THE ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO COLLINS 455 



It has not been possible to prove a relationship between the Eskimo 

 and any American Indian language. On the other hand, a number 

 of linguists, such as Easmus Rask, Henry Rink, and C. C. Uhlenbeck, 

 have pointed out resemblances between Eskimo and the Uralian lan- 

 guages of northern Eurasia. The most elaborate attempt to demon- 

 strate a relationship between Eskimo and Uralian w^as that of Sau- 

 vageot in 1924. Most students of Eskimo linguistics were unconvinced 

 by the particular points of similarity adduced bj^ Sauvageot — even 

 Uhlenbeck, who believed that such a relationship existed. 



In 1907 Uhlenbeck pointed out a number of striking word similari- 

 ties between Eskimo and loroto-Indoeuropean. Recently he has 

 returned to a consideration of the problem and brought together a 

 much larger body of evidence in support of his theory (Uhlenbeck, 

 1035, 1942-45). Though Uhlenbeck does not claim a genetic relation- 

 ship between the two stocks (as he does in the case of Eskimo and 

 Uralian), he believes that the lexical and grammatical resemblances 

 noted are evidence of a very old Indoeuropean influence on Eskimo. 

 Thalbitzer, the foremost authority on Eskimo linguistics, who had 

 been skeptical of Uhlenbeck's earlier attempt, has now subjected this 

 later and more complete study to searching criticism (Thalbitzer, 

 1945) . After rejecting a number of the suggested parallels, Thalbitzer 

 decides that there remains a great deal of evidence in support of Uhlen- 

 beck's argument. If Uhlenbeck and Thalbitzer are correct, the evi- 

 dence of linguistics is now to be aligned with that of archeology, and 

 to a certain extent physical anthropology, in showing that the original 

 home of the Eskimos was in the Old World. For if the Eskimo lan- 

 guage, aside from its possible Uralian aftmity had also been subjected 

 to Indoeuropean influence in ancient times, the E^skimos must then 

 have been living in fairly close contact with people speaking these 

 languages, and this must have been somewhere in northern Eurasia, 

 far to the west of the territory they now occupy. 



SUMMARY 



Our review of the available archeological evidence has led to the 

 conclusion that the deepest roots of Eskimo culture extend back to 

 the early Neolithic of Siberia and the Mesolithic of northern Europe, 

 a conclusion supported by the data of physical anthropology and 

 linguistics. As the Mesolithic rests on an Upper Paleolithic founda- 

 tion, Eskimo culture might properly be traced to that remote period. 

 The relationship with the Mesolithic, however, is more direct, and 

 we are on firmer ground in seeking the origin of an important segment 

 of Eskimo culture in this later stage and in the related Siberian 

 Neolithic. 



922758—51 36 



