THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO COLLINS 433 



could have played the highly important role ascribed to it in the for- 

 mation of Eskimo culture, as described below. The question arises, 

 however, whether it is necessary to postulate an actual migration of 

 the Ipiutak people or their immediate ancestors from the Ob and 

 Yenesei region in order to account for certain Siberian elements in 

 their art, religion, and ceremonialism. The more normal process of 

 culture diffusion would seem a better explanation. 



On the basis of their description and analysis of the Ipiutak culture 

 Larsen and Kainey (1948) have proposed a new theory of the origin 

 and relationships of the various Eskimo groups. According to their 

 view, Ipiutak represents the type culture of a Palae-Eskimo complex — 

 the original foundation on which all other Eskimo cultures rest. 

 The Ipiutak complex includes the closely related Near Ipiutak, inland 

 groups such as the Nunatagmiut of northern Alaska and the Caribou 

 Eskimos west of Hudson Bay, the prehistoric Dorset culture of the 

 Eastern Arctic, the Kachemak Bay and Aleutian cultures of south 

 Alaska, and the modern Eskimos on the Bering Sea coast south of 

 Norton Sound. With the exception of the modern Bering Sea Eski- 

 mos, all these groups had in common an economy based primarily on 

 caribou hunting, sealing, and fishing; they used implements of 

 chipped stone more than rubbed slate, and they lacked knowledge of 

 pottery, whale hunting with floats, and dog traction. These seven 

 widely scattered Eskimo groups are placed in the "Ipiutak complex," 

 which is equated with Birket-Smith's Palae-Eskimo stage. 



Though Old Bering Sea is supposed to have been an outgrowth 

 of Ipiutak, it is placed in a separate category, the "Arctic Whale 

 Hunting culture," which also includes the prehistoric Punuk, Birnirk, 

 and Thule cultures and the modern Eskimos of northern Alaska and 

 Greenland. It corresponds to Birket-Smith's Neo-Eskimo stage. The 

 Arctic Whale Hunting culture, according to this theory, is a later 

 stage which, having sprung from Ipiutak, had an independent de- 

 velopment on the islands around Bering Strait where caribou hunting 

 was replaced by an economy centered on the hunting of sea mammals — 

 seals, walrus, and whales. Correspondences between Ipiutak and 

 the Whale Hunting cultures — which are many and close — are regarded 

 as the result of contact; those between Ipiutak proper and other mem- 

 bers of the Ipiutak complex, which are fewer in number and of a 

 more general character, are considered evidence of genetic relation- 

 ship. 



In a theoretical structure as elaborate and inclusive as this there 

 naturally are many debatable points, which need not be discussed 

 here. It is possible to accept the Asiatic affiliations of the Ipiutak 

 culture, its relationship with modern Bering Sea and prehistoric 

 south Alaskan and Dorset cultures, and its possible, but not yet 

 proved, association with inland Eskimo culture as represented by 



