Eskimos
There are few Inuit people who live on the Canadian tundra. And we call them Eskimos. In this report I'll talk about the traditional way of their life, settlement, subsistence, clothing and transportations, social organization, religion and art, history.
Eskimos:-
The Eskimo are the native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America and the northeastern tip of Siberia. Their habitation area extends over four countries: the United States, Canada, the USSR, and Greenland. Of the more than 90,000 Eskimo in this region, the greater part live south of the Arctic Circle, with approximately 28,000 on the Aleutian Islands and in Alaska; 17,000 in Canada; 1,500 in Siberia; and 45,000 in Greenland.
The word Eskimo is not an Eskimo word. It means "eaters of raw meat" and was used by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada for these hardy neighbors who wore animal-skin clothing and were adept hunters. The name became commonly employed by European explorers and now is generally used, even by Eskimo. Their own term for themselves is Inuit (the Yupik variant is yet), which means the "real people."
The Eskimo inhabit one of the most inclement regions of the world. Their land is mostly tundra--low, flat, treeless plains where the ground remains permanently frozen except for a few inches of the surface during the brief summer season. Although some groups are settled on rivers and depend on fishing, and others follow inland caribou herds, most Eskimo traditionally have lived primarily as hunters of maritime mammals (seals, walrus, and whales), and the structure and ethos of their culture have always been fundamentally oriented to the sea.
One of the most striking aspects of traditional Eskimo culture is its relative homogeneity across more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of the vast expanses of the Arctic. The main institutional and psychological patterns of the culture--religious, social, and economic--are much the same. There are some differences in traditional kinship systems, however, especially in the western regions, and the ******** is divided into two major dialectical groups, the Inuvik speakers (Greenland to western Alaska) and the Yupik speakers (southwestern Alaska and Siberia).
TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE:-
The ability of the Eskimo to adapt successfully to a cold and harsh environment depended on a highly inventive material culture and particular values and psychological traits. An essential ingredient in this was the Eskimo's skill in making tools and other useful devices from all kinds of materials. Clothing sewn from skins, the toggle harpoon fashioned from ivory or antler and fitted with stone blades, sled runners made, in emergencies, from frozen strips of meat, and the well-known igloo, or snow house, are examples of indigenous cultural adaptations developed from available natural materials. Broad cultural values stressed the importance and excitement of hunting and the need to appease the souls of animals killed in the hunt. Courage and hardihood were emphasized in the training of young Eskimo, as was a strong sense of fatalism in facing the disappointments and frustrations of life, such as the death of loved ones.
Clothing and Transportation:-
Traditionally, nearly all parts of animals killed by the Eskimo were used. Eskimo clothing was made from skins of birds and animals (seal, caribou, and polar bear). Sewn with sinew thread and bone needles, hooded jackets, pants, and waterproof boots were well adapted to cold and wet climatic conditions. Skins were also processed into tents and boats, and bones were made into weapons. Two kinds of boats were common. The umiak was a large open boat consisting of a wooden frame covered usually with walrus hide; it was used both to transport people and goods and, especially in northern Alaska, to hunt whales. The other type of craft distinctive of the Eskimo and their cultural relatives, the ALEUTS, was the kayak. This one-man hunting vessel was entirely decked over with sealskin or caribou skin. The hunter sat in a cockpit inside, dressed in tight-fitting waterproof clothing made from seal or walrus intestine. The kayak glided silently through the water and enabled the hunter to move very close to his prey. Everywhere the Eskimo depended on the DOGSLED as a mode of winter transportation over both land and the frozen sea. The sled was drawn by 2 to 14 huskies and was usually made from wood; where wood was unavailable (as in certain regions of central Canada), dried salmon was sometimes used as structural material for sleds. In recent years, snowmobiles have largely replaced the dogsled as the Eskimo's primary mode of transportation in many areas.
Social Organization:-
There were no tribes in traditional Eskimo society. Generally a group of people was known by a geographic term to which was added the suffix miut, meaning "people of." The basic unit of social organization in most areas was the extended family--a man, his wife and unmarried children, and his married sons and their wives and children. Usually several family groups would join together and exploit the animal resources of a given area. The leader of the group would be the eldest male still capable of hunting. At times he was called upon to settle disputes within the group and between it and outsiders. If that way of resolving quarrels did not bring peace, disputants might wrestle each other or join in a public joking and insulting contest to determine the winner. Special partnerships between men who were not relatives were important in trade relations, sharing of wives, and protection in travel to other regions.
In Alaska, a village usually used at least one man's house for ceremonials and as a place where men and boys did much of their work and often even ate their meals and spent the night; this house was called a kashgee, or by a similar name. The traditional kinship system of most Eskimo groups resembled that of American society. They called the same kinds of relatives "cousins" and generally practiced bilateral descent, by which they recognized both the mother's and the father's side of the family equally. In the western Bering Sea areas, however, the paternal aspect of descent was so pronounced that there was a clan system based upon ptrilineal principles. Every person belonged to the clan of his or her father. In those areas, too, the terms for "cousin" were markedly different from the usual Eskimo pattern.
History:-
The origin of Eskimo culture is disputed. Basing their opinions principally on similarities in subsistence methods and art styles, some scholars have traced it to Late Paleolithic cultures of Europe. Others have suggested a New World origin, such as the region west of Hudson's Bay. In coastal areas of the Bering Sea and southward along the Siberian shore, artifacts have been found that give persuasive evidence of earlier cultures adapted to maritime hunting from which Eskimo culture could have evolved. The so-called Arctic Small Tool tradition, best known from CAPE DENBIGH, Alaska, and dated from around 5000 to 3500 BC was one such precursor culture, as was the Old Whaling culture, dated at about 1800 BC.Fully developed Eskimo cultures that focused on seal and walrus hunting included the OKVIK and Old Bering Sea cultures; artifacts found in Siberia and on Saint Lawrence Island are dated at around the beginning of the Christian Era. To the east, in central Canada, remains of the Dorset culture of maritime mammal hunters have been found; it was probably a descendant of the Arctic Small Tool tradition. At about the end of the 1st millennium, Thule culture, in which whaling became a central focus, developed in Alaska and began to spread eastward to Greenland. It was characterized by whale, walrus, and seal hunting, dogsled traction, and permanent stone or dirt houses. It was the prevalent cultural type when the Eskimo were first encountered by Europeans. The Vikings were the first Europeans to contact the Eskimo. From the 10th to the 15th century Norse settlements existed in southwestern Greenland based on farming, cattle, and sheep rising. They disappeared as a result of the effects of sickness and depredation by the Eskimo. Modern contact began in the 18th century, with missionaries establishing education, government, and trade relations under the authority of the church, all of which had considerable impact in changing the traditional culture by the early 20th century. The Canadian Eskimo were first contacted by European explorers and whaling ships beginning in the 18th century, while in the west, the Alaskan Eskimo were first encountered by the Russians. They were followed by other European explorers and then, during the 1800s, by commercial whaling ships in the North Pacific after Atlantic whaling grounds had become depleted. Such ships traded rifles, whiskey, and other goods for whalebone, oil, hides, and ivory. Whaling rapidly declined around the beginning of this century, and the western Eskimo turned--as had the Canadian Eskimo earlier--to fox trapping, an auxiliary cash-producing occupation. From these many contacts the Eskimo became closely involved in a monetary economy and came increasingly to desire the superior technology of rifles, steel knives, and other commodities available through trade. Institutional features of their social life were also influenced by contacts with Western culture.
ESKIMO LIFE TODAY:-
Wherever they live--Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia--the Eskimo are now much involved in the modern world. Not only have they wholeheartedly adopted much of its technology, but they also use imported food, clothing, and house forms; similarly, their educational, recreational, economic, religious, and governmental institutions have been heavily influenced by the dominant European, Canadian, American, and Soviet cultures. Traditional practices and beliefs have not so thoroughly changed that most Eskimo can be termed assimilated or acculturated, especially in matters relating to social organization and child rearing. Significant changes have begun to occur in all areas of their way of life as a result of sustained contact with the outside world. Such changes were first apparent in Greenland. Because the ocean currents started to warm about the beginning of the 20th century, seals and other maritime animals disappeared from the offshore waters of southwestern Greenland. Major shifts in subsistence patterns followed, with extensive development of the fishing industry and planned concentration of the formerly dispersed hunters into larger settlements, together with greater mechanization of equipment and processing techniques. Education, medical services, and local self-government began in the 19th century as part of an overall integrated and controlled program of protective governance by Denmark. Extensive intermarriage occurred between Greenland Eskimo and Danes, and in the early 1950s, Greenland became a county of Denmark. Today, Greenlanders send elected representatives to the Danish Parliament; consequently, there has been a rise in political consciousness among the Greenland Eskimo. The Eskimo have also been much influenced by contact, in both Denmark and Greenland, with the Danish standard of living and methods of trade and education. His Eskimo living in the USSR have been involved in a planned program of modernization since the early 1930s. The Siberian Eskimo still hunt walrus, seals, and whales, but they do so as members of mechanized hunting work- groups called collectives, and their way of life has been fundamentally transformed in the area of political and social values. He Alaskan Eskimo have seen major changes in their lives since the beginning of this century, when they were still mostly following a traditional way of life. Until the 1930s fox trapping was a major source of income, and schools and limited medical facilities were provided by the government. Health conditions, however, remained well below those of the rest of the United States. World War II and subsequent developments related to national defense created many opportunities for employment in construction and other jobs. Numerous Eskimo worked in the urban areas of Alaska, some of them settling permanently in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and the larger towns of western Alaska. Many live in substandard housing and at marginal economic levels and exhibit many characteristics of social pathology. Statehood (1959) and the passage of the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act (1971) have set in motion major changes in landholding patterns and economic potential for the Eskimo and in part have symbolized the considerable rise in political activity on the part of Alaskan natives. The exploitation of petroleum and natural gas resources, as well as extensive exploration for other minerals throughout Alaska, has had significant effects on the lives of the Alaskan Eskimo. Like those in Alaska, the Eskimo living in Canada have been greatly affected by changes in their land since World War II. Defense installations, the search for oil and minerals, and greater government consciousness of the need for educational, medical, and social developments have resulted in widespread changes in traditional life. Although in some isolated areas hunting and trapping are still carried on, most Canadian Eskimo have congregated in towns and settlements in search of wage labor as well as to take advantage of modern facilities. The federal government in 1984 concluded a land-claims agreement with the Eskimo and in 1989 negotiated another land-claims agreement-in-principle that was expected to be finalized in the early 1990s. Ongoing talks also have been concerned with the division of the Northwest Territories in order to give both the Eskimo and the Indians greater control of their respective regions.
Ending:-
In this report I have learn about Eskimos life and how does they live in very cold place and how they eat their food. Really it is a nice life if want to live there we must take all think which we need it.
الأحد مايو 13, 2012 2:37 am