Kinship and the Inuit People

It takes a certain type of person to be fitted to survive the harsh freezing climate of the Arctic. The Inuit, descendants of the Thule sire been surviving along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, Davis Strait, and Labrador Sea for over 1,000 years. The kinship relationships among the Inuit mountain are really important to their way of life and survival. Every family social unit consists of the nuclear family. This is the most common type of unit in a foraging society, such as the Inuit. The nuclear family is the mother and/or scram and their children.Occasion all in ally, the Inuit nuclear family go out include a spouses widowed mother or father or a single adult sibling. The village leave contain several other households sharing kin members. This is important because they record in generalized reciprocity. Generalized reciprocity is a form of throw where there is no expectation for the immediate return of an item or service in throw for something else. The diff erent households visit each other, divide food, and work in concert to complete allday tasks.During the seal hunting season, nearly 15 different households adopt to work together. This is very important because seals are used for more than just their meat. They use the sealskins for various things such as boot liners, waterproofing clothes, houses, and kayaks, and the blubber for household lighting. However, whenever food was abundant, sharing among non-relatives was avoided, since every family was supposedly capable of obtaining the necessary catch. In situations of scarcity, however, caribou meat was more evenly distri besidesed throughout camp (Laird & Nowak, 2010, p 3. ). This generalized reciprocity helps to batten the survival of the people in times of need. However, because it is non d wizard all the time, there is little conflict. During times of scarcity, the Inuit people father practiced infanticide. peerless of the reasons they do this is so the older children or adults do not starve. However, it has been spy that they prefer female over male infanticide. This is most likely because the boys will grow up to be the hunters. A few women do hunt, but it is considered the mens responsibility.Women do contribute to the food by conference grasses, berries, tubers, stems, and seaweed. However, because there is very little vegetation in the Arctic, women are not the main contributors of food. They process and prepare the meats the men bring home. Women are judge to take care of the children and the house. This is one of the closest similarities between our culture and theirs. In our society, women are still considered the primary caretaker of children and elder family members.Women are expected to come home from work or berry gathering and prepare dinner. Women reign the household chores such as cleaning and laundry. Inuit women clean and sew for the children and men, turn out when the men go away to hunt and have to do it themselves. In our c ulture, men sometimes help with household chores, such as cooking, although they have the option of ordering in. Our culture also practices generalized reciprocity. Families gather together to share meals and everyday chores. We go to visit other households to enjoy holidays and birthdays.Family members exchange gifts, foods, and just enjoy being together. Some families gather to help one another out like when we moved. My father-in-law helped by lending us his truck. in that respect was nothing expected in return. The one thing we do not share with the Inuit culture is infanticide. Although I understand why they do it, I would not be able to. In our culture, the parents would end up in prison. We also do not place as much importance on the sex of the child. The only benefit of a boy would be the passing on of the family style.However, today women can decide to keep the family name and add on their husbands, instead of giving up theirs for his. Although our cultures have legion( predicate) similarities, they are also very different. Kinship relationships are important in every society, including ours and the Inuit. However, our survival is not dependent on these relationships, whereas the Inuit are. Without the kinship of the Inuit, they would not be able to survive the harsh winters of their environment. It does take a very special type of people to survive the Arctic. The Inuit have proved to be one of them.