of respect. The highest such form of gift giving occurs when a head of a household offers the opportunity of a temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult women of his household. The women can refuse, then they present a different gift. VI.Provision of FoodThe Inuit mainly eats fish, seals, whales, and related sea mammals. The flesh of these is eaten cooked, dried, or frozen. The seal is their main winter food and most valuable resource. They are used for dog food, clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoons lines, as well as fuel for both light and heat. In Alaska and Canada, caribou are hunted in the summer. They also hunt polar bear, fox, hare, and Arctic birds, for important supplies. Whale, walrus, and caribou require longer hunting trips than one kinship group can do on there own. Many families go on seasonal hunting and fishing trips that take them from one end of a customary territory to the other, trading with other groups along the way. VII. Housing, Transportation, and ClothingIgloos are Inuit “iglu” houses. They come in two kinds. One is made from walrus or sealskin tents for the summer. The other is made of stone, with driftwood or whalebone frames and chinked and covered with moss or sod for the winter. The entrance is long and narrow. It is just high enough to have one person crawl through it. During long journeys some Inuit made winter houses out of snow blocks shaped in a dome. These houses are rare in Greenland and unknown in Alaska. At one time they were permanent winter houses of the Inuit in central and eastern Canada. In the 20th century many Inuit have moved into towns to live in government built, western housing.The traditional way of transpiration is the kayak, the umiak, and the dogsled. The kayak is a lightweight canoe like hunting boat made of a wood frame completely covered with sealskin except for a round center opening, where one person sits. The...
