ANTH 310: ARCTIC CULTURE AREA 


INTRODUCTION

Arctic Culture area characterized by a combination of features:

1) the area of treeless tundra and arctic coast inhabited by peoples
2) speaking closely related languages (Eskimo-Aleut family), sharing
3) a basic maritime hunting culture with host of distinctive features (kayaks, toggle harpoons, tailored skin clothing, sod or snow dwellings, social institutions for cementing alliances, myths, shamanistic practices, etc.), and
4) a common biological stock with what appears to be a relatively recent NE Asian coastal origin

Arctic culture area thus has highest degree of correspondence between environment, language, culture, and human biology of any NNA culture area

Furthermore, these features shared over a vast region (5,000 miles by air, from Aleutians to E. Greenland)

This wide distribution due to both relatively recent common origin in Bering Sea region, and common ecological pressures from utilizing resources of arctic coast

Will first discuss cultural origins, then briefly summarize linguistic classification and major cultural divisions, followed by in-depth examination of two subareas (N & W Alaskan Eskimos, and Canadian Inuit)

 

Origins

Earlier in 20th century, it was widely believed that Eskimo culture originated from Indian caribou hunters in subarctic interior who then moved to coast and gradually developed maritime subsistence specialization

By this view, Caribou Eskimo of Canadian barrens, with relatively simple technology and social organization, were seen as remnant of this earlier, pre-maritime Eskimo culture -- the original culture of NA arctic

Research over last 70 years has turned this view completely upside down

Evidence now suggests that ancestors of Eskimo-Aleuts were last major wave of immigrants to North America from NE Asia, arriving after land bridge had disappeared, and bringing with them relatively specialized way of life based on maritime hunting and travel

In sum, archaeological work in last few decades reveals that Eskimos & Aleuts have common ancestry in Bering Sea coastal region, going back perhaps 6-8000 years (which might also be the time that proto-Aleut-Eskimos first entered No. America from the Siberian side of the Berins Sea)

As for Caribou Eskimo, rather than being remnants of original Arctic culture, now known to be a very late and atypical extension of Eskimo culture deep into interior, with year-round interior residence a result of Euroamerican influence (i.e., dependent on availability of guns and fur-trading opportunities)

Because of their separate origin/immigration, and maintenance of fairly distinct cultural & biological boundary into historic period, Eskimo-Aleuts are conventionally distinguished from other Native Americans (i.e., Indians)

 

Linguistic and regional divisions

Three major linguistic divisions found in Arctic culture area:

1) Aleut language (divided into 3 regional dialects)
2) Yup'ik Eskimo languages (consisting of 4-5 languages, incl. Siberian)
3) Inupiaq Eskimo language (divided into several dialects)

The two Eskimo languages are more closely related to each other than either is to Aleut, and this is also true for other aspects of culture, suggesting split of proto-Aleut from proto-Eskimo several thousand yrs. ago

Thus, classification suggests following phylogeny:

                               Aleut-Eskimo                        (Family) 
                  __________________|____________
                 |                               |
              Eskimo                           Aleut           (Sub-family)
       __________|___________                    |
      |                      |                   |
    Yup'ik                Inupiaq              Aleut    (Language clusters)
      |                      |                   |
(3-4 languages)        (Dialect chain)      (3 dialects)

 

Can distinguish five major sub-areas in Arctic culture area:

1) Aleuts inhabit Alaskan peninsula and Aleutian island chain; foggy but mild climate, little sea ice (year-round kayak hunting for birds and seals); lived in large villages with multi-family dwellings (barabara); stratified into 3 classes (nobles, commoners, slaves); elaborate basketry, carving, embalming; pre-contact culture poorly documented, due to Russian colonization & enslavement in 1700's (as workers in fur trade).

2) Pacific Eskimo (Yup'ik speakers): inhabit semi-forested areas of Alaska Pen. and outer Cook Inlet + Prince William Sound; emphasized whaling and salmon fishing; high popn. density; culturally similar to nearby NW coast (plank houses, chiefs, endemic warfare)

3) North and West Alaskan Eskimo (Yup'ik and Inupiaq languages): Bering and Beaufort seas and adjacent inland areas; resources incl. salmon runs, abundant marine mammals (incl. some whaling), large caribou herds; fairly dense and seasonally-sedentary population

4) Inuit (Canadian Eskimo): speak dialects of Inupiaq (same language as No. Alaskan Eskimos); live in least productive environment; more nomadic than other Eskimos; egalitarian, flexible social relations, non-territorial

5) Greenland Eskimo (Inupiaq dialects also); geographically separate, but culturally part of No America; larger settlements, less nomadic than Canadian Inuit, but not as densely settled as Alaskan Eskimos; colonized by Denmark but recently semi-independent

Lectures & readings take a detailed look at 2 of these subareas: begin with Alaskan Eskimos, then turn to Inuit (including film on Netsilik)

 

ALASKAN ESKIMOS

Alaskan portion of Arctic culture area exhibits greater cultural diversity than Canada, reflecting both greater popn. density and greater time-depth of occupation (original homeland of Aleut-Eskimo peoples)

As noted earlier, contains 3 or 4 major ethnic/linguistic divisions: Aleuts, Pacific Eskimo, Bering Sea Yupiit, and N. Alaskan Inupiat; lecture & reading deal only with latter two divisions

Since Alaskan Eskimos belonged to 2 diff. language groups (Yup'ik and Inupiaq) and inhabited diff. areas, can expect some differences when crossing that boundary

However, many features are shared across this linguistic boundary yet not found among Inuit (who speak same language as Inupiat)

These features characteristic of Alaskan Eskimos include:

1) Rich subsistence base (salmon, whales, seals, caribou, etc.)

2) Relatively large, permanent (tho seasonal) settlements, holding several dozen to several hundred people in permanent sod/timber houses

3) Well-defined social boundaries marked by clear territories, high rates of endogamy, and frequent armed hostilities

4) Formalized ceremonial life, with several ceremonies held each year to influence game spirits, renew alliances, etc.

I'll begin with Bering Sea Yupiit, and then move on to North Alaskan Inupiat

Bering Sea Yupiit

Lived along Bering Sea coast of W. Alaska and adjoining major rivers

Coastal peoples emphasized kayak hunting of marine mammals (seals, walrus, and small beluga whales)

River peoples subsisted on abundant fish (salmon, blackfish, etc.), as well as other resources like waterfowl and caribou

Villages were permanent, with semi-subterranean sod-and-timber houses (same as in No. Alaska)

People stayed in villages 7-9 months/yr, during winter; reasons for aggregation had little to do with subsistence, since primarily living off stored food supplies

Bering Sea Yupiit are known for their distinctive artistic tradition; elaborate symbolic designs & decoration embellished even most utilitarian objects

Villages always had one or more communal mens' house (qasgiq) where males lived from adolescence on, and where ceremonies & other social events were held

Women remained in their mother's household after marriage (or next door if there were several sisters), even if husband was from a different village (matrilocal residence)

Like Inuit, Yupiit religion focused on animism & shamanism, but as might expect from more settled life, ceremonies were more formal in structure

These ceremonies involved members of different villages, and usually included redistribution of accumulated food and other gifts by hosts, as well as religious and secular dances utilizing symbolic masks

Ceremonial cycle included such major ceremonies as Messenger Feast, Bladder Feast, and memorial feasts for the dead; these were held in qasgiq

Bladder Feast (Fitzhugh & Kaplan pp 206ff) was perhaps most important ceremony:

 

North Alaskan Eskimo (Inupiat)

Inupiaq-speaking Eskimos of North and NW Alaska share many features with other (Yup'ik speaking) Alaskan Eskimos, but also possess some unique features

Many of these unique features are related directly or indirectly to whaling -- hunting of huge bowhead whales that migrate along N. Alaskan coast each spring

Like Yup'ik Eskimos, Inupiat organized into clearly-bounded and often mutually-hostile societies of 300-900 members

These societies typically consisted of a main settlement, and few scattered hamlets; each settlement inhabited by one or more large, bilaterally extended family groupings (kindred) that shared set of dwellings, storehouses, and often a qasgiq (here only a ceremonial center, not a men's dwelling)

These kindreds were not fixed in membership, but grew and shrank through process of affiliation (decisions by individuals or nuclear family units to reside with one set of relatives vs. another)

Size of kindred heavily influenced by wealth and prestige of kindred head = umialik (literally "boat-owner", often mistranslated as "chief")

Umialik and his wife directed economic activities of kindred, and controlled flow of surplus goods (reallocated to members of kindred as need arose)

In many Inupiat villages, role of umialik and cohesiveness of multi-family kindreds closely linked to whaling

Most Inupiat live in semi-permanent villages along No. Alaskan coast, located at points where land juts out into arctic ocean, maximizing access to migrating whales and other sea mammals

In winter & spring, largest villages held several hundred people, but nearly empty in summer (dispersal for fishing, inland caribou hunting, etc.)

Every spring, hunt bowhead whales (large baleen whales, 50-65 ft) as they migrate in leads close to shore

Whales hunted by several crews of 6-8 men in umiaks (open skin boats), using stone-tipped harpoons and sealskin floats

(Still done today, tho use explosive harpoons to decrease escape of wounded whales; controversy over whaling quotas, self-regulation, etc. in 1970s, but has worked smoothly under Alaskan Eskimo Whaling Commission, under approval of US Nat'l Marine Fisheries Service and Internat'l Whaling Commission, ever since)

When hunt is successful, each whale yields several tons of muktuk (highly-prized whaleskin), blubber, meat, organs; however, many hunts unsuccessful, with 0-10 whales/village/season (high-risk/high-return)

Importance of whaling evident not just economically or in greater popn density, but also in social organization and ceremonial life

Each whaling crew headed by captain/boat owner (umialik) who has assembled crew (using kin ties, generous gifts, political influence)

Position of umialik is high prestige, but takes lot of time and work, and demands managerial skills and exemplary behavior

Traditionally, whaling had 3 major components:

1) Ceremonial and ritual elements involved in preparation for hunt
2) Techniques for locating, pursuing, and capturing whale
3) Social processes & institutions involved in sharing catch

Before hunt begins, all crew members get new clothing and gear supplied by umialik, sit in qasgiq together singing magical incantations (umialik owns these)

Umialik attaches amulets to boat, and wears raven skin around neck or on head (beak pointing downwards, symbolic harpoon aimed at whales)

Crew is very solemn, must not engage in any lighthearted activity that offends whales, have to observe various taboos during hunting season

The different crews out on ice compete in being first to locate and harpoon a whale, vying for prestige of capture; but once one is harpooned or killed, all crews in area helped to tow it to edge of ice

Whole village comes down to help pull carcass on ice, join in rejoicing

Umialik's wife plays ceremonial role (cup of fresh water for whale, thanks it, tells it to return home and tell other whales how well-treated it was)

Whale butchered and distributed to all in organized manner; thus umialik (and crew) exchange goods for prestige, and highly unpredictable success rate of individual crews buffered by sharing

Successful whaling season concludes with spring ceremony (Nalukataq); blanket toss, games and ceremonies, distribution of catch by each umialik whose crew has landed a whale

 

INUIT (CANADIAN ESKIMO)

In 1920's, Knud Rasmussen (son of Danish trader and Greenland Inuit mother) plus several companions (incl. 2 professional anthropologists) made epic 22 yr. voyage across arctic, from No. Greenland (Thule) to Bering Strait; along way, described local practices and beliefs of their hosts in multi-volume work ("Report of the 5th Thule Expedition")

Rasmussen able to to converse with local Inuit groups in his native Greenlandic Inupiaq language the entire way (until W. Alaska), proving existence of a single language over this vast distance

This linguistic (and cultural) uniformity now known to be due to relatively recent spread of so-called Thule culture, from NW Alaska eastward, about 1,000 yrs ago (900-1200 AD)

Thule culture was last major development of Bering Sea maritime hunting tradition, most technologically specialized (incl. kayak, umiak, whaling harpoons and floats, dog-teams, semi-subterranean houses)

Thule expansion occured during relatively warm period, coinciding w/ expansion of bowhead whales; Thule hunted lots of bowhead whales, lived in permanent winter villages built of stone, sod, and whalebone

A few centuries later (ca. AD 1500), climate cooled and ice clogged northern waters even in summer, reducing whales and other resources, and forcing Thule descendants to adopt more nomadic and dispersed settlement, giving up permanent dwellings for snowhouses and tents

Thus emerged the modern Inuit culture first encountered by European explorers

 

Subsistence & Settlement

Inuit occupy least productive region of arctic, where sea is covered with ice for much of the year, and edible plants extremely scarce (traditional diet estimated to be 95% meat & fish)

Inuit never able to rely exclusively on terrestrial resources (caribou, hare, fox, berries); instead, most resources came from salt water (seals, walrus, narwhal, beluga, ducks) or fresh-water lakes and rivers (trout, char, geese), even though both sea and freshwater frozen over for half the year or more

Despite overall scarcity of resources, Inuit lived in groups of 25-100 most of the year -- much less dispersed than central Basin Shoshone

Reasons for this are several:

1) Most resources were localized or "clumped," so people had to be too

2) Many resources most efficiently harvested by co-operative effort (caribou drives, hunting of seals at breathing-holes, weir fishing, walrus & beluga hunts)

3) Uncertain hunting success in short term made it advantageous to have multiple hunters who participated in a food-sharing network

However, great variation in abundance and concentration of resources, and types of resources available in different seasons, so Inuit had to be very flexible.

This flexibility seen esp. in 1) fission and fusion of groups; 2) alliance and sharing rules (detailed below)

 

Social Organization

Four main levels of social organization = family, kindred, band, regional popn.

1) Basic unit of Inuit society = nuclear family (consisting of man + 1 or more wives + children -- polygyny permitted but not common)

Marriage was simultaneously a bond of affiliation between families (parents and other relatives of bride and groom) and economic partnership between bride & groom

Extensive division of labor btwn men and women, with men responsible for most foraging (esp. for large game or requiring extended travel), and women with domestic activities, processing of game and skins (critical), and some foraging (berry picking, jigging, caribou drives)

However, gender division of labor subject to expediency: thus, women might even be full-time hunters if necessary

Family units combined into various larger units, but were always free to split off and re-affiliate with other units, or stay alone awhile if necessary

2) Most families (or unmarried individuals) affiliated with relatives into loose aggregation termed "bilateral kindred" (ca. 10-20 people)

Members of kindred expected to help each other in times of need, etc.

Kindred frequently took form of extended or joint household (e.g., two bros. + wives and children; parents + daughters and their husbands and children)

These households = form of economic cooperation, allowing pooling of labor & resources

While family and kindred were basic building blocks of Inuit society, two important larger units: local band and regional population

3) Local band can be defined as the maximal group that shared a single camp (typically during the winter months)

Local bands were somewhat flexible in composition from year to year, but generally composed of network of bilaterally related set of families, encompassing more people than kindred (e.g. 50-100+ people)

Essentially, local bands were expedient devices to bring people together for economic co-operation in hunting, food-sharing, and social interaction; no political organization nor formal means for making group decisions

Camps might have leaders (issumatak), but this not very formalized or powerful position

4) Largest unit of social organization = regional population, consisting of a dozen or so local bands, for total of several hundred people

Defined by dialect, local customs, intermarriage (80% endogamy), vague sense of ethnic identity

These regional popns = the "tribes" commonly named in ethnographic literature (e.g. Netsilik, Copper); clearly ethnolinguistic units, not political ones, with very little of territorial enmity found among Alaskan Eskimos (rather than attack trespassers, Inuit more likely to attack any who claimed exclusive territorial rights!)

Annual Cycle

Can get better feeling for how these various levels of social organization functioned if consider the annual cycle (see also Damas article in your reading)

Typical annual cycle included aggregation of families/households into winter villages of 50-100+ people; this winter camp (=local band) was the largest face-to-face unit with a predictable membership

Because winter camps brought people back together, this was most social time of year: games, drum dances, shamanistic seances

Winter settlements were mobile, relocating every few weeks as seals were depleted in one area & whole band moved on

Late spring & summer brought dispersal to smaller groups of consisting of kindred or even individual families

Full band (or even several bands w/in regional popn) gathered in autumn for caribou hunt, important for skins as well as food

Many bands also regrouped in autumn for fishing at stone weirs

Kinship & Alliance

Inuit kinship is fully bilateral, with kin on both sides being of equal importance -- no unilineal groupings

Wide circle of kin crucial in situation where mobility and unpredictability demanded flexible group composition (as in Great Basin)

In fact, Inuit used many social devices besides bilaterality to extend kinship-type relations as widely as possible:

1) adoption (as high as 40% in some Inuit groups!)

2) spouse exchange (leading to kin ties btwn offspring = qatangun, who could be counted on to help on in times of need, like other kin)

3) name-sharing (saunik) relationship (namesakes share same "breath-spirit")

4) child betrothal agreements between two families

5) children's ritual sponsors (gift-exchange) -- chosen from non-kin

6) economic partnerships, such as seal-sharing partnerships (see Damas)

All of these institutions acted to extend circle of reciprocators/co-operators as widely as possible, increasing chances for survival in an unpredictable and fluctuating world

 

Inuit Religion

Everyone agrees that core of traditional Inuit religious belief and practice can be labelled 1) animism and 2) shamanism, and in this Inuit are no different than most Native American hunter-gatherers, and various other hunter-gatherers worldwide

Animism = belief that all of nature animated with consciousness and power (both benevolent & malevolent)

Among Inuit (as true of many h/g) animism was linked to conception of hunting as religious & social relationship: prey animals people depended on for livelihood choose to give themselves to hunter, but must be treated with respect or else will spurn hunters when souls are reincarnated

Clear statement of this idea given by Aua, an Iglulik shaman (as recorded by Rasmussen):

The greatest peril of life lies in the fact that human food consists entirely of souls. All the creatures that we have to strike down and destroy in order to eat and make clothes for our selves have souls, souls that do not perish with the body and which must therefore be pacified lest they should take revenge on us.

Thus, harvest and consumption of prey animals surrounded by myriad rules: slain seal must be laid on fresh snow floor for butchering, given drink of fresh water (aaah!), never mixed with caribou meat, etc.

Animism tied to shamanism in several ways, but in particular:

a) shaman had greatest knowledge of taboos, observances, etc. ("library")

b) shaman often called upon to repair damage caused by offending game

But who or what is a shaman? Shaman = Siberian (Tungus) word for a rather complex religious specialist we might also call "medicine man" or "curer"; someone who is especially skilled in mediating with world of animistic powers & spirits

Shamanism -- the set of beliefs and practices assoc. with the role of shaman -- has no widely agreed-upon definition, but can summarize what anthros. and others have concluded about shamanism in terms of 5 major elements:

1) period of training and initiation
2) spirit helpers
3) performance involving song, drumming, magic
4) use of self-induced trance states
5) social function of spirit mediation to a) cure illness, and b) combat misfortune

Let's look at each of these elements in turn

Training/Initiation

Inuit shamans did not inherit position, or go through any institutional training (in contrast to priesthoods found in some other NNA culture areas), but they were trained by other shamans

The calling could come suddenly and unexpectedly, in personal crisis (injury, illness, starvation, etc.) or one could "grow into it"

Typically, a youth who showed signs of spiritual powers/receptivity would be spotted by an older shaman, who would apprentice the youth

Candidate would live with the shaman, observe series of taboos (food- and sex-related), then perhaps be subjected to privations and solitude in a variant of vision-quest found in many NNA cultures

During this period, would 1) learn techniques, special "language," etc.; 2) obtain magical songs (thru visions or inheritance); and 3) establish alliances with spirit helpers

Spirit Helpers

Power of Inuit shamans came from their ability to harness spiritual powers

This involved not some vague or generalized mana, but by enlisting individual spirits (tunraq) as helpers

These spirit helpers were difficult, fickle, even dangerous, but basis for most of what shaman could do

Each shaman had own set of helpers, obtained thru visions and spells

Following is the list of the spirits owned by Iksivalitak, the last practicing shaman among the Netsilik:

1) Kingarjuaq: big mountain, about three inches long and one inch high, with black and red spots. The shaman could remove this tunraq from his mouth, where it was in the habit of staying, and make it run on his hand.

2) Kanayuq: sea scorpion, residing also in Iksivalitaq's mouth, whence it could show its ugly head.

3) Kaiutinuaq: the ghost of a dead man.

4) Kringarsarut: the ghost of a dead man, big as a needle, with a crooked mouth and one very small ear.

5) Arlu: the killer whale, white, very big.

6) Kunnararjuq: a black dog with no ears.

7) Iksivalitak: the ghost of the shaman's grandfather.

Performance & Trance

Both cures and attempts to combat misfortune (e.g., bad weather or lack of game) usually involved an audience in a seance, where shaman became a public performer in a highly-charged atmosphere

These seances included the elements of song/chant, drumming, dance, and various feats of magic [see readings from Rasmussen's work w/ Igluligmiut & Copper]

Thus, shamans were expert ventriloquists, could grow instant beards, make objects fly about, snag monsters thru sea ice, vomit blood (bladder in mouth trick), and stab themselves with spears, or shoot themselves with guns, but revive miraculously, wipe wounds away

These feats served to entertain, but more importantly to excite and unhinge the observer's mind, make them more receptive to cure or spiritual power of shaman

Seances also often included trance states and spirit possession, where shaman would either leave his/her body and travel on a journey to spirits at bottom of sea or on the moon, or become possessed by spirits who would speak through her/him (examples of each are described in your readings)

Social Function

Unlike mystics and occultists in various religious traditions, shaman not only cultivated altered states of consciousness & harnessed spirit powers, but s/he used them to benefit members of society (tho also used for personal gain, by charging fees for services, sometimes even engaging in sorcery and extortion)

Two principal social functions were a) curing of sick, b) warding off misfortune that befell entire group

Inuit believed that most misfortune caused by evil spirits, usually angered by breach of taboo or sent by enemy with shamanistic powers

Evil spirits would reside in body, making patient ill, and shaman's task was 1) to diagnose cause (taboo violation) 2) drive out spirit with help of his own spirit helpers.

For either or both of these tasks, shaman would enter trance, undergo spirit possession and let spirit speak & work through him/her

Seances to combat group misfortune (e.g., stormy weather, shortage of game) followed same pattern, but often involved more elaborate performance (see Rasmussen's description of "Shaman's journey..." in course reading)

One frequent cause of group misfortune arose from offenses to animal prey (remember links between animism & shamanism)

In addition to danger of offending particular species, Inuit concerned with more general danger of offending goddess in charge of all sea animals

The origins of this deity is set out in the Sedna myth (widespread in Central Arctic):

Sedna proud girl who refuses all suitors; finally goes off with seabird who promises the good life. She finds this not so (tent of fish-skins instead of sealskins, food of old fish instead of mammals, etc.). Other seabirds (non-kin) mistreat her, she is hungry and cold, calls to father to rescue her. Father takes her away after killing her bird-husband, but other birds find out, follow boat, create giant storm. Father throws Sedna overboard to save own life, cuts fingers off (1st joints = whales; 2nd joints = ringed seals; 3rd = bearded seals; stump = walrus)

Sedna (a.k.a. Takánakapsãluk) goes to dwell in sea, becomes ruler of sea mammals. She can withhold animals (via storms, etc.) or make them abundant. If taboos are broken by Inuit, her long hair becomes clogged with filth, she grows angry and withholds game. If appeased (by good behavior, or by shaman's journey), prey are plentiful.

Note themes of the Sedna myth: foolish pride, danger of living with non-kin, self-preservation (father), interdependence (individual taboo violation causes hardship for all through vengeance of animal spirits or spirit-master), and of course core beliefs of animism and shamanism