Thule Culture Communal Houses in Labrador BY PETER SCHLEDERMANN'

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Baleine; Saglek Bay; Thule culture
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.519.3888; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic29-1-27.pdf

ABSTRACT. From the study of excavations at Saglek Bay, construction of large rectangular sod-stone and whalebone communal houses by the Thule culture Eski-mos in northern Labrador apparently began about the latter half of the seventeenth century. There appears to have been a general trend towards communal living, beginning with the snow-house complex in the central Canadian Arctic during the early part of the Neo-Boreal period. Communal houe development in Labrador is seen as an eztension of this general trend, serving as an adaptive mechanism in times of social or economic stress. Variation in styles is explained in terms of available construction materials. RfSUMk,. Les maisons communales de la culture fhulke au Labrador. I1 ressort des etudes des fouilles faites dans la Baie de Saglek que la construction, par des Equimaux thul6 dans le nord du Labrador, de grandes maisons communales rectangulaires en pierres-terre et en fanons de baleine remonte probablement a la deuxibe moitié du 17&me siMe. I1 semble qu'il y ait eu une tendance générale vers une vie en communauté, A