Law-Ways of the Primitive Eskimos

Abstract

"Too much thought only leads to trouble... We Eskimos do not con-cern ourselves with solving all riddles. We repeat the old stories in the way they were told to us and in the words we ourselves remember... You al-ways want these things to make sense, but we do not bother about that. We are content not to understand."2 Though the Eskimo does not subject himself to self-analysis, nor consciously try to formulate a logically consistent system of social behavior, when such an analysis is attempted by the an-thropologist, Eskimo behavior is found to make sense. Anthropologists are unanimous in their admiration of the Eskimos. Their culture represents one of man's most ingenious devices for meeting the ex-igencies of a difficult physical environ-ment. Within the limits set by a mio-lithic3 culture, they reveal a remark-able precocity in subsistence tech-niques.4 Yet, because of the limitations im-posed on a miolithic society existing self-sufficiently in the Arctic, the social group is small in size and representa-I Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthro-pology, N. Y. University, New York City. 2 Rasmussen (1929). p. 69. The words are those

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