Out of Alaska: Reconstructing the Social Structure of Prehistoric Canadian Thule Culture

• Main Authors: Edited J. Habu, J. M. Savelle, S. Koyama, H. Hongo, James M. Savelle, Mcgill Univei Sity, George W. Wenzel, Megill Uitiversity, Jpbragers Pacijc, Cbasts Ezxst, Edited Koyama
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Hiinter-Gatherers; edited by Price and Brown [1985a; the archeological record of such societies; Arctic; inuit; Thule culture; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.561.2908; http://ir.minpaku.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10502/1019/1/SES63_005.pdf

were derived directly from Inuit whaling societies ofnorthern Alaska. Thus, in many respects, the latter offer the closest analogy fbr interpreting Canadian Thule social structure. However, there are also a number ofsocial characteristics ofsome modern eastern Canadian Arctic lnuit societies that bear directly on this issue. In this paper, we employ data from both sources in interpreting Thule social stmcture, and do so with reference to corporate groups. Specifically, we focus on the role ofthe umialik (whaling crew leader), the importance ofthe karigt (men's house), and the social composition of whaling crews.