integral part of Inuit societies, based on the availability and nature of abundant
marine mammals. Also, one such unwritten law saw the immediate processing of
seals by women. Otherwise seals would see a lack of availability during the
subsequent hunt. While this, for the reader from an industrialised society, might
appear somewhat strange, these kind of rules meant that (1) social structures were
upheld; (2) the seal was processed right away and its products retained the highest
quality; and (3) that men as the hunters of a community were able to hunt more and
thus provide for the community instead of having to deal with the processing of
the food.
The hunt for marine mammals in the Arctic existed before the emergence of
contemporary Inuit — the Palaeo-Eskimo cultures. All along the shores of the Arctic
seas already 4000—6000 years ago whales and seals were hunted and used. In
excavated settlements of the Saqqaq people in Western Greenland, for instance,
remains of numerous whale and seal species have been found and their age was
traced back to around 2200 BC. Also the Dorset people that emerged in Eastern
Canada around 2800 years ago and migrated to West Greenland, northern Newfoundland and Labrador used ‘Arctic small tool technology’—highly specialised,
blade-based tools—to hunt walrus and different seal species.
The continuity of the hunt for marine mammals in the Arctic is noteworthy—after
all, it is still being pursued today. In Western Greenland, for example, which was
populated by the Thule people near the turn of the first millennium, effectively
replacing the Saqqaq, the remains from whale hunts date back to the same time
period. The evidence point towards a long-standing whaling culture: permanent
villages, indicating the potential for functioning whaling crews; boat parts and
whaling gear; whale bones; remains from ritual practices; and remains from
non-local goods traded from elsewhere that served as supplements to the local
diet. In fact, the importance of marine mammals for the Inuit was that great that
they are also reflected in myths of creation, which is worth citing in full:
Long ago, there lived in the Arctic a young and beautiful woman. Many men were presented
to her as prospective husbands, but she rejected them all, until one day a handsome stranger
came to her family’s camp. He had many dogs and finely crafted hunting tools, and he
promised her a life of comfort. She could not resist, and she left with him for his land across
the sea, only to find on her arrival that she had been deceived. Her betrothed was in fact a sea
bird, and his dwelling a hovel. When her father came to rescue her, they escaped in his boat
across the calm sea. But her seabird husband’s spirit, angered by this, pursued them and
whipped the icy sea into a raging storm. In midocean in a small boat, her father feared for his
life, and, to appease the bird, cast his daughter overboard into the wave-tossed waters. But
she clung relentlessly to the gunwale of his boat. Determined to release her grip, her father
cut off her fingers at the first knuckle; the pieces fell into the sea and became the ringed seals.
Still she held on. Then he cut off all her fingers at the second joint, and those pieces swam
away as bearded seals. Other pieces of her fingers became walruses and whales. That is how
seals were created, and that young woman became Nuliajuk, the Mother of the Sea. . . To this
day she lives at the bottom of the sea and controls all the animals in her watery domain.
3
3 Reproduced in Stein and Stein (2016), p. 81.
38
3 Marine Mammals and Humans
marine mammals. Also, one such unwritten law saw the immediate processing of
seals by women. Otherwise seals would see a lack of availability during the
subsequent hunt. While this, for the reader from an industrialised society, might
appear somewhat strange, these kind of rules meant that (1) social structures were
upheld; (2) the seal was processed right away and its products retained the highest
quality; and (3) that men as the hunters of a community were able to hunt more and
thus provide for the community instead of having to deal with the processing of
the food.
The hunt for marine mammals in the Arctic existed before the emergence of
contemporary Inuit — the Palaeo-Eskimo cultures. All along the shores of the Arctic
seas already 4000—6000 years ago whales and seals were hunted and used. In
excavated settlements of the Saqqaq people in Western Greenland, for instance,
remains of numerous whale and seal species have been found and their age was
traced back to around 2200 BC. Also the Dorset people that emerged in Eastern
Canada around 2800 years ago and migrated to West Greenland, northern Newfoundland and Labrador used ‘Arctic small tool technology’—highly specialised,
blade-based tools—to hunt walrus and different seal species.
The continuity of the hunt for marine mammals in the Arctic is noteworthy—after
all, it is still being pursued today. In Western Greenland, for example, which was
populated by the Thule people near the turn of the first millennium, effectively
replacing the Saqqaq, the remains from whale hunts date back to the same time
period. The evidence point towards a long-standing whaling culture: permanent
villages, indicating the potential for functioning whaling crews; boat parts and
whaling gear; whale bones; remains from ritual practices; and remains from
non-local goods traded from elsewhere that served as supplements to the local
diet. In fact, the importance of marine mammals for the Inuit was that great that
they are also reflected in myths of creation, which is worth citing in full:
Long ago, there lived in the Arctic a young and beautiful woman. Many men were presented
to her as prospective husbands, but she rejected them all, until one day a handsome stranger
came to her family’s camp. He had many dogs and finely crafted hunting tools, and he
promised her a life of comfort. She could not resist, and she left with him for his land across
the sea, only to find on her arrival that she had been deceived. Her betrothed was in fact a sea
bird, and his dwelling a hovel. When her father came to rescue her, they escaped in his boat
across the calm sea. But her seabird husband’s spirit, angered by this, pursued them and
whipped the icy sea into a raging storm. In midocean in a small boat, her father feared for his
life, and, to appease the bird, cast his daughter overboard into the wave-tossed waters. But
she clung relentlessly to the gunwale of his boat. Determined to release her grip, her father
cut off her fingers at the first knuckle; the pieces fell into the sea and became the ringed seals.
Still she held on. Then he cut off all her fingers at the second joint, and those pieces swam
away as bearded seals. Other pieces of her fingers became walruses and whales. That is how
seals were created, and that young woman became Nuliajuk, the Mother of the Sea. . . To this
day she lives at the bottom of the sea and controls all the animals in her watery domain.
3
3 Reproduced in Stein and Stein (2016), p. 81.
38
3 Marine Mammals and Humans