart, which was in use in Parry's time but is no longer one of their implements. Then there are some "provincialisms", culture elements which are peculiar to the Iglulik Eskimos: the ridge pole in the tent, the walrus harpoon, the method of flensing walruses, the narwhal harpoon-head from Ponds Inlet, the special buckle (pagleriaq) for the draught-line of the sledge, the blubber-dripper, the special form of lamp trimmer, certain features of the clothing (especially the women's dress) and tatooing. And finally, there are some features which must be regarded as being relics of the Thule culture.

The connection between the Iglulik culture and the Thule culture has already been discussed in my archaeological work; full explanation has been made there of the great, vitally important differences between these two cultures. But in spite of these differences, various features have nevertheless been preserved among the Iglulik Eskimos that are not to be found among the Central Eskimos more to the west and south and must be taken to be relics of the Thule culture. These I consider to be the use of the old house ruins as qarmat, the skin lining of snow houses, the durable stone graves that are sometimes built, the importance of walrus hunting, and an implement like the gull hook. And, if we go back to Parry's time, a hundred years ago, we find other elements such as the platform covering of baleen, high stone walls in the tents, the bladder dart, the bird dart, arrows with conical tang, the toboggan of baleen, urine tanning and the Y-ornament on implements. These features show that more of the Thule culture has been preserved among the Iglulik Eskimos than among the Central Eskimos more to the west, but that these relics have, during the course of the last hundred years, been forced very much into the background. In the archaeological work it was also shown that there are a number of finds, especially from Baffin Land, which seem to form a transition from the Thule culture to the Iglulik culture and which indicate that the changes which have taken place in the culture have not come so suddenly and violently, but quite slowly, step by step, as the relics aforementioned also indicate.

On the whole, however, the present Iglulik culture must be re​garded as an inland culture which has acquired a marine facet which, however, has not gone very deeply as yet. That it is from the inland tribes on the Barren Grounds, especially the Caribou Eskimos, that this influence has come there is no reason to doubt when one considers the great similarity between the Iglulik and Caribou Eskimos. There has apparently been a marked expansion from the interior to the coast, analogous to the comparatively recent movement from the interior to the coast which Jenness^[2] assumes with regard to the Copper Eskimos. Whether with regard to the Iglulik Eskimos we have to deal with a migration or simply cultural influences is difficult to decide; presumably there have been migrations of people from the interior and, in some places, they have driven away the coast people and, in others, settled down among them and gradually influenced them. This would explain the absence of transitional finds in some regions, for instance at Repulse Bay, and, on the other hand, the presence of many transitional finds in other regions as in Northern Baffin Land. Thus although we cannot say with certainty that the Iglulik Eskimos have originally lived in the interior of the country and from there have migrated out to the coast, as the Tunit legends would have it,^[3] there is no doubt that their culture bears distinct marks of influence from the interior.

If we compare the Iglulik Eskimos as they are now with the description given of them by Parry and Lyon a hundred years ago, we find that in reality there has been surprisingly little change. The European influence has become a little more pronounced, whereby some of their own types of implements such as the bladder dart, bird dart, throwing board and drum have disappeared, and others, such as the bow and arrow and the kayak are about to do so; finally, some of the relics of the Thule culture such as the conical shaft end on the arrow heads, the stone ring round the tent and the urine tanning, have quite disappeared. Otherwise their types of implements have remained unchanged, their dwellings, sledges and clothing are the same.

What the future of the Iglulik Eskimos will be is difficult to say. Will it be possible for this little tribe, five hundred people, spread over an enormous area of land, to continue being able to hold its own in the struggle for existence, or will it, like so many other primitive peoples, be swallowed up in the fight against European civilisation?

Even if statistical information is still defective, I think I may ​safely say that during the past fifty years the Iglulik Eskimos have diminished greatly in numbers. The European whaling period was undoubtedly a very fateful one for them; the absolutely unscrupulous exploitation of these people by the Europeans, rum and other strong liquors, infectious diseases, especially syphilis, have undoubtedly involved a heavy decline; in addition there were the difficulties connected with the transition from their own methods of hunting to European technique at a time when supplies of food were most irregular and uncertain.

The establishment of regularly visited trading posts in their territory has now made their struggle for existence somewhat easier; besides the trading posts (now all belonging to Hudson's Bay Company) at Chesterfield Inlet, Repulse Bay, Southampton Island and Ponds Inlet, there are now police stations (R. C. M. P.) at Chesterfield Inlet and Ponds Inlet, and a missionary post (Catholic) at Chesterfield. On the other hand these circumstances have involved that the Eskimos are accustoming themselves to European food and clothing, which are by no means suitable in these regions, whilst the acquisition of better weapons means that the game is being reduced at a rapid rate, especially caribou, the animal that is of such vital importance to them. Finally, competing trading posts often have had an unfortunate influence upon their morals, of which I saw and heard of instances at Ponds Inlet. The two firms employed every means — often discreditable — to secure the trade of the Eskimos: built the unhealthy, stinking wooden houses for them, gave them weekly rations of flour, sugar and tea, employed lies and deceit; the result is that they are becoming a flock of lazy, indolent, unreliable people who are always hanging round the trading posts, living upon their rations and with hardly any inclination to go hunting. Furthermore, a control over the class of people who are sent to these regions would also be to the good in order that the diseases of the whaling period, from which many Eskimos are still suffering, may not be spread still more. By the establishment of the police stations, however, the Canadian Government has shown its readiness to protect this tribe.

There is another encroachment upon the territory of the Iglulik Eskimos, however, and this is from the west. A large number of Netsilik Eskimos have, during the past few years, made their way down to Repulse Bay, attracted by the trading posts, and have settled down there, at Lyon Inlet and Wager Bay. On the other hand the Aivilik Eskimos have, since the extinction of the Sadlermiut, occupied Southampton Island, which has now become one of their principal domains.

​It is to be hoped that this little tribe has now entered upon a period of more stable conditions. Their country is of a nature that will hardly ever be attractive to white colonists. May this fact have the effect that the Iglulik Eskimos will continue to be allowed to live undisturbed in their extensive, barren country as a small part of the present day economy of the world. If they go under, their land will probably be allowed to lie deserted, and this would be a pity, both for the people and the land.