Page:The Thule Culture and Its Position Within the Eskimo Culture.djvu/12

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I. The Thule Culture and its Representative Forms.

In the first part of this work^[1] the archaeological material which was secured by the Fifth Thule Expedition in the Central Eskimo territory^[2] has been presented and described. The next task is now to draw such conclusions as this material justifies and to see what it means to Eskimo research.

Some of the main features have already been outlined in my preliminary reports;^[3] these outlines, however, which were only built upon a purely provisional appraisement of the material — and then only a part of it, as some of it had not yet arrived home — are very much in need of amplification and support by means of arguments. This will therefore be the object of the following.

In the descriptive part we have seen that wherever the Expedition has excavated in the Central Eskimo territory — at Naujan and Aivilik in Repulse Bay, at Chesterfield Inlet, at Qilalukan and Mitimatalik in northern Baffin Land, at Kuk on Southampton Island and at Malerualik and Kangerarfigssuaq on King William's Land — we have, below the modern Central Eskimo culture, found

↑ Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, published simultaneously with this work.
↑ By the Central Eskimo territory is understood the areas of Arctic North America which stretch from Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and Smith Sound with its northern extension to the east and as far as just west of Coronation Gulf in the west, the territory which is now inhabited partly by the great sub-division of the Eskimos whom Boas calls the Central Eskimos, and partly lies unpopulated but has previously been inhabited by Eskimos. The Central Eskimos are divided into the following sub-sections: the Iglulik Eskimos (with the sub-groups the Aiviliks, the Igluliks and Ponds Inlet Eskimos in northern Baffin Land), the Netsilik Eskimos, the Caribou Eskimos, the Copper Eskimos, the Baffinlanders (in central and southern Baffin Land) and the Labrador Eskimos; of these, the first four groups form the Central Eskimos proper, whilst the last two occupy a separate position; the other main groups of Eskimos are the Western Eskimos, who comprise the Mackenzie and Alaska Eskimos and the Yuit on the east point of Siberia, and the Eastern Eskimos, who comprise the Greenland Eskimos.
↑ Geografisk Tidsskrift 1924 and 1927; XXI Congrès international des Américanistes, Göteborg 1924 (publ. 1925); Geographical Review Oct. 1925; in Knud Rasmussen: Fra Grønland til Stillehavet, pp. 278–300; Naturens Verden 1926.

[1] Archaeology of the Central Eskimos I, published simultaneously with this work.

[2] By the Central Eskimo territory is understood the areas of Arctic North America which stretch from Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and Smith Sound with its northern extension to the east and as far as just west of Coronation Gulf in the west, the territory which is now inhabited partly by the great sub-division of the Eskimos whom Boas calls the Central Eskimos, and partly lies unpopulated but has previously been inhabited by Eskimos. The Central Eskimos are divided into the following sub-sections: the Iglulik Eskimos (with the sub-groups the Aiviliks, the Igluliks and Ponds Inlet Eskimos in northern Baffin Land), the Netsilik Eskimos, the Caribou Eskimos, the Copper Eskimos, the Baffinlanders (in central and southern Baffin Land) and the Labrador Eskimos; of these, the first four groups form the Central Eskimos proper, whilst the last two occupy a separate position; the other main groups of Eskimos are the Western Eskimos, who comprise the Mackenzie and Alaska Eskimos and the Yuit on the east point of Siberia, and the Eastern Eskimos, who comprise the Greenland Eskimos.

[3] Geografisk Tidsskrift 1924 and 1927; XXI Congrès international des Américanistes, Göteborg 1924 (publ. 1925); Geographical Review Oct. 1925; in Knud Rasmussen: Fra Grønland til Stillehavet, pp. 278–300; Naturens Verden 1926.

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