156 H. P. STEENSBY. 
There is nothing which militates against the view that individuals 
who have known and used the objects in question from the coast of 
Alaska have themselves come to Greenland and there introduced their 
use. It is also possible that the distribution has taken place somewhat 
differently, that, for instance, attempts have been made from time to 
time throughout the whole region to build umiaks. Even the Polar 
Eskimo, according to Knup RASMUSSEN, have traditions which state that 
umiaks were once used within their territory. Lastly, it is possible and 
— as I shall try to show below — most probable that from the regions 
about Bering Strait a regular stream of people has passed through the 
Eskimo districts from west to east. In the regions about Bering Strait 
a mixed Eskimo-Pacific-Asiatic population has arisen — mixed both as 
regards culture and race — and this mixed population has spread out 
towards north-west and east, following the Eskimo roads of communica- 
tion, and carrying along with it the knowledge of the umiak, the net 
made of whalebone, etc. 
Eskimo Summer and Winter Culture. 
It has already been pointed out in a previous chapter that, 
although the Eskimo are a primitive people, they are in possession of 
an unusually large number of implements, of which many are complex 
and, to speak technically, highly developed. 
Their economic culture displays a similar variety. Not in the sense 
that there is a division of labour within the community as regards the 
various means of obtaining a livelihood, but because all the bread-winners 
of the tribe are obliged to carry on different occupations at the diffe- 
rent seasons of the year. 
We may safely say that among no other people is the annual eco- 
nomic cycle so distinct as among the Eskimo. The difference between 
summer and winter is especially marked, so that we can distinguish 
between an Eskimo Summer Culture and Winter Culture, which 
differ so highly that they are characterised not only by different 
methods of occupation, but in a great measure even by different sets of 
implements. * : 
This statement applies especially to the Arctic Eskimo, whose winter 
occupation consists in the various methods of hunting on ice, while their 
summer occupation is inland fishing and hunting. The Subarctic 
1 I] pointed out the existence of this seasonal dimorphism, or difference be- 
tween a summer and a winter culture, even in my preliminary paper on 
the subject (1905). Mauss & BEucHAT, in their interesting paper, have car- 
ried out my observations still further and tried to demonstrate a summer 
and a winter side also in the social morphology of the Eskimo. How far 
they have succeeded in this is a matter into which I shall not enter at 
present. 
