The real people: the Inuit II

Finding out about the Inuit is especially difficult. They had no written language. It is even more difficult as they had so little organisation. There were no rulers of large areas. There were no proper roads. There were no proper towns or large settlements. We have to turn to archaeologists to help us. They are actually helped by the cold.

The clues that help us find out about the Inuit are artefacts. To specialists they unlock the secrets of the Inuit. Archaeologists have found out that the Thule Inuit first lived in the western Arctic. Scientific methods are used to date artefacts. The starting date is around AD 1000. Archaeologists studied how the same types of artefacts spread to different parts of the Arctic. From artefacts like these archaeologists discovered a lot about these people. Let´s look at these discoveries.

Although the Inuit did not have official leaders, outstanding men became important and gave advice. Sometimes these men went too far. When this happened they were killed! The killing was done by members of the person´s own family - if anyone else killed him then his family had to kill those who had killed him! If people fell out there were several ways to sort things out. One simple way was for the two men to take turns at punching each other as hard as possible on the temples. The winner was the one who knocked the other senseless, or got his opponent to give up before brain damage happened!

You will get the impression that life was tough. It was especially tough for women. They were very badly treated by Inuit men. Men were allowed as many wives as they wanted, and swooped wives whenever they wanted. Sometimes they traded in their wives for other goods. Dogs and wood were considered more important than women!

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 11 f.