V.

Social Organization

The manners and customs of the Inuit, like their language, are remarkably uniform despite the widespread diffusion of the people. The family—including the nuclear family, nearby relatives, and relations by marriage—is the most significant social unit. In traditional culture, marriages, although sometimes arranged, are generally open to individual choice. Monogamy is the usual pattern, but both polygyny and polyandry also occur. Marriage, a virtual necessity for physical survival, is based on strict division of labor. Husband and wife retain their own tools, household goods, and other personal possessions; men build houses, hunt, and fish, and women cook, dress animal skins, and make clothing. Food sources such as game and fish are considered community property. The underlying social law is the obligation to help one’s kin. Community ridicule is the most common means of social control; in extreme cases, after lengthy deliberation, an offender may be socially ostracized or put to death. With the absence of any communal legal structure, harming someone from another group jeopardizes one’s own kinship group (which is held responsible for the offense) and raises the possibility of a blood feud. Provocative displays of emotion are strongly disapproved. Some groups control conflict by means of wrestling matches or song duels, in which the angry parties extemporize insulting songs; the loser might be driven from the community.

Alliances between non-relatives are formed and maintained through gift giving and the showing of respect. The highest such form of gift giving occurs when a head of household offers the opportunity of a temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult woman of his household. The woman maintains the power to refuse the liaison, in which case respect will be symbolized through the presentation of a different gift.