ELEMENTS OF THE ClT/n'KE OK THE (TKCIMI'OEAU 



ZONE ' 



Ily W. G. BoooBAs 



The Polar, or to put it more correctly, tlie Circumpolar Zone, 

 forms a compact ring of dry land encircling the terrestrial sphere, 

 which is broken only at two points, the lirst being Bering Strait, 

 the second an opening of sea of nmch wider stretch along the line 

 Grtenland-Iceland-Xorway. This second opening forms a passage 

 from the Polar Ocean into the Atlantic just as Bering Strait forms 

 a passage from the Polar into the Pacilic. 



On the whole, the Circumpolar Zone in its complete extent is 

 subject to similar conditions and so represents an excellent field for 

 the comparative study of a culture, perhaps unique in the world. 

 I may add that the culture of the Polar Zone changes very slowly, 

 being preserved in a very primitive state in the ice and the snows 

 of the Xorth as if it were frozen on purpose for such preservation. 

 On the other hand, that culture is more or less uniform even in 

 its variation. Severe conditions of the climate make tribes even 

 of different origin assume the same inventions and appliances in 

 the struggle for life. Thus we find here uniformity of culture and 

 of general ways of adaptation to the natural conditions of the 

 land. 



The Circumpolar Zone is divided by the Polar Circle into two 

 unequal parts: Northward from the Polar Circle extends the tundra, 

 and southward from the Polar Circle lies the forest border, that is, 

 a belt of undersized trees no more than a hundred kilometers in 

 breadth. This belt, from an ethnographical point of view, belongs 

 to the Polar Zone and forms a unit with the tundra. The inhabi- 

 tants of the tundra, the reindeer, wild and domesticated, and also 

 human hunters and reindeer breeders, leave the tundra for the 

 winter and go to tiie protection of the forests. 



Still farther to the south, from G5° to G0° of northern latitude, ex- 

 tends a zone of den.se forest which must be considered as subpolar 



' lutrofluctlon to a university course on the culture of the Arctic and sub-Arctic zones. 

 Ruprintid by permission from the .American Anthropologist, N. S., vol. 31, No. 4, October- 

 December, i"j::y. 



405 



