NOTES ON CONTRIBUTIONS 



By Dr. G. B. Gordon 



Director of the University Museum 

 University op Pennsylvania 



The ethnological specimens presented to the University Museum by 

 Mr. E. Marshall Scull, collected by him among the maritime and reindeer 

 Chukchee and from the Eskimo on the Siberian and Alaskan shores, are 

 characteristic of the cultures of the hj^erborean peoples of the Asiatic 

 and American side of Bering Sea. The model of a Chukchee dwelling, 

 constructed by a native, reproduces the methods of house construction 

 which stUl persist in that region in spite of many innovations growing 

 out of the whaUng industry and trading stations. Many articles of native 

 clothing have also survived on account of their superior fitness for the 

 climate; such, for instance, are the sealskin boots or mukluks used by the 

 Chukchee as weU as by the Eskimo. The Eskimo kayak is another inven- 

 tion which seems to survive on account of its inherent qualities and 

 adaptation to native needs. Its native design still answers better the 

 needs of the Eskimo hunter in his short excursions by water than any 

 civilized innovation. 



In the matter of weapons, however, and the methods of procuring 

 food, the change that has taken place among the Eskimo is very complete. 

 The bows and arrows, spears and spear-throwers and heavy harpoons are 

 no longer in general use and have become difl5cult to procure as museum 

 specimens. The repeating rifle has taken the place of the primitive 

 armory. 



On the whole, as Mr. Scull's collecting shows, the native Chukchee 

 culture has greater permanence and stability than that of the Eskimo. 

 This is due to the fact that the reindeer herds on which the one depended, 

 have continued to be their mainstay, whereas the natural food supply 

 of the other, namely, the great sea mammals, has, in the first place, 

 always been more uncertain and, at the present time, has become so 

 diminished that it can no longer be reUed upon. 



The reindeer, herded as they are in large numbers and serving as 

 draft animals in domestication, as well as for food, do not involve the 

 exigencies of the chase, but are slaughtered as domestic animals are 

 slaughtered. The taking of the sea mammals, on the other hand, requires 

 great hardihood and skill and is fraught with danger as well as with 



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