ETHNOGRAPHY OF ARCTIC EURASIA 191 



Even in the present state of our knowledge the paths along which 

 certain cultural influences have spread are apparent; these influences 

 have mostly traveled in an eastward direction, seldom in a westward. 



We may assume that the polar culture had its origin in a more 

 southern latitude at the end of the Glacial Period and only later 

 moved to the north with the retreating of the glaciers. In this way 

 we may bring it into connection with the culture of European Paleo- 

 lithic man and, for instance, assume that the domestication of the 

 northern reindeer is immediately related to the reindeer hunting so 

 much practiced in the Paleolithic epoch. We have, however, no data 

 referring to this connection. 



On the other hand we may suppose that the unity of the polar cul- 

 ture is based, at least in part, on the common origin of a considerable 

 number of Arctic tribes. These include, among Paleoasiatics, the 

 Yenisei Ostyaks, the Yukagirs, Chukchis, Koryaks, Kamchadals, 

 and, in southeastern and southwestern Siberia respectively, the 

 Pacific coast tribes as far south as the Amur River and Sakhalin Island 

 and certain now mostly extinct tribes on the upper Ob and Yenisei 

 Rivers. To the east the northern tier of tribes is continued by other 

 Paleoasiatics, the Asiatic and American Eskimos, to the west by 

 Uralo-Altaic tribes, the Samoyeds and Lapps, the last, however, 

 modified by Finnish influences. Even the Ostyaks and the Voguls, 

 who are true Finnish tribes and therefore Uralo-Altaics, stand apart 

 from the other Finns and in several ways are more closely related to 

 their Paleoasiatic neighbors. (For distribution of tribes, see Fig. i.) 



The Bering Sea Region and Its Relation to the 

 Eskimo Problem 



The problem of the origin of the polar culture is closely con- 

 nected with another no less important problem, namely that of the 

 origin of the population of the New World, because in the Bering Sea 

 region is situated the only known bridge from the Old World to the 

 New. In this connection there is also the special problem as to the 

 origin of the Eskimos, who live now almost exclusively in polar 

 America, but a few bands of whom still cling, as it were, to the extreme 

 northeastern promontories of Siberia and the influence of whose 

 culture is still felt in Asia. 



Thus the study of the particular culture developed in the Arctic 

 regions is closely related to the study of the lands encircling Bering 

 Sea. Only with the aid of this study can we fill the gaps that remain 

 open, especially in the northernmost part of the Bering Sea region, 

 as, for instance, the problem of the Eskimo wedge. This Eskimo 

 wedge, it now seems established, entered the region from the north, 

 from Bering Strait, and cut into two parts the continuous chain of 



