GILBERTSON: ESKIMO CULTURE 83 



singing contests and the festivals for the dead. Also women, 

 even little girls, may be angakoks. (43:29; 63:281, 299.) 



In concluding this survey of the life of the Eskimo woman 

 it is well to consider thoughts like these by Rasmussen: 



&quot;A superficial consideration of the position of women in Eskimo society 

 might induce one mistakenly to believe that she leads exclusively a cowed 

 and unhappy existence. But certainly no one would be more astonished 

 than herself if any one came to the Eskimo woman and pitied her. . . . 

 She herself has no consciousness whatever of being man s drudge. . . . 

 That they are indispensable to the maintenance of the social fabric they 

 know quite well and are proud of it. ( 50 : 62 sqq. ) 



24. CONCLUSION 



In closing this study, the writer is keenly aware of its in 

 completeness and inadequacy. Doubtless, errors of interpreta 

 tion are not wanting. No one could more eagerly welcome 

 criticism and correction of any such. He realizes also how 

 doubtful, in the present state of our knowledge, are many points 

 of fact. Numerous inconsistencies and contradictions in the 

 available evidence remain unresolved. To accomplish this, as 

 well as arrive at a safe interpretation of the older observed 

 data, recourse must be had to further &quot;careful field work,&quot; 

 as Boas has emphasized. (8:805.) I think a study of this 

 kind impresses one with the uncertain and fragmentary nature 

 of our information even about a people of whom so much has 

 been written; and the caution necessary in weighing conclu 

 sions based on &quot;comparative&quot; studies of great numbers of 

 peoples, about most of whom our accurate knowledge is pain 

 fully meager. Further, this humble effort, I believe, brings 

 out the importance of studying ethnological phenomena in the 

 proper relations to the total cultural complex of which they 

 are a part. Without a knowledge of such relations, many 

 features of Eskimo morality would be even less comprehensible 

 than they now are. 



Finally, I may say, that one must be impressed with the in 

 tense humanness of this people that &quot;a man s a man for a 

 that&quot; even an Eskimo. And, while it is the business of the 

 ethnologist to describe and explain, not to praise or censure, 

 I cannot but express a profound admiration for these &quot;neigh 

 bors of the north pole.&quot; To study their life and character 

 has been a genuine pleasure. Of those things in their morality 



