Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/252

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-