Sees 
An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 155 
Koryaks have produced the large skin-boats which have then been 
adopted by the Eskimo. The nett result will be the same, that the 
Eskimo umiak first appeared in the 1 regions about Bering Strait, and 
that it is due to the cultural influence of people living on the Asiatic” 
coast’ of the Pacific Ocean, 
That the Eskimo culture has also been influenced by other neigh- 
bouring groups must be taken for granted; but there can hardly be 
found any other group which has influenced the Eskimo economic cul- 
ture so radically as have the Pacific Asiatics, who for practical reasons, 
are here reckoned as a single geographical group. 
If, now, the umiak and the capture of seals with nets had been 
found among all the Eskimo, from the west to the east, there would 
have been no difficulty whatever in assuming that these things were 
borrowed from the Pacific-Asiatics. But then in the Archipelago there 
is a break in their occurrence. The umiak occurs among the Mackenzie 
Eskimo, disappears among the Eskimo in the Arctic Archipelago, and 
then reappears in Baffin Land and Greenland south of Melville Bay. 
Nevertheless we must assume a distribution from the West Eskimo 
to the East Eskimo regions. Firstly, it is sufficient explanation for the 
absence of the umiak from the central regions, that there was no us 
for it; and for the absence of the net, and net catching, that it was not 
possible to obtain the necessary material for its manufacture, viz., 
whalebone. Secondly, within the unity in communication formed by th 
Eskimo region, there can have been no real barrier for the distribution 
in question. 
The fact should be remembered that here we are not dealing with 
a population consisting of groups which differ widely as regards language 
and tradition, and where a distribution meets many hindrances, but 
with a people which has a close affinity of language, and is not separated 
into well defined tribes. The different groups, which, more particularly 
only in Alaska — presumably on account of Indian influence — present 
the characteristics of true tribes,! are not separated by linguistic 
barriers and are generally not even hostile to one another. Properly 
speaking, the groups occur as unities only by reason of their being 
geographically separated from one another. The sociological group-orga- 
nisation does not extend beyond the settlement, a fact first demon- 
strated by Rrnx, and afterwards finely and more fully treated by Mauss 
and Brucuar. But the organisation of the groups was not so fixed, or 
so hostile to others, that it prevented visits being made during the 
favourable seasons of the year, or the admission of new members, or 
other shiftings taking place in the population of the settlements. Con- 
sequently, both the sociological and the geographical conditions for the 
distribution of the culture-objects even over great distances outside 
the Eskimo domain’ were present. 
1 Cf. Mauss & Beucnat, p. 50. 
