The social organization of the Clyde Inlet Eskimos ...

• Main Author: Stevenson, David
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Baffin; Clyde Inlet; eskimo*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0101413; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0101413

This dissertation is concerned with the interpretation and clarification of a particular set of data dealing with the social organization and behaviour of two groups of Eskimos trading into the post at Clyde River, northeast Baffin Island. An attempt is made to show that both kinship and what I call extra-kinship factors are important in gaining an understanding of otherwise inexplicable behaviour. The kinship system, it is posited, is only one system of behaviour and is closely linked with the extra-kinship system with its involvement of spouse-exchange and the production of half-siblings thus creating kinship ties where none had existed before. These ties, in turn, fade at the boundaries so that each succeeding generation must create its own extra-kinship ties. Within the bounds of either the kinship or the extra-kinship systems the people operate in terms of dyadic pairs. This is most clearly demonstrated for the kinship system but is also shown for the extra-kinship system. Still other systems of ...