Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/36

Papa, who had lived five years near Ponds Inlet and many more at Iglulik.^[1]

From a cultural point of view, too, the Aiviliks, Igluliks and Ponds Inlet Eskimos form a unity; as the following will show, there is no great difference in the material culture of these three groups. There are, however, a few local peculiarities, to some extent the result of geographical conditions, as likewise at the extreme points, Chesterfield Inlet and Ponds Inlet, it is possible to trace some influence from the neighbouring tribes: the Qaernermiut and the Akudnermiut respectively. As the statistics show, the Tununermiut are also to some degree connected with the Akudnermiut at River Clyde and Home Bay, to whom in fact some of them are related by marriage; the connection here, however, is much weaker than with the Igluliks.

We are thus in a position to state that the three Eskimo "tribes": the Aivilingmiut, Iglulingmiut and Tununermiut, in reality form one tribe, united by the ties of blood and culture; if they have any connection with the neighbouring tribes, the Akudnermiut, Netsilingmiut and Qaernermiut, they regard them nevertheless as strangers whom they very often look down upon. My old friend Takornaq, who accompanied me on my journey to Ponds Inlet, expressed it in this manner that if she were to have a new husband, it was all the same to her whether he was an Aivilingmio, an Iglulingmio or a Tununermio; if need be, a Qaernermio or an Akudnermio might to do; but a Netsilingmio — never!

The Iglulik Eskimos live a rather roaming life. Thus there are no permanent settlements such as we know them from Greenland and the Western Eskimos. It is, however. possible to recognise a certain regularity in their movements, an annual cycle, which recurs almost year after year, all according to the possibilities of the hunting of land or marine mammals offered by the various seasons: another factor which is a great contributor to this is the strict taboo regulations, which keep the hunting of marine and land mammals sharply separated. Thus there are no permanent villages, and on the other hand there are certain places where the population at certain times of the year usually assemble and pursue a particular branch of hunting. In the following a large number of such "seasonal settlements" will be mentioned, some of them inhabited almost every year, whereas others are only visited now and then. The summer