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This essay discusses different aspects of the Netsiliks poeples life, inluding their behaviors, tools, interaction with one another, and labor division ...

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Netsilik Eskimo Culture

Kiara Barclay Anthropology 101 Dr. Katherine South November 20, 2018

The Netsilik, also known as the People of the Seal, according to Asen Balikci, author of the book “The Netsilik Eskimo,” are located in Northern Canada and can be primarily found living on the Artic Coast. Though they are large in numbers, they do not live in one large group, but instead in countless of small bands (Balikci). They are constantly on the moving, following their food source, which are mainly caribou and seal. They use natural resources to craft tools and clothing, making all their tools completely out of wood and antlers. Though the Netsilik live in one of the most desolate and harsh environments known to man, they have managed to survive and thrive, through both harsh and reasonable methods. While watching the video “Fishing at the Stone Weir,” I documented various aspects of the Netsilik’s culture, such as their gender roles and labor, interactions with one another, tools, adaption to the environment, and even actions our culture would find to be “bizarre.” The Netsilik have common gender roles we see in our own society, but these roles change based on how large the group is. Netsilik men hunt for food while woman take care of the children and perform household chores. However, the Netsilik also blend the two gender roles together in some ways. At the beginning of the video “Fishing at the Stone Weir,” a small family group begins to set up their tent near a river. Within this group, there are two men, one woman, and a child. Together, except for the child, the men and woman set up the tent. The men focus on moving the rocks into a semi-circle while the woman lays out the tent. The men task themselves with the heavier jobs while the woman do the easier ones. After the tent is set up, the men go out into the river and begin constructing a rock wall while the woman is left to watch the kid and make preparations for the night, such as gathering water. At the beginning of the video, we see that the group has divided work and little interaction takes place. The men and woman are also fulfilling common gender roles, but this begins to change as more people join the group.

When others join, there are about ten people total within the group. When it’s time to go catch fish, both men and woman go out to the river. Once they have caught plenty of fish, the party brings the fish ashore, and both men and woman work together to skin the fish (FSW). It makes sense that they would work together to catch fish, because with a bigger group comes more mouths to feed, so the more the better. From these actions, I have determined that gender roles among the Netsilik change as the group gets larger, showing that both men and woman share common knowledge on all the tasks, but each only perform certain tasks when necessary. As the group gets larger, however, interaction between men and woman become less frequent. In the video, once all the fish is cut up, the woman are in charge of cooking one fish. Once the fish is cooked, the men and woman split into separate groups to eat. It’s interesting to see that they don’t eat together as one big group, since earlier in the video when the group was small, they ate all together. The men eat the cooked fish, taking one bite out of it then passing it to the next person, while the woman and children eat the fish raw. While the two groups are eating, no interaction takes place between them (FSW). Balikci records seeing the same thing take place, but gives no explanation for it. With gender roles come certain tools each gender uses for specific tasks. Like before, though some tools are used primarily by either men or woman, circumstances lead to them using the same tools. One tool that is seen in the video, used mainly by the woman, is made of metal and bone. The metal is flat, making a shape similar to a fan, and the bone is attached to act as a handle. This tool can be seen being used primarily by woman, with men only using them when the group got large. Since so many fish are caught in one day, more hands are needed to cut up the fish, so the men help (FSW). In Balikci’s findings, it is called a ‘woman’s knife,’ which makes sense since it is used mainly by woman, and its main purpose is to use it on animals (Balikci).

One other tool that the Netsilik use is a pole that is made entirely out of wood. At the bottom of the tool are two wooden attachments, each having one metal point. At the bottom of the pole is another point. In Balikci’s studies, he found that this tool is referred to as a leister and is a seasonal tool used primarily for catching lake trout, which corresponds with what I saw in the video (Balikci). This tool is generally used by men, but in the video we see that woman use it also when the group has more members. Another tool used by the Netsilik is made entirely out of wood and is shaped like a wide U, and a piece of rope stretches between the space. The rope has a little slack to it, making it to where the men can wrap tools within the rope. In the video, a man wraps a small, sharp object into the rope. He then places the point onto a piece of wood, shifting the tool side to side quickly to make the object spin. This drills a hole into the piece of wood, allowing the man to do whatever else. This tool helped the man fix his pole, but that may not be the only use for it (FSW). These tools help the Netsilik adapt to their environment, allowing them to survive in such a desolate climate. According to Balikci, most of the clothes worn by the Netsilik are made from caribou fur, mainly because the fur is thick yet still allows them to move freely due to its light weight, allowing them to stay outdoors for long periods of time and perform various tasks (Balikci). There are other animals that are used to help the Netsilik survive, such as bearskin to help move things across the snow, and sometimes they will use other animals to make clothes, like white foxes and wolves, but caribou are the most important (Balikci). The Netsilik adapt to their environment by also staying mobile. The caribou that are important for the Netsilik’s survival are always migrating and there are only certain times in which the Netsilik’s are able to hunt trout and seal. In Balikci’s findings, the Netsilik created two

hunting phases: summer and winter. The summer phase allows them to hunt caribou and trout while to winter phase focuses on hunting seal (Balikci). The summer camps are much smaller than winter camps, only being made up of small families, corresponding to what I saw in the video. The group was relatively small and mainly caught trout, indicating that they were in the summer phase. There are harsh methods the Netsilik use to adapt to their environment, such as female infanticide. In “A Social and Ecologic Analysis of Systematic Female Infanticide among the Netsilik Eskimo,” Milton Freeman states that due to their environment and the hazards men face with their tasks, numerical balance is seen as being needed between the sexes, and they find the infanticide to be the best method (Milton). The Netsilik amazingly adapted well to their environment, with some ways being harsh. With living in this environment comes with some actions that our culture would find to be bizarre, but are necessary for the Netsilik to survive. In the video, as the woman is cleaning and cutting the fish, she keeps the child close to her side. At one point, the woman cuts off both the fish’s eyes and feeds it to the child! She the proceeds to cut off a little bit of the fish’s skin and feed it to the child (FSW). Though this was disgusting to watch, there has to be some sort of purpose behind the mother doing this. Given the environment that they live in, they are limited to food choices. To help the child get the nutrition and protein it needs, the Netsilik’s have to come up with other alternatives. The Netsilik is an interesting group of people that have managed to survive in one of the most desolate environments. They follow common gender roles we see in our society, the two only blending when there are more people present. Their tools, which are effective and seem simple enough to make, are made from the resources provided to them. Though the Netsilik are limited, they make do with what they can find and make. Even though some of their methods to adapting are harsh, it is through actions such as infanticide and creating two hunting phases that

the Netsilik have managed to survive for so long, and though some of their actions may seem bizarre, we must consider their environment and what it available to them, without comparing our cultures to theirs. It would be interesting to see more recent research done on their culture to see how it has changed, specifically their religion and aspect on the world.

Works Cited Brown, Quinten. 1967. “Fishing at the Stone Weir.” https://www.nfb.ca/film/fishing_at_stone_weir_pt_1/

Balikci, Asen. The Netsilik Eskimo. American Museum of Natural History, 1970.

Freeman, Milton M. R. “A Social and Ecological Analysis of Systematic Female Infanticide among the Netsilik Eskimo.” American Anthropologist, vol. 73, no. 5, 1971, pp. 1011 1018...