THE POSITION AND WORK OF WOMEN
Many leading thinkers have remarked that the social position occupied by
its women affords the best criterion of a people's place in the scale of
civilisation. I am not entirely convinced that this is always the case;
but if it is, I think we have here another indication that the Eskimo
must be allowed to have reached a pretty high level of development.
For the Eskimo woman plays no insignificant part in the life of the
community.
It is true that, according to the primitive Eskimo conception, she is
practically regarded as the property of her husband, who has either
carried her off, or sometimes bought her, from her father. He can
therefore send her away when he pleases, or lend her, or exchange her
for another; and, when he can afford it, he can have more wives than
one. But as a rule she is well treated, and we find this conception
of her as the husband's chattel more clearly marked among many other
races; there is even a good deal of it in our own society, only under a
somewhat different disguise.
There are some who maintain that our women have plenty to do, but that
the great mistake is that their employments are not exactly the same
as those of the men. These people will be no better contented with the
state of affairs in Greenland, for there, too, the employments of the
two sexes are entirely distinct.
It is true that both sexes wear trousers, and have done so from
time immemorial; but nevertheless they have not yet attained to the
conception that there is little or no difference between men and women.
They hold that there are, among other things, certain essential physical
differences, and imagine that women are not as a rule so strong, active,
and courageous as men, and that they therefore are not so well fitted
for hunting and fishing. On the other hand, they do not think that men
are best fitted to have the care of children, to give them suck, and so
forth.
This is no doubt the reason for the very clear line of demarcation
between the employments proper to the two sexes in Greenland.
To the man's share falls the laborious life at sea, as hunter and
food-provider; but when he reaches the shore with his booty, he has
fulfilled the most important part of his social function. He is received
by his women-folk, who help him ashore; and while he has nothing to do
but to look after his kaiak and his weapons, it is the part of the women
to drag the booty up to the house. In earlier times, at any rate, it was
beneath the dignity of any hunter to lend a hand in this work, and so it
still is with the majority.
The women flay the seal and cut it up according to fixed rules, and the
mother of the family presides at the division of it. Further, it is the
women's duty to cook the food, to prepare the skins, to cover the kaiaks
and woman-boats, to make clothes, and to attend to all other domestic
tasks. In addition to this they build the houses, pitch the tents, and
row the woman-boats.
To row in a woman-boat was formerly, at any rate, quite beneath a
hunter's dignity, but it was the part of the father of the family to
steer it. Now we often see men sitting and rowing, especially if they
are hired by travelling Europeans. When you have become thoroughly
accustomed to their way of life, this makes an unpleasant impression;
the kaiak is and must be the indispensable condition of their existence,
and one feels that they ought to neglect no opportunity for exercising
themselves in its use. Even now no hunter of the first rank will
condescend to enter a woman-boat, except as steersman.
When the family is out reindeer-hunting, it is of course the men who
shoot the reindeer, while it often falls to the share of the women to
drag the game to the tent; and this is a laborious business, calling for
a great deal of endurance.
The only sort of fishery with which the women as a rule concern
themselves is caplin-fishing. The season for this is the early summer,
when the caplin appear on the coast in such dense shoals that they can
be drawn up in bucketsful into the woman-boats. The fishing continues
until a sufficient store is laid up against the winter; when once that
is done they care no more about them, however abundant they may be. The
fish are dried by being spread out on the rocks and stones; it is the
women's business to look after them, and, when they are dried, to pack
them together.
Sometimes they take part in seal-fishing, when a sort of battue is made,
the seals being hunted into narrow sounds and fiords and driven ashore.
Only a few cases are on record in which women have tried their hand at
kaiak-fishing.
Captain Holm mentions two girls at Imarsivik on the east coast who
had taken to the kaiak. The proportion between men and women in the
village was unfortunate, there being only five men out of a population
of twenty-one. We are unhappily not informed whether these women had
attained as great skill in hunting as their male comrades.
They had entirely adopted the masculine manner of living, dressed like
men and wore their hair like men. When they were allowed to select what
they wanted from among Holm's articles of barter, they did not choose
needles or other feminine implements, but preferred spear-heads for
their weapons. It must have been difficult to distinguish them from men;
I must doubtless have seen them when I was on the east coast in 1888,
without suspecting their sex. Holm mentions that one or two other girls
in the same place were also destined to be trained as hunters, but they
were as yet too young.
While the men pass most of their time on the sea, the women remain at
home in their houses; and there you will generally find them busily
occupied with one task or another, in contrast to those fair ones on
our side of the ocean who do nothing but eat, lounge about, gossip,
and sleep. When they go beyond the circle of their ordinary domestic
employments, it is generally to busy themselves with the weapons of the
men, ornamenting them with bone-carvings, &c.; these are their chief
pride.
The men generally sit at the outer edge of the sleeping-bench with
their feet on the floor; but the women always sit well back on the
bench, with their legs crossed, like a tailor on his table. Here they
sew, embroider, cut up skins with their peculiar crooked knives,
chew bird-skins, and in short attend to many of their most important
occupations, while their tongues are in ceaseless activity; for they
are very lively and seldom lack matter for conversation. I cannot,
unhappily, quite acquit them of the proverbial feminine loquacity; and,
if we may believe Dalager, they are not altogether free from graver
defects. He says: 'Lying and backbiting are chiefly to be found among
the women. The men, on the other hand, are much more honest, and shrink
from relating anything which they are unable to substantiate.'
Oh woman, woman, are you everywhere the same!
The very first thought to which Lokë gave birth, It was a lie, and he
bade it descend In a woman's shape to the men of earth.
The preparation of skins is a very important part of the women's
work, and as the methods are extremely peculiar, I shall give a short
description of them, as I learnt them from the Eskimos of the Godthaab
district. The processes vary according to the different sorts of skins
and the purposes for which they are destined.
Kaiak-skins are dressed either black or white.[24]
_The black skin_ (_erisâk_) is obtained by scraping the blubber from
the under side of the skin while it is fresh, and then steeping it for
a day or two in stale urine, until the hairs can be plucked out with
a knife. These being removed, the skin is rinsed in sea water, and in
summer it is then dried, but not in the sun. In winter, it is not dried,
but if possible preserved by being buried in snow. Whether in summer or
winter, however, it is best if, immediately after being washed, it can
be stretched on the kaiak so as to dry upon the framework. These skins
are dark because the grain or outer membrane of the skin of the seal is
either black or dark brown.
_White kaiak-skins_ (_únek_) are prepared in this way: While they are
quite fresh, and after the blubber has been roughly removed, they are
rolled up and laid in a tolerably warm place either out of doors or
in. There they lie until the hairs and the outer membrane can easily
be scraped away with a mussel-shell. For this purpose, however, the
Greenland beauties generally prefer to use their teeth, since they
can thus suck out a certain amount of blubber, which they consider
delicious. Then, in summer, the skins are hung up to dry--not in the
sun--upon a wooden rail, and are often turned in order that they may dry
evenly all over. In winter they are preserved, like the black skins, in
the snow. The dark membrane being scraped away, these skins are quite
light-coloured or white when they are finished.
It must be noted that neither of these sorts of skins is stretched while
drying.
Both sorts are used for woman-boats as well as for kaiaks.
For the kaiak, the white skins, which ought always to be kept well
greased with seal-blubber, are considered best in summer; the black,
on the other hand, which are never greased, are preferred in winter. A
well-appointed hunter, therefore, ought to re-cover his kaiak twice a
year: nowadays, however, he can generally do so only once, and sometimes
only once in two years.
If the seal-skins are to be used for kamiks (shoes), the blubber and
the inner layer of the skin itself is scraped away with a crooked
knife (_ulo_) upon a board made for the purpose out of a whale's
shoulder-blade. When the skin has been scraped thin it is steeped for
a day or so in stale urine until the hairs can be plucked off with a
knife. This done, the skin is stretched, by means of small bone pegs,
upon the earth or the snow, and dried. Then it is rubbed until it is
soft, and the process is complete. As this sort of skin has its outer
membrane intact, it is of a dark colour.
White kamik-skins are prepared up to a certain point like the foregoing,
but when the hairs have been removed they are dipped in warm water (not
too warm) until the black membrane is loosened, and then steeped in sea
water, as cold as possible. If all the membrane is not removed, the skin
is again dipped alternately in warm water and sea water until it comes
away. Then the skin is pegged out and dried like the black skin.
The white skins, not being as strong and water-tight as the black, are
used almost entirely by women, who either keep them white or dye them in
different ways.
Sole leather for the kamiks is prepared in the same way as the black
kaiak-skin, but is pegged out while drying.
Skins for kaiak-gloves are prepared at first like the black kamik-skins,
but after the hairs have been removed they are dressed with blood,
and then rolled together and put away. This is repeated two or three
times until they become entirely black. Then they are stretched for
drying--in summer out of doors, but in winter in the houses. This skin
is wonderfully water-tight.
If the seal-skin is to be prepared with its hairs on, as for example,
for the inner sock of the kamiks or for jackets, it is scraped on the
blubber side with a crooked knife, just like the ordinary kamik-skin.
Then it is steeped in water, and washed with soft soap; whereupon it is
rinsed out in clean water, stretched, and dried as above described. It
is then made soft and pliant by rubbing, and is ready for use.
Reindeer-skin is simply dried and rubbed, no water being applied to it.
In preparing bird-skins, the first step is carefully to dry the
feathers; then the skins are turned inside out, and the layer of fat is
scraped away as thoroughly as possible with a mussel-shell or a spoon,
and is eaten--it is held a great delicacy. Then the skins are hung up
under the roof to dry. After a few days, the last remnants of fat are
removed from them by means of chewing, then they are dried again, then
washed in warm water with soda and soap three times over, then rinsed
out in very cold water, pressed, and hung up for the final drying. If
the feathers are to be removed so that only the down is left, as, for
example, in the case of the eider-duck, they are plucked out when the
skin is half dry. Then it is thoroughly dried and cut up, and so is
ready for use.
The chewing above-mentioned is a remarkable process. The operator takes
the dry skin, almost dripping with fat, and chews away at one spot until
all the fat is sucked out and the skin is soft and white; then the
chewing area is slowly widened, the skin gradually retreating further
and further into the mouth, until it often disappears entirely, to be
spat out again at last with every particle of fat chewed away. This
industry is for the most part carried on by the women and children, and
is very highly relished by reason of the quantity of fat it enables
them to absorb. In times of scarcity, the men are often glad enough to
be allowed to do their share. It is a strange scene that is presented
when one enters a house and finds the whole of its population thus
engaged in chewing, each with his skin in his mouth. The excellence
of the Greenland bird-skins is due to this process. How few of those
who have admired the exquisite eider-down rugs which adorn so many a
luxurious European home, have any idea of the stages through which they
have gone! And how many a European beauty, resplendent in costly skins,
would shudder if she could see in a vision all the more or less inviting
mouths through which her finery has passed, up there in the far North,
before it came to deck her swan-like form!
On the whole, the Greenland women make great use of their teeth, now to
stretch the skins, now to hold them while they are being scraped, and
again for the actual scraping. It is rather startling to us Europeans to
see them take up a skin out of the tub of fetid liquor in which it has
been steeping, and straightway fix their teeth in it and begin to dress
it. The mouth, in fact, is a third hand to them; and therefore the front
teeth of old Eskimo women are often worn away to the merest stumps.
The sinews of seals, whales, and reindeer are used as thread in
making garments out of skins. The sinews are simply dried. For sewing
kaiak-jackets, kaiak-gloves, and sometimes for kamiks, the gullet of
the saddleback seal, the ringed seal, the bladder-nose seal, the small
mottled seal, and the cormorant is also used. The outer membranes of
the gullet are cut away while it is quite fresh, and then it is drawn
over a round stick prepared for the purpose, and greased with blubber.
Sometimes the gullet is also scraped with mussel-shells. When it has
dried upon the stick and has been cut lengthwise into narrow strips, it
is ready for use. The thread thus obtained has this advantage over the
sinew-thread that it does not soften in water.
The Greenland women are very capable at their work, and are especially
skilful with their needle. One has only to examine the seams of a
kaiak-skin, a kaiak-jacket, or a gut-skin shirt to convince oneself
of this. But their skill is still more conspicuous in the admirable
embroideries with which they ornament their trousers, kamiks, and other
garments. On the west coast, where they have learned the use of dyes
from the Europeans, they now execute these embroideries with small
patches of hide of different colours, which they sew together into a
sort of mosaic. They work entirely in freehand, without any pattern to
go by, and display great neatness and precision, to say nothing of their
sense of colour and of form.
In living with the Eskimos in their homes, one does not at all receive
the impression that the women are particularly oppressed or slighted. It
seemed to me, on the contrary, that the housewives of Godthaab and the
surrounding district often played a very important part in the domestic
economy, in some cases even ruling the roost. Judging from my own
experience, then, I should say that there is a good deal of exaggeration
in what Dalager says of the women, that 'even what ought to be the best
hours of their life, from the time they come to maturity, are nothing
but a long chain of trouble, contempt, and sorrow.'
It cannot be denied that in social life one observes a certain
difference of status between men and women. Thus at meal-times or
at coffee-parties, the hunters and the men of most importance are
first helped, then the less important males, and finally the women
and children. Dalager, in last century, makes a similar remark in his
description of a banquet. The men, he says, take the leading place,
and tell each other their adventures, while 'the women too have in the
meantime formed a little party by themselves in another corner, where,
no doubt, nothing but empty chatter is to be heard.' But, if it comes to
that, such a description would apply in several other parts of the world
besides Greenland.
I must admit, however, that the Eskimo men sometimes show themselves
sadly deficient in politeness towards the ladies. For example, 'when
the women are hard at work, building houses, drawing water, or carrying
heavy burdens of one sort or another, the men stand by with their hands
thrust into the breast of their jackets, and laugh at them, without
offering the slightest help.' But is this so very much worse than what
we often see in Norway, when a Bergen peasant, returning from market,
lights his pipe, stretches himself in the stern of the boat, and lets
his women row him home?
That women are not held in such high esteem as men is also unhappily
evident from the fact that when a man-child is born, the father is
jubilant, and the mother beams with pride, while if it be a girl, they
both weep, or are at any rate very ill content.
But is this so very much to be wondered at? With all his goodness of
heart, the Eskimo is, after all, no more than a man. The boy is, of
course, regarded as the kaiak-man and hunter of the future, the support
of the family in the old age of his parents, in short as a direct
addition to the working capital; while they no doubt think that there
will always be plenty of girls in the world.
The same difference is observable in the bringing-up of the children,
the boys being always regarded as the food-providers of the future, who
must in every way be well cared for; and if a boy's parents die, his
position is never a whit the worse, for all the neighbours are quite
willing to receive him into their houses and do all they can to make a
man of him. With the girls it is different; if they lose their parents
and have no relations, they can always, indeed, have plenty of food, but
they have often to put up with the most miserable clothing, so that it
is pitiful to see them. When they come to the marriageable age, however,
they stand on pretty much the same level as girls who have been more
fortunately situated; for no such thing as a dowry is known, and their
chances simply depend upon 'beauty and solidity, which shall secure them
favour in the eyes of the young men--lacking these they are despised,
and will never be married, since there are always plenty to choose
from.' Of this, however, they cannot complain, for the men themselves
are no better off. If they are not strong enough to make good hunters,
as sometimes happens, they have poor enough chances of ever finding a
mate, and are looked down upon by every one.
That boys are regarded very much in the light of capital appears from
the fact that although widows are not in demand in the marriage-market,
it sometimes happens that they find a husband, 'especially if they have
a family of boys; in that case they are pretty sure one day to make a
match with a respectable widower.'
Even in death, women seem to be placed at a disadvantage, as we may
conclude from the following remark of Dalager's: 'It sometimes happens
that a woman of no great importance, when mortal sickness falls upon
her, is buried alive. A horrible case of this sort occurred a short time
ago at this very place. Several people declared that they had heard the
woman, a long time after her burial, calling out from her grave and
begging for something to drink. If you remonstrate with them upon such
inhuman cruelty, they answer that when the patient cannot recover, it
is better that she should be put away in her last resting-place, than
that the survivors should go through the agony of death in observing her
misery. But this reasoning will not hold good; for if any male person
were thus barbarously dealt with, it would be regarded as the most
brutal murder.' Yes, this was ill done; but fortunately such events are
very exceptional. Their real reason, moreover, is probably to be found
in the Eskimos' intense dread of touching dead bodies, which makes them
clothe the dying, whether men or women, in their grave-clothes, often
long before death occurs, preparing everything for the carrying out of
the corpse and its burial, while the patient himself lies and looks on.
For the same reason, they shrink from assisting one who has met with
an accident at sea, if he seems to be already in the pinch of death,
fearing lest they should happen to lay hands upon him after life has
departed.
Footnotes.
[24: The skins used, as before-mentioned (p. 45) are usually those of
the saddleback seal or hood seal; but the skin of the bearded seal is
also used, and occasionally that of the ringed seal or even of the
mottled or common seal (_Phoca vitulina_).]