1^2 INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION. 



The fauiil}' here i« the social unit. In fact, there is no strong tribal 

 organization, and the claims of the "gens" upon any member of the 

 community appear to be far less absorbing and exacting than are those 

 of his family circle. As far as I can observe, the parents are very 

 affectionate and loj'^al to each other and to their children; the latter 

 appear to be tractable, obedient, and filial. At present the wives 

 appear to have quite the same social rights as their husbands. For- 

 merly, I have been told, a man had the right to trade his wife to 

 another person, even to a stranger. Domestic chastity very generalh' 

 obtains at the present time. The children are free, seemingly, from 

 vicious practices. Marriage is regarded as the only proper condition 

 for persons who have attained the ph3^sical development suitable for 

 that state. The married couples are intensely anxious to have a large 

 family of children. In former times an unproductive wife was bidden 

 to depart at length to her parents' home and support herself. I think 

 that more consideration now is shown to these unfortunate wives, but 

 they do not retain the warm affection of their husbands. The desire 

 for children gives rise to the practice of bigamy. As soon as the first 

 wife is incapable of performing the functions of maternity, a second, 

 usually a 3'Oung wife, is taken by the husband. This is bad enough, 

 Init a worse condition prevails among their Siberian cousins at Indian 

 Point and Plover Bay, where polygamy is rampant and the social 

 status of a woman so low that her husband can ill treat her, abuse her, 

 and sell her to any purchaser. On St. Lawrence Island no man will 

 now strike his wife. However, if she is ill tempered or refuses to 

 work, an older woman, doubtless one who has the unquestioned 

 authority in the matter, administers a few blows with her hand. Moral 

 suasion controls small children, while the father treats a recalcitrant 

 youth after the manner described above in the case of disobedient 

 wives. The children do not "'bicker'' or fight in the house, but are 

 alwaN's apparently on the best of terms. 



One can not fail to be impressed with the domestic virtues of these 

 natives, living so happilj^ and purely in famil}' groups. This mny be 

 a recent attainment. 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The Massinga men are probably on the average about 5 feet -I inches 

 in height; not one of them can boast of 6 feet. The women are 

 generally 3 or 4 inches shorter than the men, while the children are 

 correspondingly small. As a rule, the men and older boys are thick- 

 set, full-chested, sinewy, supple, muscular, and capable of enduring a 

 hard, long-continued strain. They have no tendency to obesity; their 

 flesh is solid invariably. The head is rather large in proportion to the 



