Audio file

Title: Jack Ferguson and Alan Lomax discuss Inuit music and culture
Date recorded: 1963
Contributor(s): Contributor: Ferguson, Jack; Contributor: Lomax, Alan
Genre: interview/commentary
Culture: Inuit

Subject(s): Cantometrics; Ethnomusicology

Note: Jack Ferguson describes the culture of the Eskimos ofJenny Lind Island. Their language is in between that characteristic of eastern Eskimos (of Baffin Island) and Coppermine to the west. The used to have song duels in which men challenged each other to duels of song to settle disputes, a custom discouraged by the missionaries. They still live by trapping but have gasoline and use money as well as barter. They came to this area in great numbers to work on Dew Line radar site in the 1930s. They have a shallow drum but drum dancing frowned on by missionaries. Women join men in singing at church in bad harmony. Song is property of a person, can be bought or inherited| most are bought. Composed in archatic "magic" poetic language, use restricted number of tunes. Women tend to sing to children, male sing more in public, unless woman is a shaman. The kindred group. Small settlements of kindred or people living in affiliative groups. Leadership: two kinds. Head of family is an old man or woman, from whom many in group are descended. He or she settles disputes and represents the group. Formerly would have been the shaman. Most of this kind of leadership now in hands of clergy. Missionaries also frown on cousin marriage. There is also an instrumental leader skilled at organizing hunting or fishing. Marriage: slight polygamy. Fear of starvation encourages marital alliances. Premarital sex frowned on. Romantic love present. Seal hunting season brings period of sexual license. Marriages break up, new ones form. Division of labor: Generally fishing done by men. Women and children participate in spring fishing runs. Women pick berries. Music to accompany dancing - fiddle (Scottish influence), accordion, guitar. Alan Lomax: Sounds Americanized. Ferguson: They have radios and listen to Radio Moscow and Voice of America. Old man singing in soft voice. Alan Lomax: They sing till they run out of breath. Ferguson: Normally utterly polite, they run amok just as in Malaysia. Usually under influence of alcohol, formerly violence took place after dances. Alan Lomax: How do children get to be so polite? Ferguson: Small communities, with life on the edge of subsistence, can't afford to give offense. Lomax: Jivaro always quarreling. Ferguson, somewhat irritated, doesn't know. Says power of word very great. Other adults, not parents, discipline children. They agree that more Western indigenous people have more in common with North American Indians, live in extended families in log houses, have richer material culture. More sedentary, more organized. Men's house. Whaling. Stronger leadership, in past had a chief who decided when they went fishing. (Copper Eskimos have no community| every group of families have a leader.) Whaling requires strict cooperation and division of labor between six men. Before going whaling they don't sing, they pray. It's very dangerous. Sample of whaling leader (84 years old), singing.

Location:

Archive ID: T1374

Original format: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T1374
Track: 1

Part of: Ferguson/Lomax, 1963

About the session: Jack Ferguson and Alan Lomax discuss Inuit music and culture

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