American Geographical Society

The Life of the EskimosThe Eskimos: Their Environment and Folkways by Edward Moffat Weyer,Review by: William ThalbitzerGeographical Review, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Oct., 1933), p. 696Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/209261 .

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THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

which administrative organization has reached a high level of perfection. Nomadism has become less and less possible in France and Germany. It has been well main- tained in Asia Minor and the Balkan countries. In Spain the environs of Granada may be considered as illustrating an intermediate condition. But the trend is unmistakable, and the area within which gypsy wanderings are possible will con- tinue to dwindle. LEON DOMINIAN

THE LIFE OF THE ESKIMOS

EDWARD MOFFAT WEYER, JR. The Eskimos: Their Environment and Folkways. xvii and 491 pp., maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. (Published on the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.) Yale University Press, New Haven; Humphrey Milford, London, 1932. $5.oo. 9 x 632 inches.

Dr. Weyer's doctoral dissertation is a broadly comprehensive, descriptive mono- graph on the Eskimos, greatly influenced by Sumner and Keller's methodological work (Science of Society) and in itself highly systematized. The first part aims at showing the dependence of Eskimo culture on habitat and life conditions. It deals with the Eskimos among peoples of the world, their mode of life and intertribal relations during the cycle of seasons, their geographical and vital conditions, their

ingenious utilization of scanty resources, hunting methods, food economy, and the like. It is illustrated with several maps and diagrams, including "sociographs" of seasonal changes in the activities of several Eskimo groups. The following sections deal with the organization of society, folkways of law and order, and religion and cult.

The author has utilized a large and as a rule excellent body of source material from authoritative works. To a minor degree he makes use of observations from his own voyage along the coasts of Bering Strait. On principle he has confined himself to a study of the Eskimos, rarely drawing comparison with other peoples; nor is there any archeological or historical research in this work.

The author's critical sense asserts itself on many points. But it seems that at times he has taken too lightly certain problems of an ethnological and linguistic nature, accepting without much examination the postulates of others-for example, in what he calls exorcism among western Eskimos, a notion of dubious value in con- nection with Eskimo shamanism.

This volume might perhaps be described as a kind of handbook of the problems of and literature on the Eskimo. It is certainly a meritorious contribution to the science of American ethnology. WILLIAM THALBITZER

THE CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN GREENLAND

LAUGE KOCH. Map of North Greenland, 1: 300,000. Surveyed by Lauge Koch in the Years 1917-23. Published by the Geodetic Institute of Denmark, [Copen- hagen, I1932]. I8 sheets and supplementary sheet in case 22 x 14 inches. Kr. 250.

No polar land has yet received the adequate cartographic treatment that is given northern Greenland in this admirable series. Certain areas of Alaska, it is true, that lie within the Arctic considered as a natural region (Amer. Geogr. Soc. Special Publ. No. 8, 1928, p. 74) have been represented in the excellent topographic style of the U. S. Geological Survey, but these areas are not in the zone of present glaciation, and the model maps of parts of Spitsbergen by Gunnar Isachsen (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 8, I919, p. 211 I) and Baron Gerard De Geer, while they represent areas that are, do not form so connected and systematic a series as the present.

The map consists of I8 sheets and a supplementary sheet that cover the whole coastal belt of extreme northwestern and extreme northern Greenland between

which administrative organization has reached a high level of perfection. Nomadism has become less and less possible in France and Germany. It has been well main- tained in Asia Minor and the Balkan countries. In Spain the environs of Granada may be considered as illustrating an intermediate condition. But the trend is unmistakable, and the area within which gypsy wanderings are possible will con- tinue to dwindle. LEON DOMINIAN

THE LIFE OF THE ESKIMOS

EDWARD MOFFAT WEYER, JR. The Eskimos: Their Environment and Folkways. xvii and 491 pp., maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. (Published on the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.) Yale University Press, New Haven; Humphrey Milford, London, 1932. $5.oo. 9 x 632 inches.

Dr. Weyer's doctoral dissertation is a broadly comprehensive, descriptive mono- graph on the Eskimos, greatly influenced by Sumner and Keller's methodological work (Science of Society) and in itself highly systematized. The first part aims at showing the dependence of Eskimo culture on habitat and life conditions. It deals with the Eskimos among peoples of the world, their mode of life and intertribal relations during the cycle of seasons, their geographical and vital conditions, their

ingenious utilization of scanty resources, hunting methods, food economy, and the like. It is illustrated with several maps and diagrams, including "sociographs" of seasonal changes in the activities of several Eskimo groups. The following sections deal with the organization of society, folkways of law and order, and religion and cult.

The author has utilized a large and as a rule excellent body of source material from authoritative works. To a minor degree he makes use of observations from his own voyage along the coasts of Bering Strait. On principle he has confined himself to a study of the Eskimos, rarely drawing comparison with other peoples; nor is there any archeological or historical research in this work.

The author's critical sense asserts itself on many points. But it seems that at times he has taken too lightly certain problems of an ethnological and linguistic nature, accepting without much examination the postulates of others-for example, in what he calls exorcism among western Eskimos, a notion of dubious value in con- nection with Eskimo shamanism.

This volume might perhaps be described as a kind of handbook of the problems of and literature on the Eskimo. It is certainly a meritorious contribution to the science of American ethnology. WILLIAM THALBITZER

THE CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN GREENLAND

LAUGE KOCH. Map of North Greenland, 1: 300,000. Surveyed by Lauge Koch in the Years 1917-23. Published by the Geodetic Institute of Denmark, [Copen- hagen, I1932]. I8 sheets and supplementary sheet in case 22 x 14 inches. Kr. 250.

No polar land has yet received the adequate cartographic treatment that is given northern Greenland in this admirable series. Certain areas of Alaska, it is true, that lie within the Arctic considered as a natural region (Amer. Geogr. Soc. Special Publ. No. 8, 1928, p. 74) have been represented in the excellent topographic style of the U. S. Geological Survey, but these areas are not in the zone of present glaciation, and the model maps of parts of Spitsbergen by Gunnar Isachsen (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 8, I919, p. 211 I) and Baron Gerard De Geer, while they represent areas that are, do not form so connected and systematic a series as the present.

The map consists of I8 sheets and a supplementary sheet that cover the whole coastal belt of extreme northwestern and extreme northern Greenland between

which administrative organization has reached a high level of perfection. Nomadism has become less and less possible in France and Germany. It has been well main- tained in Asia Minor and the Balkan countries. In Spain the environs of Granada may be considered as illustrating an intermediate condition. But the trend is unmistakable, and the area within which gypsy wanderings are possible will con- tinue to dwindle. LEON DOMINIAN

THE LIFE OF THE ESKIMOS

EDWARD MOFFAT WEYER, JR. The Eskimos: Their Environment and Folkways. xvii and 491 pp., maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. (Published on the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.) Yale University Press, New Haven; Humphrey Milford, London, 1932. $5.oo. 9 x 632 inches.

Dr. Weyer's doctoral dissertation is a broadly comprehensive, descriptive mono- graph on the Eskimos, greatly influenced by Sumner and Keller's methodological work (Science of Society) and in itself highly systematized. The first part aims at showing the dependence of Eskimo culture on habitat and life conditions. It deals with the Eskimos among peoples of the world, their mode of life and intertribal relations during the cycle of seasons, their geographical and vital conditions, their

ingenious utilization of scanty resources, hunting methods, food economy, and the like. It is illustrated with several maps and diagrams, including "sociographs" of seasonal changes in the activities of several Eskimo groups. The following sections deal with the organization of society, folkways of law and order, and religion and cult.

The author has utilized a large and as a rule excellent body of source material from authoritative works. To a minor degree he makes use of observations from his own voyage along the coasts of Bering Strait. On principle he has confined himself to a study of the Eskimos, rarely drawing comparison with other peoples; nor is there any archeological or historical research in this work.

The author's critical sense asserts itself on many points. But it seems that at times he has taken too lightly certain problems of an ethnological and linguistic nature, accepting without much examination the postulates of others-for example, in what he calls exorcism among western Eskimos, a notion of dubious value in con- nection with Eskimo shamanism.

This volume might perhaps be described as a kind of handbook of the problems of and literature on the Eskimo. It is certainly a meritorious contribution to the science of American ethnology. WILLIAM THALBITZER

THE CARTOGRAPHY OF NORTHERN GREENLAND

LAUGE KOCH. Map of North Greenland, 1: 300,000. Surveyed by Lauge Koch in the Years 1917-23. Published by the Geodetic Institute of Denmark, [Copen- hagen, I1932]. I8 sheets and supplementary sheet in case 22 x 14 inches. Kr. 250.

No polar land has yet received the adequate cartographic treatment that is given northern Greenland in this admirable series. Certain areas of Alaska, it is true, that lie within the Arctic considered as a natural region (Amer. Geogr. Soc. Special Publ. No. 8, 1928, p. 74) have been represented in the excellent topographic style of the U. S. Geological Survey, but these areas are not in the zone of present glaciation, and the model maps of parts of Spitsbergen by Gunnar Isachsen (see Geogr. Rev., Vol. 8, I919, p. 211 I) and Baron Gerard De Geer, while they represent areas that are, do not form so connected and systematic a series as the present.

The map consists of I8 sheets and a supplementary sheet that cover the whole coastal belt of extreme northwestern and extreme northern Greenland between

696 696 696

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 23:04:02 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions