524 W. Thalbitzer 



HOUSEKEEPING. UTENSILS USED IN COMMON. 



Division of labour and right of possession. — From the fore- 

 going it will be evident already, that men and women have each 

 their own field of work, which is divided between them according 

 to certain inherited, unwritten rules of almost religious character 

 (cf. p. 503). The man has the right and duty to take the initiative 

 in the labour for existence, not only in claiming possession of his 

 wife (which generally takes place as a kind of robbery), but also 

 in providing the food for the whole family by hunting the marine 

 animals and in deciding the places of residence for the family from 

 winter to summer. He makes his hunting and working implements 

 himself, this being the first condition for the right of possession. 

 Other ways of acquiring property are by barter or by inheritance. 

 The weapons and implements made by the man himself are buried 

 in his grave and are not inherited. The son inherits however his 

 father's tent and umiak; also pots and lamps of soapstone may be 

 inherited. But the small personal implements closely connected with 

 the owner's work follow him to his grave, as for example the sealer's 

 kaiak. Thus the personal right of possession of these things is so 

 strongly developed, that it has a religious character^). Marks of 

 possession (family marks) on the implements, as known among the 

 West Eskimo, are unknown in Greenland ^). 



The right of possession is however not absolutely bound to 

 personal manufacture. Thus it is the men who make the knives, 

 scraping -boards, bodkins (of bone) and combs possessed by the 

 women and the women sew the men's as well as their own clothes, 

 prepare all the skins and sew the harness for the sledge-dogs. The 

 diff'erence in the labour of the sexes only asserts itself in such 

 things as are of the greatest vital importance for the race. In the 

 fishing for sea-scorpions and caplins and the gathering of berries, 

 angelica, sea-weed and mussels both men and women take part in 

 the work. The cutting up of the captured animals is made partly 

 bj^ the men partly by the women, though not by both sexes at the 

 same stage of preparation (cf. pp. 503 and 505). 



The right of possession appears to be very distinct especially on 

 many points regarding the hunting life of the men. The sealer ''owns" 

 the seal's breathing-hole and opening in the ice which he has found 



') Cf. also Mauss (1904- 190.')) p. 117. My following remarks тал' on several points 

 serve as a corrective to the exaggerated statements Ьл' some authors regarding 

 the communism in the Eskimo settlements, which in reality оп)л' applies to 

 the proceeds of the hunt. 



-■) Nelson (18!)9) pp. 322 .'{27. 



