The Greenville times., 1901-03-02
HOLD ALL THINGS COMMON.
The Eskimos of Smith sound Have
Social system That
In ideal.

~ h4CGAs
Etah is but the most northern o1
some dozen stations occupied by the
Smith sound Eskimos. One hesitates at
the word settlement" because it con
veys an idea of permanency, both as
TO location and also. in measure, as to
the personnel of the body of settlers,
Tnd this is only half true Of the settle
ments of the tribe of less than $50 in
dividuals who live at scattered points
along the coast from Cape York to
Foulke Fjord. The points of settle
ment are permanent, appart ntly, says
Scribner's Magazine. having been chos-
en-, doubtless, through process of Sc
lection with reference to shelter and
food supply, continued through many
generations, but the families that in
habit them vary each year in accord
ance with curious reshuffiing which
takes place quite spontaneously, it ap-
pears, at Peterawik glacier, where
there is tribal gathering every spring.
One rarely finds more than half dozen
families at any place, and each OF these
may have spent the previous year at a
different station from all the others. 1t
is easy to conceive of certain solidar-
ity of tribal organization which results
from such system. and which it would
be difficult to improve upon under con-
ditions of precarious food supply that
make necessary the widely scattered
living of the families OF the tribe. Not
only are there ties of all degrees of
member to the others. but each is per-
sonally known to all through the in
timacy of closely interdependen mt exist
ence, which is the only manner of life
possible to men encompassed by an arc
tic world and the serious business of
whose lives is to hunt for uncertain sup
plies yielded by wild and sometimes
fierce animals.
There is no tribal organization no
chief, nor any elders in authority; in
deed, no premeditated, structural sys-
TEN of any kind, but a quite simple or
which issues naturally from the fact
of equality and of equal sharing in all
the essentials of livelihood. With GER
tain naive differences from our accept
ed ideals there is a homogeneous fam
lily and in it, as it was from the hegin-
ming the husband is the provider and
the wife the housekeeper.
As proyider the husband must be a
hunter. for wild animals are the only
source of food. and clothing and f1el
and division of labor with an accom-
panying m diun Of exchange have not
vet been dreamed Of. much less sys-
tenn of property rights which yields a
lien upon he labor of fellow hunters.
Each with his varying skill and each
with his own handmade implements.
whose des igns have come doNa e him
through countless generators @ aunt
ing ancestors goes forth to the Lszard
Of the hunt. What he secures il his
and game is easily traced to its right
full owner by means of the mark of own
ership on the harpoon or lance or arrow
which has caused death But there
come times when each mans catch is
not all his own-times of scarcity. when
the successful hunter shares his game
equAlly with all the needful families of
thesstat tion, even if his own is in bitter
watt of all he has. He does this from
no sense of charity. but out of feel
ing of solidarity by which he knows in
stinctively that the strength or weak
ness of the tribe is the measure of his
own and that what he shares to-day
will return to him tomorrow when
luck may favor another hunter. Even
this is not the limit of natural altru-
ism in the interests of a tribe as a
larger self. If father finds that the
combined efforts of himself and his
growing. sons are more than enough
for the support Of the family he ap-
points those of his sons whose labor he
does net need as providers for any in
the tribe whose support is insufficient.
OF the helpless there are few besides
young children. Sickness is almost un-
known, and yet life among them is gen.
orally short though a merry one.
Through the infinite chances of the
chase few hunters live to old age, and
we were struck by the fewness of old
women in the tribe. The enduring of
almost unbroken cold is constant
drain upon vitality. and before old age
has well set in life goes out from sheer
exhaustion. OF cripples we saw only
one. and in spite of the breeding in
and in but one case came to our no
tice of downright feeble-mindedness
But how, we asked at once, if land
and dwellings and even food are held
in common, how does the tribe pro-
tect itself from supporting in idle
ness its lazy members? There is a
eomical incongruity about applying
so modern term as "public opinion"
to the case Of race of men who
have no written characters, and nu-
merals only to Eve, who have no laws
nor courts nor police nor newspapers
and whose tribal regulations flow
chiefly through channels of physical
fact. But If It be not public opinion
Il Is perhaps their nearest approach
to Il IN the obIigstion that each man