Comparing Mbuti And The Labrador Eskimo

Introduction

The cultures of the Mbuti and the Labrador Eskimo are vastly different in some traits but these cultures that are half way across the globe from each other also have similar traits. For example, the Mbuti and the Labrador Eskimo were both hunter-gathers and band-level societies. Their food and environments were vastly different but the two cultures were still similarly related. I decided to choose these two cultures because their environments were so vastly different. I thought it would be interesting to see how a culture that lives in the rain forest compares to a culture that live in the arctic. I also wanted to see that if these culture would have anything in common just based off of their human nature. I suspect that these

They lived on the Labrador peninsula north of the mouth of the St. Lawrence river. The peninsula was separated into three main districts: the atlantic coast, the Ungava district, and the east coast of the Hudson bay. The climate of the Labrador peninsula was harsh and cold. “The lowest recorded temperature is 55 degrees below zero, although the actual range is probably greater. The temperature rarely rises above 80 degrees, even during the brief three months summer”(Hawkes 1916:26). Since the climate was so harsh their main subsistence strategy was foraging. They mostly hunted on the sea for their food but sometime in the fall and spring they would hunt on land for deer. They would hunt various types of seals, white whale, walrus, and caribou. The Eskimos sometimes would eat their meat raw after killing it but they would for the most part boil the meat. The Labrador Eskimo were not strict about their hunting grounds. “Anyone else is free to come and enjoy its benefits, and, according to Eskimo ethics, they would move away before they would start a dispute about it”(Hawkes 1916:25). Sometimes a fortunate family would even invite a poor but deserving hunter to their lands so they could share their hunting grounds. The males do most of the hunting and since this it easily understood why male children are highly prized. The women and children would help sometimes with the caribou hunt by forcing the caribou into the men so they can shoot them. The women also sometimes would help hunting by caring for the food and skins. The homes of the Labrador Eskimo would differ greatly based on their location on the peninsula. The northern Labrador Eskimo would still practice snow-houses but the southern Labrador Eskimos would build stone houses. The art of snow-houses was dying so bad in the southern part of the peninsula that the missionaries had snow building competitions to keep the art alive. The east