194 



Morten P. Porsild. 



myself with describing their bone-handles, together with the manner 

 in which these were employed. Just as it is true that the access to 

 iron has been of epoch-making significance to the Eskimo, as to all 

 other primitive people, and that the possession of iron has improved 

 his implements and given him a step forward in civilization, so is 

 it certain that all the essential and characteristic features of Eskimo 

 culture have developed without the help of iron, for which reason, 

 also, Eskimo culture, better than any other form of culture is adapted 

 to serve as a basis for the study of the culture of those people of 

 the stone-age who lived in Central Europe under climatic conditions 



corresponding with those of the Arctic regions 

 of the present day. 



In the literature it is not unusual to find 

 the significance of iron overrated, or to find 

 doubt expressed as to the possibility of this 

 or that having been made with stone imple- 

 ments. As one example amongst many I 

 shall choose one which closely touches this 

 subject. Mason, in his often quoted book, 

 frequently mentions machine-made harpoons 

 which are first sold to the American Eskimo 

 and afterwards bought by travellers, and 

 finally piled up in museums to the despair 

 of the investigator. Also, he fairly often uses 

 the word "machine-made" about West Green- 

 land harpoons. But, the fact is, there has 

 never been any trade in ready-made harpoons 

 in Greenland (not even the blades being sold 

 in prepared condition), and I greatly doubt 

 whether it would be possible to satisfy the 

 individual demands as regards execution 

 which would arise; the number of these 

 would certainly coincide with that of the 

 hunters. But the author is quite on the 

 wrong track as regards what is old and what 

 is new, when West Greenland harpoons are 

 in question. Specimens are figured and stated in his book as being 

 very old, but from their form they might just as well have been 

 used at the present day as in past days. I allow myself to reproduce 

 one of Mason's figures here, (Fig. 40) and to quote his report of it 

 (p. 240). 



"A modern toggle head of a whale harpoon from Greenland is 

 seen in fig. 25. This unfinished specimen shows the last step in the 

 development of the machine-made toggle head. Everything about 

 the specimen demonstrates this: the mathematical form, the saw cut 



Fig. 40. Harpoon from 

 West Greenland which 

 Mason, on account of its 

 form and regular execution, 

 considers was made by 

 machinery and imported: 

 in reality it is a very old 

 form and has even had 

 a stone blade (After O. T. 

 Mason). 



