116 



are not immoral or moral, they are simply natural and governed 

 by the conditions of their surroundings. The most necessary 

 fact of married life with them is that they should have children. 

 Future hunters are most desired, but girls who will prepare 

 food and skins are not unwelcome, and the Eskimo are not 

 very particular how they get them. A child, legitimate or 

 illegitimate, is sure of a welcome, and of a home if he has none. 

 This principle is not conventional, but it is honest, particularly 

 to the child, and preferable to our ambiguous double standard. 



I have never seen any immodest behaviour on the part of 

 the young women. On the contrary, they are usually so 

 bashful that they will not speak above a whisper in the presence 

 of a stranger. The older women, who have passed the age 

 of child-bearing, give themselves more licence and bandy jokes 

 back and forth with the greatest freedom, as they may safely 

 do. There is the utmost openness in discussing matters of sex, 

 even before the children. This does not mean that the Eskimo 

 are vicious, but that they view these matters as a necessary 

 part of the natural scheme of life, without any hypocrisy. 



The custom of exchanging wives is due to religious ideas, 1 

 and the peculiar domestic economy of the Eskimo. For instance, 

 an Eskimo may want to go on a reindeer hunt into the interior 

 for the summer while his neighbour wishes to put up salmon. 

 His own wife is an expert salmon curer, while his neighbour's 

 wife is more skilful in preparing deerskins. An exchange is 

 made for the season.* 



In Greenland and Labrador, where the husband has two 

 wives, that number is necessary to care for the meat and skins 

 which a good hunter provides. One of the knottiest problems 

 which the Moravians had to solve was this question of polygamy. 

 I understand that they wisely let it alone in the older generation, 

 and sought to convert the new to more civilized ideas. 



The Eskimo wife, if she has children, holds a position of 

 respect and authority in the home, She has few cares, and is 

 inured to hard labour. She would not understand our civilized 



Cf. Bcas, The Central Eskimo, p. 605, 6th Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 1 Cf. Murdoch, The Point Barrow Eskimo, p. 413, 9th Report of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology. 



