Eskimos In Alaskan Society Essay Research Paper

The early Eskimos settled in the forest and tundra parts of northern and western Alaska. The Eskimos learned how to survive in this cod icy place that was frozen for most of the year. Some of the Eskimos lived in the southwestern part of Alaska

The southwestern region is a little warmer and wetter.

In Alaska there are three Eskimo groups they are yipik inupiat, and siberian yupik.

A lot of the Eskimo families live in the flat tundra coast. The ocean gives them most of there food. The ocean also provides them with transportation using umiaks and kayaks. A umiak is a boat that is covered with and animal skin .

Some of the Eskimo hunt whales polar bears seals and walruses , they also fish and get a lot to other foods form the sea

Some of the yupik annd inupiat families live inland along rivers and forests. They get food by hunting moose and caribou.

There are salmon fisherman reindeer herders and caribou hunters who hunt and fish around the arctic tundra. The women spend their time sewing fur birch bark baskets and clothes to keep everyone warm, also to prevent frostbite

Alaska s in upiat Eskimos have small villages that their ancestors lived in for hundreds of years. They also lived in larger towns built on top of ancient trading sites. More than 12600 inupiat people today live on traditional lands along the northern slope. Also about 6000 live in anchorage

In the Eskimo family, everyone has a job to do. Eskimo men were the ones that provided the food. They did most of the hunting and fishing. Eskimo women took care of the food once the men brought it home They cooked what the men hunted. The women also gathered foods such as plants and berrries. The children learn these skills by watching the adults

The Eskimo system of kinship terminology, is rare among all of the worlds systems which is used by Anglo-Americans as well by many food foraging peoples. The Eskimo or lineal system emphasized the nuclear family by specifically identifying the mother father brother and sister while lumping together all other relatives into a few gross categories

The father is distinguished from the father’s brother but the father’s brother is not distinguished from the mother’s brother. both are called uncle

The mothers sister and father sister are treated similarly both called aunt

In addition all the sons and daughters of aunts and uncles are called cousin there by making a generational distinction but without indicating the side of the family they belong to or even their sex.

Among the Eskimo inequality between the sexes is matched by inequality in supplying the group with food. Since the men are doing all the hunting. The women process the carcasses cut the sew skins for clothing care of the youngest collect no food and depend on the men. The men provide the meat they also control the trade in hides whale oil and other items that move between the maritime and inland Eskimos Eskimo women are treated almost exclusively as objects to be used abused and traded. Th Eskimo women are not given control over valued resources so it is hard for the women to advance in status.