158 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



CHAPTER XII 



MARRIAGE, CHILDBIRTH, NAMING AND TREATMENT OF 



CHILDREN 



In the eyes of the Copper Eskimos, celibacy in either sex is a contemptible 

 condition. A man is the natural complement of a woman, a woman of a 

 man; neither is complete without the other. There are no crafts or professions 

 among them, no food stores or clothing establishments where they can barter 

 for what they need. A woman is dependent on a man for shelter and' for food, 

 and a man needs a woman to dress the meat and skins of the game he kills, 

 to cook his food and make his clothing. Every boy and every girl therefore 

 expects to marry at no very distant period in life. Owing to the preponderance 

 of males over females, and to occasional instances of polygamy, a man may 

 sometimes be unable to find a wife until he is well in his prime; but every native 

 marries sooner or later in life, unless he is a cripple and cannot support a wife 

 or is disqualified in some other way. In the settlement at Bernard harbour 

 in November, 1915, thirty-eight out of the forty-six men were married, two 

 of them to one woman; of the eight unmarried men four were widowers and 

 two mere boys hardly old enough to marry. Thirty-nine of the forty-two 

 women were married (one man had three wives), two of the others were widows 

 of forty-five years or more, and the third was a young girl who had just 

 been divorced and was about to marry again. A settlement at Tree river 

 about a month later consisted of eleven married couples and their children 

 and one unmarried young man. 



There are no early contracts among the Copper Eskimos. A woman may 

 sometimes say that she will marry her daughter to a certain man, but a few 

 weeks later she may change her mind, or the girl herself when the time comes 

 may refuse to accept her mother's choice and select her own husband. Boys 

 cannot marry until they are able to perform the duties that devolve on the 

 head of a household; that is to say until they can build a snow-hut without 

 assistance and possess the strength and skill that are requisite for hunting seals 

 and caribou; they seldom begin to look for wives therefore until they are at least 

 seventeen or eighteen years of age. Girls, on the other hand, have simpler 

 duties and often marry before they reach puberty, though they bear no children 

 until three or four years later.' Higilak, for example, was a wife before she was 

 really of age, and Hakungak, the last of Uloksak's three wives, could not have 

 been more than thirteen years old when she married her first husband Kikpak. 

 During the summer of 1915 Higilak would frequently urge Kanneyuk to marry 

 the following winter, though the child had not yet reached puberty. 



No ceremony marks the attainment of puberty by either girls or boys. 

 The first significant event in a boy's life is the killing of his first caribou or seal. 

 His mother usually makes a pair of trousers, for herself from the caribou skin; 

 in the case of the seal practically all the meat is cut up and distributed among the 

 other families in the settlement.^ By either method the parents make public 

 pronouncement that their son has attained the first stage of manhood and has 

 become a productive member of the community. The second significant 

 event in his life, and the first in a girl's, is marriage. Even marriage, however, 

 is marked by little or no ceremony. The contracting parties make their own 

 arrangements, though they are naturally influenced by their parents. If the 



ID. B . MacMiUan (Four Years in the White North, p. 274) saya that in Smith sound girls usually marry 

 at the age of twelve, but are unable to bear children before they are eighteen. 

 ^Ct. Stefansson, Anthrop. Papers, A.M. N.Hi, Vol. XIV, pt. 1, p. 340. 



