347 



in the Polar North her duties with the preparing of sliins and 

 making of clothes mean work of a mechanical kind and lead 

 to a special development in various directions. If we enquire 

 what special kind of mechanical work it is that lays most claim 

 on the time and physical powers of the woman , we find that 

 it is such a primitive form of activity as the chewing of skins, 

 and next the scraping of skins. Then come cutting and sew- 

 ing with sharp instruments such as tke knive and needle. 



The only division of labour practised among the Polar 

 Eskimos is that between man and wife. Each man and each 

 woman, to be considered as a fully qualified member of the 

 tribe, must be able to do and carry out all that may fall to 

 the lot of his or her sex. And this is by no means little. 

 There is perhaps no nature-people, where the requirements in 

 the way of mechanical production are greater than among the 

 Polar Eskimos. This is connected partly with the difficult 

 conditions of life in Polar lands, partly with the great varia- 

 tions in the seasons, which require not only different kinds of 

 dwellings and clothing , but also different apparatus for the 

 different seasons of the year. 



Making of the apparatus falls to the man. The material 

 he chiefly works in is bone and wood, and now also metals, 

 which in earlier days were replaced by stone and by the 

 natural iron occurring in the region of Cape York. If we en- 

 quire, in the same manner as for the women, what is the spe- 

 cial, mechanical hand craft exercised by the men, we find 

 similarly that the sharp instruments for cutting and hewing 

 play in the Polar Eskimo's occupations, compared with European 

 hand-worker's, a less important part than such instruments as 

 are used for filing, sawing, scraping and boring. Even the 

 teeth also play a considerable role with the man, for example, 

 to soften the skin-thongs or straps, loosening of knots and as 

 a fixed holding-apparatus on numerous occasions. 



The fact seems to be that the Polar Eskimos have not 

 XXXI V. 23 



