Discusses the intensive and long-term study of Eskimos in the International Biological Program to center on Wainwright in Alaska, Igloolik in Canada, and Upernavik in Greenland, with related communities as necessary for various sample and interpretative requirements. The unique value of this people for study lies in their complex population system composed of ever more inclusive units ranging from tiny villages to the largest unit, the entire people. Thus traits and processes at the cellular and individual level and at the interpopulation level of organization can be studied simultaneously. Neither the people nor the environment is homogeneous. The genetic variation is assessable and it is contained within a definable population system or systems. In the course of their expansion, they have performed a series of experiments in human adaptability, both genetic and physiologic.
Describes and discusses the origin of polished and rounded grains of quartz, secondary quartz, and chert from (probably) Holocene loess of Easter Egg Hill near Livengood townsite, peat on the Nenana Road, and redeposited Wisconsin loess from the Eva Creek Mine and Ready Bullion Creek Mine at 64 51 N, 148 02 W. The association of these grains with dull, angular grains of the same materials rules out soil or solifluction abrasion in place. Gizzard-bearing birds such as ptarmigan and grouse in Alaska produce glossy polish on their gizzard stones (gastroliths) comparable to that of the Pleistocene and Holocene gastroliths; the polish and roundness of the stones in living birds are more pronounced in late winter. Because the modal size classes of ancient and Recent polished gastroliths do not coincide, some of the ancient gastroliths are believed to have been produced by birds not now living in interior Alaska.
Gastrolithes d'oiseaux pléistocènes, holocènes et récents de l'Alaska intérieur. On trouve dans le loess et la tourbe de l'Alaska intérieur des grains polis et arrondis de quartz, de quartz secondaire et de chert. Le diamètre intermédiaire de ces grains se situe entre 35 et 0.07 mm, les plus abondants mesurant 0.07 mm, de 2 à 4 mm et peut-être, de 10 à 20 mm. Le poli de ces grains est le produit de l'abrasion dans des gésiers d'oiseaux. Les oiseaux à gésier qui vivent aujourd'hui dans l'Alaska intérieur produisent sur leurs gastrolithes un fini poli comparable à celui des gastrolithes des dépôts holocènes et pléistocènes. Sur les gastrolithes d'oiseaux récents, le poli et l'arrondi varient directement, atteignant un maximum pour les oiseaux vivants à la fin de l'hiver. On peut croire que certaines gastrolithes polies de l'Holocène et du Pléistocène ont été produites par des oiseaux qui ne vivent plus aujourd'hui dans l'Alaska intérieur, car les classes dimensionnelles de ces gastrolithes anciennes ne coïncident plus avec celles des gastrolithes des oiseaux d'aujourd'hui.
Analyzes the wife-trading institution among North Alaska Eskimos from data collected 1961, 1962, and 1967. The practice ended during the 1890s. Informants were consistent on two points, viz: since a stranger was an enemy to be killed on sight, a man protected himself by building a network of helpful relationships, thereby reducing the number of "strangers" in his environment. Also strong levirate and sororate taboos caused wife trading and marriage partners to be chosen from socially distant and potentially dangerous families. Wife trading was recognized as legitimate for settling marital disputes, reinforcing important people's status and producing kinsmen for one's children. The practice also served to reinforce tight standards of sexual morality. A parent had to inform his own children who their half siblings were, lest ingroup homicide or incest result. Premarital pregnancies were rare and young people who exchanged spouses within the community on their own initiative were condemned. In discussion of the kinship system, Eskimo terminology is given, as are examples related by living informants.
Fonctions et limites de l'échange des épouses chez les Esquimaux. On a souvent signalé et commenté l'échange des épouses chez les Esquimaux, mais on l'a peu souvent analysé du point de vue de ses contextes structurels ou de sa fonction sociale. En Alaska arctique, les données indiquent que, du moins dans cette région, l'institution était plus complexe qu'on ne l'avait supposé. Des règles assez compliquées déterminaient qui pouvait ou ne pouvait pas échanger son épouse et qui, par le fait même, devenait partie à un contrat en règle restructurant la société à l'avantage des familles des quatre participants. La société esquimaude est unique en ce que de tels contrats ne contredisent pas ses autres institutions sociales.
Reports on the food of 25 adult and 38 juvenile Aythya affinis, collected in June-Sept 1967 along the Yellowknife Highway north of Great Slave Lake. The vegetation, physiography and ponds of the area, the collecting and statistical methods are briefly described. Approx 99% of the scaup diet was animal material; juveniles in mid-summer fed on freeswimming organisms such as Chaoborinae (phantom midges) and Conchostraca (clam shrimps); in late summer they, as did adults in June, fed on bottom organisms such as amphipods, odonates and corixids. Seeds, copepods and cladocerans were seldom or never eaten.
Alimentation estivale du petit milouin dans la taïga subarctique. 25 petits milouins (Aythya affinis) adultes et 38 juvéniles, capturés dans la taïga au nord du Grand lac des Esclaves, dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, n'avaient consommé que de la nourriture d'origine animale (99 ± 1%, P < 0.05). Au milieu de l'été, les spécimens juvéniles semblaient plutôt se nourrir d'organismes nageurs comme les Chaoborinées et les Conchostraces, tandis que vers la fin de l'été, ces mêmes oiseaux, tout comme les adultes en juin, tendaient à se nourrir d'organismes du fond : amphipodes, odonates et corixidés. Un échantillonnage des organismes aquatiques effectué au moment de la capture des canards, a révélé que les graines, les copépodes et les cladocères n'étaient presque jamais mangés; la consommation de tous les autres organismes se fait dans des proportions qui ne sont pas significativement différentes (P < 0.05) de celles des échantillons capturés.
Reports the ability to differentiate between noise generated by ice in motion and that under shore-fast ice from underwater noise recorded by a remote instrument package (RIP) installed in the sea bottom south of Melville Island, Aug 1967-Aug 1968. Strip chart records of both ice types are shown, that for fast ice with wind speed and air temperatures at Mould Bay, Prince Patrick Island. Contrary to expectations, the ice cover was frequently in motion during Dec. Little correlation existed between the wind speed and the existence of motion.
Volcanic ash occurs in a 12-m thick section of gravels, silt and sand, exposed on both sides of Granite Canyon in the eastern part of the Monument. C-14 dates on wood from nearby marine deposits indicate an age for the ash of approx 11,000 BP. Mount Edgecumbe near Sitka may have been the source. Results of granulometric, petrographic and chemical analyses are reported. The ash was deposited in a near-shore marine environment as part of the Forest Creek Formation.
These notes are based on observations, and some collecting, during a stay at the village of Chesterfield Inlet (C) from 27 May to 21 July 1967; they include some information obtained from local white and native residents. Small mammal traps were set in the warehouse of the Hudson's Bay Company (hereafter referred to as the "Bay") at Chesterfield, at several points on the outskirts of the village, and on Promise Island. A few specimens were also secured during 4 days, 21 to 25 July, spent at Rankin Inlet (R), 4 days, 25 to 29 July, spent at Baker Lake (B). In the annotated list below trinomials are used only for those species of which specimens were collected; in the case of arctic foxes the subspecies could be determined from several skulls that were found. The subspecific determinations were made by P.M.Youngman, curator of mammals at the National Museum of Canada, where the specimens were deposited. The localities referred to are shown on the sketch map, .... The vernacular names of the species and the order of the list follows Burt and Grossenheider whose guide was used in the field. The Eskimo names given are those in use about Chesterfield Inlet. My orthography is essentially that of Thibert's dictionary, i.e., the words are sounded as if they were Latin (or for that matter German) with the following exceptions: the guttural sound which often follows ak, for which Thibert finds no true equivalent in French, is rendered ch, pronounced as in the Scots' word loch (or German dach); the sound which he renders as s is written sh to be pronounced as in English (equivalent to German sch); s is to be pronounced as in any of the West European languages. This simple system is the same as I have previously used for Amerind and Eskimo bird names. As far as I can judge it is in agreement with Greenlandic orthography. My journey to Keewatin was supported by grants from the National Research Council of Canada and the Arctic Institute of North America.
These studies on the acclimatization of cultivated plants at the northern limit of agriculture in the USSR are based on observations and experiments that were completed in the northern part of the Krasnoyarski Kray, a region of Siberia, from 1951 to 1957, and supplemented with data from the literature concerning agriculture in the Far North. The term northern limit of agriculture has variable meaning. It is a line on the map drawn through the most northerly points where plants are still cultivated in the open or under glass. These places are often separated by thousands of square kilometres of taiga, peat bogs and sparse forests on the edge of the tundra, because the only places of habitation are along the largest Siberian rivers. The main experimental stations are: Archangel on the Dvina, Nary'an Mar on the Pechora, Salekhard on the Ob', Igarka on the Yenisey, Tiksi on the delta of the Lena, Vekhoyansk on the Yana, Nizhne Kolymsk on the Kolyma, Markovo on the Anadyr. ... Conclusion: The main problems of northern agriculture are: 1) The reaction of plants to the short vegetative period and to the long polar day; 2) The influence of permafrost on the soil and on plant life. Proper methods of cultivating and manuring help to surmount these difficulties and to develop to some extent the production of vegetables for the use of people living in the Arctic. Vegetable production in the Far North is at the moment only of strictly local importance, but the populated regions of the Arctic are growing as a consequence of scientific and technical progress. Electrification, aeronautics and radio were factors which improved the living conditions of people in the North. Mining provided a basis for the development of industry. Agriculture and cattle breeding followed industry to ensure adequate food supplies when transport from the south was difficult. These new methods of plant culture have opened up new horizons in the Far North not only in Russia, but also in Canada and in the Arctic Islands. Northern agriculture in its circumboreal meaning will play an important part in the future world economy.
The Icefield Ranges Research Project (IRRP) - as was visualized nearly ten years ago - becomes each year more and more a complete study of the environment dominated by the St. Elias Mountains, Canada/Alaska. Since 1967, IRRP has been composed of three closely-integrated research units, planned to achieve the proposed aims of IRRP as defined by Dr. W.A. Wood, the original Project Director, accepted by the Arctic Institute's Board of Governors in 1961, and endorsed by the IRRP Advisory Committee. This report reviews the work accomplished by a total of over 65 scientists, their assistants, and support personnel, during the 1969 summer field season, which opened in mid-May and ended the first week in September. It is composed of post-field summaries by principal investigators researching in the disciplines of glaciology, geophysics, physical geography, botany, zoology, archaeology and physiology.
For the second year running, the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and associated Departments (Biology, Geology, Geography and Anthropology) carried out a multidisciplinary research project in the region of Broughton Island, east Baffin Island (c 67°30'N). During the 1968 summer, the late glacial chronology and uplift at the head of Quajon and Narpaing fiords had been studied. An Austrian storage gauge was installed to estimate winter precipitation. Twelve individuals were involved in the 1969 summer program - this included 3 faculty members, 4 graduate students, 4 undergraduates and Mr. K. Dudley, author and teacher (Toronto). The programs were as follows: Late glacial chronology and recent crustal movements .... Late glacial chronology and recent crustal movements in the Broughton Is. area .... Glaciology and climatology .... Archaeology .... Aquatic biology .... Plant ecology .... Plans for the 1970 summer. The main base of operations for 1970 will be Narpaing Fiord. An intensive program will be undertaken in the glacierized and non-glacierized corrie basins, involving their heat and water balances as well as their glacial histories. Postglacial uplift and late glacial chronology of the fiord will be studied and a reconnaissance survey made of Okoa Bay and Nedlukseak Fiord. The "neoglacial" history of the mountain ice caps and glaciers lying seaward of the Penny Ice Cap will be studied and related to sea level changes.