In the film “Nanook of the North”, the main characters are Nanook, the bear, and his family consisting of his always smiling wife Nyla, Cunayou, his son Allee, his newborn baby whose name is not mentioned, and his little husky Comock. Nanook owns a kayak boat which is surprisingly big enough to fit Nyla, Cynayou, the baby and Comock inside, and Allee lying on top of the front. He uses his kayak to travel and go fishing around the freezing water and ice. Nanook and his followers use the giant omiak boat covered with seal skin to go down the river where the white man “big igloo”-the trading post- is located. Nanook hunts for fox, seal, walrus and polar bear year round barters their goods for good knives, beads and colored candies. When Nanook and his family travel in the winter, they only bring a stone pot, stone lamps and their robes which are made out of deer or bear skin. Their transportation is a big sled pulled by a pack of huskies. The sled slides with great difficulty due to the dry-like-sand snow, but, at least, Nyla and the children do not have to travel on foot. Nanook seems to always have by his side the walrus knife which he uses virtually for everything, from hunting animals to cutting and creating ice blocks to build the igloo. From time to time, Nanook is seen with his proud harpoon which he uses to hunt walrus and fishes or his walking stick with one end sharpened to measure the thickness and hardness of the ice. Environmental resources are very scarce in the Arctic. Moss is the only plant that grows, and it is found in small patches here and there. The Inuit use moss for wicking, and sometimes for fuel. Walrus, seal, fox, polar bear, and salmon are the only animals available for hunting. They are the main source of food for the Inuit, and their skins are used to make clothing and boat’s coating. Seal’s oil is kept and used as a source of fuel. The most abundant resource in the Arctic is perhaps ice and snow. Other than a source of water, ice blocks are used as building materials for the Inuit’s famous igloo, and a crystal clear ice block is often made into a nice see-through window. Snow is packed into any gap and seam of the igloo in order to keep out the wind. Snow is also a mean of entertainment for the children, i.e. snow sliding and snow animal making. Throughout the movie, we see many instances when the Inuit work together towards one shared goal, survival. When Nanook and his followers make a trip down the river to the trading post, they lift and paddle the omiak boat together. Their combined effort makes the process easier and, perhaps, safer as well. The cooperation is seen even clearer when they hunt for the walrus. Upon being notify that walrus is spotted, men immediately go all out on their own kayak, and the women and children get out of the shelter to cheer for them. A walrus should weigh a good ton, and if it has not been everyone holding the rope to the harpooned walrus together, they will not be able to catch and pull the walrus on the shore. Walrus is one of the few animals that the Inuit can hunt, and they do not come by often; consequently, the success of catching one is important because it can mean the different between life and dead for the Inuit. In the movie, as soon as the men catch the walrus, they begin consuming it immediately because they are so hungry after a long period of time without food. We can see that cooperation is even more crucial to them at this point as all of them probably do not have much energy left due to hunger. The last instance when Nanook builds the igloo, evidence of cooperation is also prevailed. Even though Nanook himself does all the cutting, lifting and building the igloo, his wife Nyla and Cunayou do help with patching the snow into the seam and gap in the igloo. Patching snow seems to be a tedious work, but, thanks to Nyla and Cunayou, Nanook can proceed with making the window and transporting the goods from the sled inside the igloo. In the film, the children are always seen playing around. They sled ride on each other; they play with the little husky; they try to befriend with the caught baby fox. There are a few scenes depicting Nanook interacting with his children, and whenever he does, he does with care and love. In the scene when Nanook and his family travel in the kayak boat and stop at the shore, Nanook carries Allee from the boat to the shore, making sure Allee does not step on the water. In the last scene when Nanook finishes building the igloo, Nanook is seen playing with his boy. He teaches Allee to use the bow and arrow, using the snow bear he makes as the target. Nanook is passing on his skill to Allee, hoping that Allee will grow up being a great man like his father. This is a good illustration to the process of enculturation that we discuss in class. As the narrative script describes playing bow and arrow with bare hands a cold sport for the little boy, Nanook warms Allee’s hands by rubbing them on his cheeks. This is a clear sign of love from the father to the son.
Throughout the film, Nanook’s wife’s role is primarily taking care of the children. In the scene everyone gets up in the morning, Nyla is seen taking of her husband by chewing on the seal skinned boots in order to soften them.
“Nanook of the North” is essentially a motion picture of the article “Eskimo Science” by Richard Nelson. Both of them focus on the life of the Eskimo, so their elements of hunter-gatherer life are very similar. Their main source of food is from animals such as polar bear, walrus, seal, fox, salmon, and others. The Inuit and the Inupiaq share very similar technology. They both facilitate the use of harpoons, kayaks, animal skinned clothing, snow houses and dog team in their daily life. Their knowledge must have come from observing the nature and the animals’ behaviors. The hunting method bares great resemblance. In the film, when Nanook hunts the walrus, he lays down on his knees and arms mimicking the walrus. He slowly approaches the walrus when they do not pay attention to him. In the article, Igruk is using the same method when he plays as the prey to the bear (Nelson 90). However, Nanook uses his harpoon while Igruk uses a gun. In the film, the men begin consuming the walrus immediately after killing it. In the article, there is an entire spiritual procedure that one follows upon catching an animal. For examples, the animal’s feet are removed in order to keep the spirit from wandering, and certain parts are consumed before bringing the animal back to the village (Nelson 88).
In the article “The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahair” by Richard Borshay Lee, the described environmental elements are totally different. The !Kung Bushmen live near water hole where there is an abundant source of both animals and plants. Also, they do not have to fight the cold constantly like the Eskimo do. The Bushmen’s diet comprises from 60 to 80 percent of vegetable which is mostly mongongo nuts, and the rest from animals (Lee 75). The Bushmen and the Eskimo both do not have any agricultural practices, but for different reasons. In the Arctic, the weather is so harsh that even grass can grow. In the Dobe area, where the fieldwork of the Bushmen was research, the population is far away from exhausting all the available food, so there is no need for agriculture. Indeed, when being questioned about why agriculture is not taken, a Bushman replied: “Why should we plant, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?” (Lee 77). The role of women is not mentioned in the “Eskimo Science”, but in the film, the role is to take care of the children and husband. Eskimo women do not seem to contribute to the food gathering by hunting or any other mean. In contrast, Bushman women’s role is much broader. They gather vegetables on one day which is often enough for three day worth of food (Lee 82). Time to time, they hunt small animals like rabbits or birds. Their activities range from house choirs like kitchen routines to social interactions such as visiting and entertaining others (Lee 82). In other words, Eskimo women’s role is rather narrow compared to that of Bushman women. In the film, men are all involved in hunting big animals while in the article “The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahair”, they are not all involved. In fact, there are always idle men when hunting takes place. This difference in level of cooperation in hunting is significant because it shows how much each has to adapt to the environment. In the Arctic where food is scarce and hard to come by, the higher participation will yield a higher chance of succeeding. However, in the Dobe area, meat is rather “regarded as a special treat (Lee 84) due to the great availability of plants; thus, requirement of all men going hunting is not as crucial.