_Marriage._--As far as we could learn, the marriage relation was
entered upon generally from reasons of interest or convenience, with
very little regard for affection, as we understand it, though there
often appeared to be a warm attachment between married people. A man
desires to obtain a wife who will perform her household duties well
and faithfully, and will be at the same time an agreeable companion,
while he often plans to marry into a rich or influential family. The
woman, on the other hand, appears to desire a husband who is
industrious and a good hunter. There were, nevertheless, some
indications that real love matches sometimes took place. Marriages are
usually arranged by the parents of the contracting parties, sometimes
when the principals are mere children. We knew of one case when a
young man of about twenty-two offered himself as the prospective
husband of a girl of eight or ten, when she should reach a
marriageable age. This practice of child betrothal seems to be
practically universal among the Eskimo everywhere.[N520]
[Footnote N520: Compare Crantz, vol. 1, p. 159 (Greenland);
Kumlien, Contributions, p. 164 (Cumberland Gulf); Hall, Arctic
Researches, p. 567 (Baffin Land); Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528 (Fury
and Hecla Straits); Schwatka, Science, vol. 4, No. 98, p. 544
(King William’s Land); Gilder, Schwatka’s Search, p. 250 (Hudson’s
Bay); Franklin, First Exp., vol. 2, p. 41 (Chesterfield Inlet);
Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 209 (Plover Bay); Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol.
2, p. 26 (Pitlekaj).]
Dr. Simpson, in describing the marriage customs at Point Barrow, says:
The usual case is, that as soon as the young man desires a partner
and is able to support one, his mother selects a girl according to
her judgment or fancy, and invites her to the hut, where she first
takes the part of a “kivgak” or servant, having all the cooking and
other kitchen duties to perform during the day, and returns to her
home at night. If her conduct proves satisfactory, she is further
invited to become a member of the family.[N521]
[Footnote N521: Op. cit., p. 252.]
We only knew this to be done on one occasion; and on the contrary knew
of several cases where the bridegroom became a member of the wife’s
family.
One youth, who had had his lips pierced for the labrets just
previously to our arrival, was, we soon learned, betrothed to a young
girl at Nuwŭk. This girl frequently came down from Nuwŭk and visited
her lover’s family, staying several days at a time, but we could not
discover that she was treated as a servant. She went with them to the
spring deer hunt, but we were distinctly given to understand that the
young couple would not be married till after the return from this
hunt, and that no intercourse would take place between them before
that time. When the season came for catching reindeer fawns, the
couple started off together, with sled and dogs and camp equipage in
pursuit of them, and always afterwards were considered as man and
wife.
Most of the marriages took place before we heard of them, so that we
had no opportunity for learning what ceremony, if any, occurred at the
time. Some of the party, however, who went over to make a visit at
Utkiavwĭñ one evening, found the house full of people, who were
singing and dancing, and were told that this was to celebrate the
marriage of the daughter of the house. Marriage ceremonies appear to
be rare among the Eskimo. A pretended abduction, with the consent of
the parents, is spoken of by Bessels at Smith Sound[N522] and Egede in
Greenland (p. 142), and Kumlien was informed that certain ceremonies
were sometimes practiced at Cumberland Gulf.[N523] Elsewhere I have
not been able to find any reference to the subject. A man usually
selects a wife of about his own age, but reasons of interest sometimes
lead to a great disparity of age between the two. I do not recollect
any case where an old man had a wife very much younger than himself,
but we knew of several men who had married widows or divorced women
old enough to be their mothers,[N524] and in one remarkable case the
bride was a girl of sixteen or seventeen, and the husband a lad
apparently not over thirteen, who could barely have reached the age of
puberty.
[Footnote N522: Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877.]
[Footnote N523: Contributions, p. 16.]
[Footnote N524: Compare Holm’s observations in East
Greenland--“idet et ganske ungt Menneske kan være gift med en
Kone, som kunde være hans Moder.” Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8,
p. 91.]
This couple were married late in the winter of 1882-’83, and
immediately started off to the rivers, deer hunting, where the young
husband was very successful. This union, however, appeared to have
been dissolved in the summer, as I believe the girl was living with
another and older man when we left the station. In this case, the
husband came to live with the wife’s family.
As is the case with most Eskimo, most of the men content themselves
with one wife, though a few of the wealthy men have two each. I do not
recollect over half a dozen men in the two villages who had more than
one wife each, and one of these dismissed his younger wife during our
stay. We never heard of a case of more than two wives. As well as we
could judge, the marriage bond was regarded simply as a contract
entered into by the agreement of the contracting parties and, without
any formal ceremony of divorce, easily dissolved in the same way, on
account of incompatibility of temper, or even on account of temporary
disagreements.
We knew of one or two cases where wives left their husbands on account
of ill treatment. One of these cases resulted in a permanent
separation, each of the couple finally marrying again, though the
husband for a long time tried his best to get his wife to come back to
him. In another case, where the wife after receiving a beating ran
away to Nuwŭk, and, as we were told, married another man, her first
husband followed her in a day or two and either by violence or
persuasion made her come back with him. They afterwards appeared to
live together on perfectly good terms.
On the other hand, we know of several cases where men discarded wives
who were unsatisfactory or made themselves disagreeable. For instance,
the younger Tuñazu, when we first made his acquaintance, was married
to a widow very much his senior, who seemed to have a disagreeable and
querulous temper, so that we were not surprised to hear in the spring
of 1882 that they were separated and Tuñazu married to a young girl.
His second matrimonial venture was no more successful than his first,
for his young wife proved to be a great talker. As he told us: “She
talked all the time, so that he could not eat and could not sleep.” So
he discarded her, and when we left the station he had been for some
time married to another old widow.
In the case above mentioned, where the man with two wives discarded
the younger of them, the reason he assigned was that she was lazy,
would not make her own clothes, and was disobedient to the older wife,
to whom he was much attached. As he said, Kakaguna (the older wife)
told her, “Give me a drink of water,” and she said, “No!” so Kakaguna
said, “Go!” and she went. He did not show any particular concern about
it.
Dr. Simpson says, “A great many changes take place before a permanent
choice is made;” and again, “A union once apparently settled between
parties grown up is rarely dissolved.”[N525] And this agrees with our
experience. The same appears to have been the case in Greenland.
Crantz[N526] says, “Such quarrels and separations only happen between
people in their younger years, who have married without due
forethought. The older they grow, the more they love one another.”
[Footnote N525: Op. cit., p. 253.]
[Footnote N526: Vol. 1, p. 160.]
Easy and unceremonious divorce appears to be the usual custom among
Eskimo generally, and the divorced parties are always free to marry
again.[N527] The only writer who mentions any ceremony of divorce is
Bessels, who witnessed such among the so-called “Arctic Highlanders”
of Smith Sound (Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 877). Dr. Simpson, in
the paragraph referred to above, says that “A man of mature age
chooses a wife for himself and fetches her home, frequently, to all
appearance, much against her will.” The only case of the kind which
came to our notice was in 1883, when one of the Kĭlauwitawĭñmeun
attempted by blows to coerce Adwû´na, an Utkiavwĭñ girl, to live with
him, but was unsuccessful.
[Footnote N527: “They often repudiate and put away their wives, if
either they do not suit their humors, or else if they are barren,
* * * and marry others.” Egede, Greenland, p. 143. Compare also
Crantz, vol. 1, p. 160; Parry, Second Voyage, p. 528 (Fury and
Hecla Straits); Kumlien, Contributions, p. 17 (Cumberland Gulf);
and Hooper, Tents, etc., p. 100--“repudiation is perfectly
recognized, and in instances of misconduct and sometimes of
dislike, put in force without scruple or censure. * * * The
rejected wife * * * does not generally wait long for another
husband;” (Plover Bay.) Compare also Holm, Geografisk Tidskrift,
vol. 8, pp. 91-92, where he gives an account of marriage and
divorce in east Greenland, remarkably like what we observed at
Point Barrow.]
A curious custom, not peculiar to these people, is the habit
of exchanging wives temporarily. For instance, one man of our
acquaintance planned to go to the rivers deer hunting in the summer of
1882, and borrowed his cousin’s wife for the expedition, as she was a
good shot and a good hand at deer hunting, while his own wife went
with his cousin on the trading expedition to the eastward. On their
return the wives went back to their respective husbands.
The couples sometimes find themselves better pleased with their new
mates than with the former association, in which case the exchange
is made permanent. This happened once in Utkiavwĭñ to our certain
knowledge. This custom has been observed at Fury and Hecla
Straits,[N528] Cumberland Gulf,[N529] and in the region around
Repulse Bay, where it seems to be carried to an extreme.
[Footnote N528: Parry, 2nd Voyage, p. 528.]
[Footnote N529: Kumlien, Contributions, p. 16.]
According to Gilder[N530] it is a usual thing among friends in that
region to exchange wives for a week or two about every two months.
Among the Greenlanders the only custom of the kind mentioned is the
temporary exchange of wives at certain festivals described by
Egede.[N531]
[Footnote N530: Schwatka’s Search, p. 197.]
[Footnote N531: Greenland, p. 139.]
Holm also describes “the game of putting out the lamps,” or “changing
wives,” as a common winter sport in East Greenland. He also, however,
speaks of the temporary exchange of wives among these people much as
described elsewhere.[N532]
[Footnote N532: Geogr., Tids., vol. 8, p. 92.]
I am informed by some of the whalemen who winter in the neighborhood
of Repulse Bay, that at certain times there is a general exchange of
wives throughout the village, each woman passing from man to man till
she has been through the hands of all, and finally returns to her
husband. All these cases seem to me to indicate that the Eskimo have
not wholly emerged from the state called communal marriage, in which
each woman is considered as the wife of every man in the community.
_Standing and treatment of women._--The women appear to stand on a
footing of perfect equality with the men both in the family and in the
community. The wife is the constant and trusted companion of the man
in everything except the hunt, and her opinion is sought in every
bargain or other important undertaking.[N533]
[Footnote N533: Compare Parry, 2d Voyage, pp. 526-528,
Nordenskiöld (Vega, vol. 1, p. 449): The women are “treated as
the equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the
husband when a more important bargain than usual was to be made.”
(Pitlekaj.) This statement is applicable, word for word, to the
women of Point Barrow.]
Dr. Simpson’s description[N534] of the standing of the women at Point
Barrow in his time is so true at the present day that I may be
pardoned for quoting the whole of it:
A man seems to have unlimited authority in his own hut, but, as with
few exceptions his rule is mild, the domestic and social position of
the women is one of comfort and enjoyment. As there is no affected
dignity or importance in the men, they do not make mere slaves and
drudges of the women; on the contrary, they endure their full share
of fatigue and hardship in the coldest season of the year, only
calling in the assistance of the women if too wearied themselves to
bring in the fruits of their own industry and patience; and at other
seasons the women appear to think it a privation not to share the
labors of the men. A woman’s ordinary occupations are sewing, the
preparation of skins for making and mending, cooking, and the
general care of the supplies of provisions. Occasionally in the
winter she is sent out on the ice for a seal which her husband has
taken, to which she is guided by his footmarks; and in spring and
summer she takes her place in the boat if required.
[Footnote N534: Op. cit., p 252.]
The statement in the first sentence that the husband’s rule is mild is
hardly consistent with that on the following page that “obedience
seems to be the great virtue required, and is enforced by blows when
necessary, until the man’s authority is established.” According to our
experience the first statement is nearer the truth. We heard of few
cases of wife-beating, and those chiefly among the younger men. Two
brothers, who habitually ill-treated their wives, were looked upon
with disfavor, by some of our friends at least. We heard of one case
where a stalwart wife turned the tables on her husband who attempted
to abuse her, giving him a thorough beating and then leaving his
house.
Wife-beating was not uncommon among the Greenlanders.[N535] We did not
learn whether a woman brought anything like a dowry, but Simpson[N536]
says: “The woman’s property, consisting of her beads and other
ornaments, her needlecase, knife, etc., are considered her own; and if
a separation takes place the clothes and presents are returned and she
merely takes away with her whatever she brought.” According to
Crantz[N537] a widow in Greenland had no share of her husband’s
property, but owns only what she brought with her, and I am inclined
to believe that this is the case at Point Barrow.
[Footnote N535: See Egede, p. 144, “for according to them it
signifies nothing that a man beats his wife.”]
[Footnote N536: Op. cit., p. 253.]
[Footnote N537: Vol. 1, p. 165.]
One widow of my acquaintance, who appeared to have no relatives in the
village, was reduced almost to beggary, though her husband had been
quite well-to-do. All his property and even his boy were taken from
her by some of the other natives. Widows who have well-to-do
relatives, especially grown-up sons, are well taken care of and often
marry again. According to Captain Parry,[N538] unprotected widows were
robbed at Iglulik.
[Footnote N538: Second Voyage, p. 522.]
_Children._--From the small number of births which occurred during our
stay at Point Barrow, we were able to ascertain little in regard to
this subject. When a woman is about to be confined, she is isolated in
a little snow hut in winter or a little tent in summer, in which she
remains for some time--just how long we were unable to learn. Captain
Herendeen saw a pregnant woman in Utkiavwĭñ engaged, on March 31, in
building a little snow house, which she told him was meant for her
confinement, but she had evidently somehow miscalculated her time, as
her child was not born till much later, when the people had moved into
the tents. She and her child lived in a little tent on the beach close
to her husband’s tent, evidently in a sitting position, as the tent
was not large enough for her to lie down in. Her husband was desirous
of going off on the summer deer hunt, but, under the circumstances,
custom forbade his leaving the neighborhood of the village till the
ice at sea broke up. The same custom of isolating the women during
childbirth has been observed by Kumlien and Boas at Cumberland
Gulf[N539], and in Greenland the mother was not allowed to eat or
drink in the open air.[N540] Lisiansky describes a similar practice in
Kadiak in 1805,[N541] and Klutschak also notes it among the
Aivillirmiut.[N542]
[Footnote N539: Contributions, p. 28, and “Central Eskimo,”
p. 610.]
[Footnote N540: Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, and Rink,
Tales, etc., p. 54.]
[Footnote N541: Voyage, p. 200.]
[Footnote N542: “Als Eskimo, etc.,” p. 199.]
The custom of shutting up the mother and child in a snow house in
winter must be very dangerous to the infant, and, in fact, the only
child that was born in winter during our stay lived but a short time.
Capt. Herendeen visited this family at Nuwŭk shortly after the death
of the child, and saw the snow house in which the woman had been
confined. He was about to take a drink of water from a dipper which he
saw in the iglu, but was prevented by the other people, who told him
that this belonged to the mother and that it was “bad” for anyone else
to use it. In Greenland the mother had a separate water pail.[N543]
For a time, our visitors from Utkiavwĭñ were very much afraid to drink
out of the tin pannikin in our washroom, for fear it had been used by
Niăksăra, a woman who had recently suffered a miscarriage. One man
told us that a sore on his face was caused by his having inadvertently
done so. This same woman was forbidden to go out among the broken ice
of the land floe, during the spring succeeding her miscarriage, though
she might go out on the smooth shore ice. Her husband also was
forbidden to work with a hammer or adz or to go seal-catching for some
time after the mishap.
[Footnote N543: Egede, p. 192; Crantz, vol. 1, p. 215, “no one
else must drink out of their cup;” and Rink, Tales and Traditions,
p. 54.]
Children are nursed until they are 3 or 4 years old, according to what
appears to be the universal habit among Eskimo, and which is probably
due, as generally supposed, to the fact that the animal food on which
the parents subsist is not fit for the nourishment of young children.
The child is carried naked on the mother’s back under her clothes, and
held up by the girdle, tied higher than usual. When she wishes to
nurse it, she loosens her girdle and slips it round to the breast
without bringing it out into the air. Children are carried in this way
until they are able to walk and often later.
A large child sits astride of his mother’s back, with one leg under
each of her arms, and has a little suit of clothes in which he is
dressed when the mother wishes to set him down. When the child is
awake, this hood is thrown back and the child raised quite high so
that he looks over his mother’s shoulder, who then covers her head
with a cloth or something of the sort. The woman appears to be very
little inconvenienced by her burden, and goes about her work as usual,
and the child does not seem to be disturbed by her movements. The
little girls often act as nurses and carry the infants around on their
backs, in the same way. It is no unusual sight to see a little girl of
ten or twelve carrying a well grown, heavy child in this way.
This custom or a very similar one seems to prevail among the Eskimo
generally. In Greenland, the nurse wears a garment especially designed
for carrying the child, an amaut, i.e., a garment that is so wide in
the back as to hold a child, which generally tumbles in it quite naked
and is accommodated with no other swaddling clothes or cradle.[N544]
In East Greenland, according to Capt. Holm, “Saa længe Børnene ere
smaa, bæres de i det fri paa Moderens Ryg.”[N545]
[Footnote N544: Crantz, vol. 1, p. 138. See also Egede, p. 131,
and the picture in Rink’s Tales, etc., opposite p. 8.]
[Footnote N545: Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 91.]
Petitot’s description of the method of carrying the children in the
Mackenzie district is so naïve that it deserves to be quoted
entire.[N546]
Les mères qui allaitent portent une jaquette ample et serrée autour
des reins par une ceinture. Elles y enferment leur chère progéniture
qu’elles peuvent, par ce moyen, allaiter sans l’exposer à un froid
qui lui serait mortel. Ces jeunes enfants sont sans aucun vêtement
jusqu’à l’âge d’environ deux ans. Quant aux incongruités que ces
petites créatures peuvent se permettre sur le dos de leur mère, qui
leur sert de calorifère, l’amour maternel, le même chez tous les
peuples, les endure patiemment et avec indifférence.
[Footnote N546: Monographie, etc., p. xv.]
At Fury and Hecla Straits, according to Parry[N547], the children are
carried in the hood, which is made specially large on purpose, but
sometimes also on the back, as at Point Barrow. The enormous hoods of
the Eskimo women in Labrador also served to hold the child. The same
custom prevails at Cumberland Gulf.[N548] In some localities, for
instance the north shore of Hudson’s Straits, where the woman wear
very long and loose boots, the children are said to be carried in
these.[N549] Franklin[N550] refers to the same custom “east of the
Mackenzie River.” The Siberian children, however, are dressed in
regular swaddling clothes of deerskin, with a sort of diaper of dried
moss.[N551]
[Footnote N547: Second Voyage, p. 495.]
[Footnote N548: Kumlien, Contributions, p. 24.]
[Footnote N549: See Ellis, Voyage, etc., p. 136, and plate
opposite p. 132.]
[Footnote N550: Second Ex., p. 226.]
[Footnote N551: Nordenskiöld, Vega, vol. 2, p. 101.]
We never heard of a single case of infanticide, and, indeed, children
were so scarce and seemed so highly prized that we never even thought
of inquiring if infanticide was ever practiced. Nevertheless, Simpson
speaks of the occurrence of a case during the Plover’s visit; “but a
child, they say, is destroyed only when afflicted with disease of a
fatal tendency, or, in scarce seasons, when one or both parents
die.[N552]” Infanticide, according to Bessels, is frequently practiced
among the Eskimo of Smith Sound, without regard of sex,[N553] and
Schwatka speaks of female infanticide to a limited extent among the
people of King William’s Land.[N554]
[Footnote N552: Op. cit., p. 250.]
[Footnote N553: Naturalist, vol. 18, pt. 9, p. 874.]
[Footnote N554: Science, vol. 4, p. 544.]
The affection of parents for their children is extreme, and the
children seem to be thoroughly worthy of it. They show hardly a trace
of the fretfulness and petulance so common among civilized children,
and though indulged to an extreme extent are remarkably obedient.
Corporal punishment appears to be absolutely unknown and the children
are rarely chidden or punished in any way. Indeed, they seldom deserve
it, for, in spite of the freedom which they are allowed, they do not
often get into any mischief, especially of a malicious sort, but
attend quietly to their own affairs and their own amusements.
The older children take very good care of the smaller ones. It is an
amusing sight to see a little boy of six or seven patronizing and
protecting a little toddler of two or three. Children rarely cry
except from actual pain or terror, and even then little ones are
remarkably patient and plucky. The young children appear to receive
little or no instruction except what they pick up in their play or
from watching their elders.
Boys of six or seven begin to shoot small birds and animals and to
hunt for birds’ eggs, and when they reach the age of twelve or
fourteen are usually intrusted with a gun and seal spear and accompany
their fathers to the hunt. Some of them soon learn to be very skillful
hunters. We know one boy not over thirteen years old who, during the
winter of 1881-’82, had his seal nets set like the men and used to
visit them regularly, even in the roughest weather. Lads of fourteen
or fifteen are sometimes regular members of the whaling crews. In the
meantime the little girls are learning to sew, in imitation of their
mothers, and by the time they are twelve years old they take their
share of the cooking and other housework and assist in making the
clothes for the family. They still, however, have plenty of leisure to
play with the other children until they are old enough to be married.
Affection for their children seems a universal trait among the Eskimo
and there is scarcely an author who does not speak in terms of
commendation of the behavior and disposition of the Eskimo children.
Some of these passages are so applicable to the people of Point Barrow
that I can not forbear quoting them. Egede says:[N555]
They have a very tender Love for their Children, and the Mother
always carries the infant Child about with her upon her back. * * *
They suck them till they are three or four years old or more,
because, in their tender Infancy, they cannot digest the strong
Victuals that the rest must live upon. The Education of their
Children is what they seem little concerned about, for they never
make use of whipping or hard words to correct them when they do
anything amiss, but leave them to their own Discretion.
Notwithstanding which, when they are grown, they never seem inclined
to Vice or Roguery, which is to be admired. It is true, they show no
great Respect to their Parents in any outward Forms, but always are
very willing to do what they order them, though sometimes they will
bid their Parents do it themselves.
[Footnote N555: Greenland, p. 146.]
According to Capt. Holm,[N556] in East Greenland, “De opvoxe i den
mest ubundne Frihed. Forældrene nære en ubeskrivelig Kjærlighed til
dem og straffe dem derfor aldrig, selv om de ere nok saa gjenstridige.
Man maa imidlertid beundre, hvor velopdragne de smaa alligevel ere.”
[Footnote N556: Geografisk Tidskrift, vol 8, p. 91.]