Summer Life 



143 



There is a theory, advanced by M. Mauss, that not only does the economic 

 life of the Eskimos undergo a complete transformation from summer to winter, 

 and from winter to summer, but that their social organization and rehgious 

 life also are so profoundly modified as to be radically different at the two seasons. 

 M. Mauss, for example, says, " La vie sociale des Eskimos se pr^sente done 

 k nous sous deux formes nettement opposables, et parall^les k leur double mor- 

 phologic. Sans doute, entre I'une et I'autre, il y a des transitions: ce n'est pas 

 toujours de fagon abrupte que le groupe rentre dans ses quartiers d'hiver, ou en 

 sort; de mime ce n'est pas toujours d'une seule et unique famille qu'est compos6 

 le petit campement d'lt6. Mais il n'en reste pas mpins d'une fa^on g^n^rale 

 que les hommes ont deux mani^res de se grouper, et qu'^ ces deux formes de 

 groupement, correspondent deux syst^mes juridiques, deux morales, deux sortes 

 d'economie domestique et de vie religieuse. A une communaut6 r^elle d'id^es 

 et d'int^rits dans I'agglom^ration dense de I'hiver, k une forte unit6 mentale 

 religieuse et morale, s'opposent un isolement, une poussidre sociale, une extreme 

 pauvrete morale et religieuse dans I'^parpillement de \'6t6."^ 



Fig. 45. Digging for water through the ice of Okauyarvik creek, S.W. Victoria island 



Now as far as the Copper Eskimos are concerned the brief sketch that has 

 been given of their Ufe during the two seasons suffices to disprove this theory. 

 Changes in their environment, it is true, produce marked changes in their econo- 

 mic life. At one season they are dispersed into small bands that seek their 

 sustenance on the land by hunting and fishing, at another they are assembled 

 into large communities on the sea-ice and live by sealing. But their social 

 organization and their religious life continue unchanged during both periods. 

 They have different dwellings at the two seasons, tents in summer and snow 

 huts in winter; but it is only because nature compels them to make the change; 

 for, whether on land or on the sea, they prefer to live in snow huts whenever 

 it is at all p'racticable. Given snow and ice and the possibility of procuring 



'L'Annfee Sociologique, 9me Ann^e, 1904-1905, p. 124. 



