In the foregoing the spread — in space and time — of all the elements which must be regarded as belonging to the Thule culture has been examined. We shall now see what may be concluded from this regarding the connection and relationship of the Thule culture to the other forms of Eskimo culture. It will then be seen that the elements which comprise the Thule culture may be arranged in a number of groups according to their geographic spread and age. In this arrangement, however, only those elements are included which are known with certainty to belong to the Thule culture, whereas all those whose relationship with it is doubtful or uncertain, which may be later intermixtures or which may be regarded as being late, local forms, not belonging to the Thule culture proper, have been omitted. Even though the material be thereby reduced somewhat, a greater certainty is obtained for the conclusions which may be drawn from it.
Our first task is to arrange the elements of the Thule culture in relation to the three main groups into which the Eskimo culture is divisible: the Central Eskimos (the present culture), Greenland and the Western Eskimo territory. Then we must examine the relationship of the Thule culture to the various groups within these three great culture areas.
1. Generally spread elements. Are besides in the Thule culture, known both in Greenland and among the Western Eskimos and among the present-day Central Eskimos. It is these elements which, even if they may be absent as far as some tribes are concerned, may be described as common Eskimo, at any rate common to the Arctic regions of the Eskimo territory; the sub-Arctic regions, South Greenland and South Alaska, differ of course in many respects from the typical Eskimo culture. To these common Eskimo objects, which consequently are of no importance to the question of culture relationship and culture migration because they are too generally spread, belong the following elements of the Thule culture:
