Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/50

Like all Eskimos, the Iglulik Eskimos are a pronounced hunting people they depend upon the animal world for their food, clothing and most of the material for their weapons and tools. Hunting and fishing are the principal occupations and the greatest pleasures of the men, those upon which the whole economic life of the family depends. Therefore it is only natural that it is especially in this domain that Eskimo technique displays itself and has attained such admirable results.

The hunting of the Iglulik Eskimos falls naturally into two main sections, aquatic mammals and terrestrial mammals; then there is a third, less important section, the catching of birds and fish. Whereas among most other Eskimo tribes the hunting of aquatic mammals is of paramount importance, it is, as the foregoing has shown, not the case here, caribou hunting being at least as important, a feature which the Iglulik Eskimos have in common with the other Central Eskimo tribes; the Netsiliks, the Caribou Eskimos and the Copper Eskimos.

The seals which are of significance to the Iglulik Eskimos are the small seal (Phoca foetida) and the bearded seal (P. barbata); there are large numbers of both species along the coasts of the country.

The methods of hunting vary according to the seasons. In winter the principal method is breathing-hole hunting (máunertut): it has been mentioned previously from Iglulik by Parry^[1] and Lyon^[2] and from the Aiviliks by Boas.^[3] The implements used for breathing-hole hunting are:

The Ice-hunting Harpoon (unâng), with its head and line. Fig. 7 a is a modern ice-hunting harpoon from Ponds Inlet. It consists of a piece of round-iron, 1.34 m long, 1.0 cm thick, inserted in a hand-grip of antler 13 cm long, which ends in a knob. To the fore end of the iron is lashed a piece of wood, 59 cm long. by means of eight lashings of sinew-thread passing through holes in the wooden shaft and