Category Archives: Indigenous Cultures

…In seasons when hunting is bad they have to move incessantly from place to place, and the winter becomes a hard one, not only for the hunters themselves but especially for all the old people. The treatment of the aged, of course, varies with the individual. Here, as everywhere, there are helpful and sympathetic, or hardhearted sons and sons-in-law, and fate of the old people lies in their hands. A removal from one hunting place to the other is like a whole migration, on which men and woman have to carry along everything they possess. True, this is not much, but when clothing, sleeping skins and household utensils are piled up on the small, often miserable sledges, there is at any rate no room for people to sit. Then in a long procession the sledges move off over the ice to find a good camp with deep drifts for building snow huts. Men and women have to help the dogs to draw the loads, and then when they arrive at a place where good hunting may be expected, they stop and pitch camp. These removals are slow processes. Children who can walk must be able to keep up with the sledges. The only ones who sometimes have difficulty are the old. Worn-out men or women; bent with rheumatism they come plodding behind, and no matter how slowly the main body moves, they are usually unable to keep up but only arrive at the camp when the snow houses are finished.

I made exhaustive enquiries as to the treatment of the aged, and the only case of heartlessness that I came across was that of an old woman by name Kigtaq. She was the mother of a woman named Terigssaq who was married to Arfeq. When they moved from camp to camp she was often left out on the ice in midwinter, clad only in a thin inner jacket and no thick, warm outer coat. Even in bad weather she often had to sleep out on the ice as she had not caught up with the others: but, as they said to me, “she was not dead yet and life was still sweet to her”. When I passed Matty Island she was on the long journey to Lord Mayor Bay to spend the spring and summer in that region.

I took up this case of Kigtaq and asked whether it was not thought wicked that more care was not taken of an old woman. To this Samik answered: “No one here among us wishes harm to old people. We ourselves might be old some day. Perhaps there are those among us who think Arfeq might take more care of his mother-in-law, particularly by giving her better clothes. But others excuse Arfeq, in that he has been so unlucky in his hunting that he has barely been able to procure furs for his wife and his children, and people think he must first and foremost attend to them; for not only are they more closely related to him, but they have their lives before them and they may live long, whereas there is no future for an old worn-out woman. Then again there are others who think that Arfeq should allow his mother-in-law to ride on his sledge, or at any rate go back for her when he has built his snow hut, while others say that he only has two dogs and with his wife has to help to drag his sledge from place to place. And if he has to be at the breathing holes next morning at the proper time to secure food he can not travel backwards and forwards between the old and the new camp to salvage an old woman. He has the choice between helping one who is at deaths door anyhow, and allowing his wife and children to starve. This is how it is, and we see no wickedness in it. Perhaps it is more remarkable that old Kigtaq, now that she is no longer able to fend for herself, still hangs on as a burden to her children and grandchildren. For our custom up here is that all old people who can do no more, and whom death will not take, help death to take them.

And they do this not merely to be rid of a life that is no longer a pleasure, but also to relieve their nearest relations of the trouble they give them.”

…A man is fond of life as long as he is well, but as soon as life becomes a burden to him, either on account of age or sickness, they believe they have the right to seek death themselves. Hanging is the method chosen, and it is a common thing for the relatives of the old or sick person concerned to make everything ready for the suicide.

[#9] Knud Rasmussen, The Netsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Culture (Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24) (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1931): 138; 143-44; 507.

Life is harsh towards the Caribou Eskimos and old people are rare…

Nor is it seldom that old people or persons suffering from a disease come to the conclusion that life is more unbearable than death and, according to Eskimo ideas, they have the moral right to commit suicide. Suicide is not rare, and it is the duty of pious children to assist their parents in committing it. As a rule the method is hanging. But there is no doubt that it also happens that a sick person is left to die, either out of fear that the other will be unable to pull through when he is a burden to the family, or simply out of fear of coming into contact with death.

The result of the natural influence of age is that the word of middle-aged or elderly men—but only so long as they still have their strength—carries most weight, although less directly, perhaps, than indirectly by force of example. Old people who are no longer in possession of all their faculties gradually lose their influence and respect. Their life is often a bitter one. Even though they are treated with kindness, they feel themselves in the way and suicide is not uncommon. On the other hand I do not think that nowadays—as undoubtedly was the case formerly—they run any risk of being killed. Although they might be deserted.

[#8] Kaj Birket-Smith, The Caribou Eskimos: Material and Social Life and the Cultural Position (Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24) (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1929): 258, 300.

The Eskimo believe that man has two souls. One of these stays with the body, and may enter temporarily the body of a child which is given the name of the departed. The other soul goes to one of the lands of the souls. Of these there are several. There are three heavens, one above another, of which the highest is the brightest and best. Those who die by violence go to the lowest heaven. Those who die by disease go to Sedna’s house first, where they stay for a year. Sedna restores their souls to full health, and then she sends them up to the second heaven. They become inhabitants of Omiktu, in which place there are many whales. It is not quite certain that the second heaven and Omiktu are the same, as it is also stated that only the lighter souls that leave Sedna’s house ascend to the second heaven. Those who die by drowning go to the third heaven. Their souls are very strong and healthy. People who commit suicide go to a place in which it is always dark, called “Kumetoon,” and where they go about with their tongues lolling. Women who have had premature births go to Sedna’s abode, and stay in Alipā’q, the lowest world, which is under the sea, and not far from Sedna’s house. It is said that some souls go to Tukeychwen, a place of which no full description is given.

[#7] Franz Boas, “The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,” Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XV, 1907): 130.

People who desire to put an end to their life should do so while others are looking on. Consequently it often happens that they get one of their relatives to strangle them. The cause may either be sorrow or sickness. People who wish to take their life in secret must themselves make a thong fast to the roof of the snow hut by means of a hole and a bar placed across it on the outside, and then seek death by hanging.

Nothing is known as to whether people who take their own life meet with any special fate after death: it is believed that they go where they would otherwise have gone.

If the death taboo is not observed the soul becomes… an evil spirit.

[#5] Knud Rasmussen, Intellectual Culture of the Copper Eskimos (Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24) (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1932): 46-47.

Another cause of death is suicide. To kill oneself is considered a shameful act, but it may be done nonetheless. The corpse of such a person receives special treatment. There is no regular funeral and the body is put on top of some other grave. Even the spirit is destined for a distinctive afterworld.

A woman who has decided to take her own life ideally bathes and puts on new clothes. Females apparently prefer to die by hanging. The girl may use her inside belt, another line of babiche, or one of braided willow bark. No knot is required if the inner belt is chosen since one end will be simply inserted through the slit in the other. Otherwise, a slip knot serves. The girl, perhaps crazy from frustrated love, goes into the woods, climbs up in some willows, puts the cord around her neck, and fastens the end to a fork in the branches. After she jumps off she may kick around for a long time and consequently may be cut down before she is dead. Saving her life is said to be useless, however, for she will probably be successful on a second attempt.

Sometimes an old man will strangle himself with a line, but men who are not old more often drive a knife or arrow into the heart. A man would not drown himself, as most rationalize that this method is painful. For whatever reason and however it is done, suicide is considered a form of insanity.

The Ingalik take an unfavorable view of the abandonment of individuals where such an act leads inevitably to their death. As previously mentioned, in the desperate times of starvation, abandonment does take place, but then no choice is considered to be involved. Also old people are occasionally left behind in a winter village if they have no one to look after them. Such unfortunates may strangle themselves. However, should healthy, active members of a family remove to their summer camp leaving relatives helpless, they would gain a very bad reputation for doing so. Ingalik claim that when traveling they will not abandon living people for any reason. If they did so, others would laugh at them and simply say that they had killed the individuals that they had left.

[#4] Cornelius Osgood, Ingalik Social Culture. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 53. Field date 1937. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958): 148.

Three methods of ritual suicide were mentioned [by Yuit informant] as having existed on St. Lawrence: hanging, shooting with a rifle, and stabbing with spear or knife. Hanging was the most, and stabbing the least, common. The victim himself apparently had his choice.. . .

…The general procedure for suicide was the same, no matter whether the blow was self-administered or given by someone else. Once having decided to do away with himself, the individual initiated the process by asking his relatives to kill him or at least help in the suicide. As a rule they would not consent at first, but rather tried to dissuade him from his intentions. One of the St. Lawrence informants said that among their ethnic counterparts at Indian Point (Siberia) the custom was for the prospective suicide to ask three times for someone to help him, the third request being one that could not be refused. There was no indication of limits to the number of requests at Gambell.

The requirement that the prospective suicide warn his relatives of his intentions is one of the most significant aspects of the pattern, for it is here that the group involvement begins to emerge. Unfortunately, however, there are as yet no adequate data on whether an individual could ever “legitimately” commit suicide by himself without first warning his relatives of his plans; or whether he always had to implicate the wider social group in his demise. Probably it was the latter, however, for an informant questioned on this point by CCH on a visit to the island in 1954 said that it simply never happened that a person would go off and kill himself all alone—“always lots of people around.”

…If the prospective suicide continued to ask among his relatives for death they finally had to agree. He would then dress himself in his house as one already dead, i.e., with his clothing turned inside out. Presently a group of relatives would arrive and carry him seated on a reindeer skin to the “Destroying Place.” This was the spot where in any regular funeral some of the deceased’s property was broken. There were two such places on the edge of Gambell village. Sometimes, particularly if the man were sacrificing himself to save someone else, he would walk to his death. This was considered an especially praiseworthy act.

Before his death at the Destroying Place, the prospective suicide commonly addressed his relatives, giving them advice about life, and his reflections upon parting from this world. Informants describe this speech somewhat as follows: “Sometimes he say ‘You big enough. You know what you can do. Older people must teach younger ones. And after me you won’t need me any more. You can defend you self.’ Because our custom is: anything when we couldn’t think clear, we had to come to older people.” And another excerpt: “He says ‘My time is up, so I couldn’t tell you anything more to what to do. So you be think you selves and you almost grown man now.’ ”

. . .Once the decision and arrangements for the death had been made by an individual, retraction was very difficult. The consequences of such action were not specified by an informant, but among the neighboring Chukchee it was believed that all forms of bad fortune would ensue unless the retractor made a heavy sacrifice to the “Outer Being,” an important deity in the Chukchee supernatural hierarchy. It was, however, mentioned on St. Lawrence Island that in at least two cases dogs were killed after a suicide vow had been retracted, presumably in the attempt to have them substitute for the human being.

The treatment accorded the relative who acted as executioner is particularly interesting as illustrating a case in which the necessary violation of a basic and deeply held value is followed by ritual activities which seem to constitute both symbolic punishment and exorcism of any evil that might arise from the killing. The prevailing attitude seems to have been, as one informant expressed it, “No one likes to kill anyone; people usually kill themselves when they want death.” This informant himself put forward the suggestion that the treatment of the killer was some form of punishment.

The executioner was confined to his or her house for a period of twenty days. During this time he was not allowed to go outside for fresh air; he could not change his clothes; and he could not do any sort of work in the house. He always wore his clothes with the hair turned inward, and his head and eyebrows were shaved without water. A small net made of baleen was placed over his head or parka hood. He could not wash himself nor use his fingernails for scratching, though he was allowed to use a stick or comb for the latter purpose. For picking up meat he had to use a pointed knife rather than his fingers. After this initial twenty-day confinement, he was free to go outside, but still could not engage in constructive labor for another (unspecified) period of time…

…When death was by hanging, several relatives participated in holding the post, and in raising and lowering the deerskin. It was apparently felt that in such an operation no single individual was responsible for the death and as a result none had to undergo the severe treatment accorded a person who alone caused a death. It is likely that they nevertheless had to carry out some ritual limitations of activity, similar to those described above for ordinary mourning. Adequate information on this point is unfortunately lacking.

The commonest reason given for suicide was suffering due to physical sickness. A second cause was prolonged grief over the death of a loved one; another was pervasive despondency without apparent cause. The latter, as described by the informants, seemed to be very similar to the clinical depressions known in our culture. ..

The above motives are found in other Eskimo groups. On St. Lawrence there was one additional reason not found in these groups nor in the Chukchee culture, as far as the evidence at hand indicates. This was the belief that a man, by giving his own life, could thereby save the life of an ill son or grandson. …In the words of one informant, “My own parents, father and brother (sic), they been hang. I know my own father very well that time. We was both sick, myself and my father same time. Maybe my father was think ‘If I die myself maybe he (son) get well.’” And a similar case at Indian Point was related: “Seems to me he wasn’t very sick. He shot because he want to save son who was sick. Shot by own son (other son). …He was talking aloud before shot him. Say, ‘I want to be shot because I want my son to live so I take his place to die.’ ”…

…Usually it was old men who committed suicide, but occasionally elderly women and people in the prime of life did so too. No clear-cut information on patterns of abandoning the aged (which, if practiced, might have increased the prevalence of suicides, especially among old women) is available, although the practice probably did exist. When it was a case of saving somebody else, it was often the able-bodied men in their most productive years who sacrificed themselves. Those who committed suicide were thought very brave and courageous; they, along with people who were murdered, were said to go to heaven—to a “place where they would be happier.” It was particularly proper, according to one of the early ethnographers, for what the St. Lawrence Islanders termed an “athletic man” (i.e., the strong, able, aggressive individual who dominated his fellows) to kill himself rather than die a natural death. One reason for this may be, as Margaret Lantis has suggested, that the prestige and high social evaluation accorded a good hunter in this culture was greatly enhanced by this ultimate act of killing—the killing of oneself. Thus, rather than suffer the social decline concomitant with waning physical powers, the athletic man and hunter often chose to destroy himself while still enjoying a large measure of prestige.

[#3] Alexander H. Leighton and Charles C. Hughes, “Notes on Eskimo Patterns of Suicide,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 11(4): 327-335 (Winter 1955), with data collected from Yuit informants on St. Lawrence Island, Summer 1940.

The best proof of this [their love for children] is their former custom (not general, however) of taking one’s life from grief over the death of a beloved son or nephew. For example, if a son or nephew fell from a cliff, the father or uncle would also throw himself from the cliff. If the former drowned, the latter also hurled themselves into the sea, and so forth…

This cannot be considered suicide. Otherwise any sacrifice performed out of love for another person may be given that name…

 …The Athin Aleuts, as savages, did not know the value of their lives. When emotionally excited they willingly deprived themselves of life. For example, they committed suicide in an excess of grief or pity over the death of their relatives – of a son, nephew, husband, wife, etc. But children never took their lives out of grief for their dead parents no matter how greatly they may have loved them. Evidently this was their law. Sometimes the suicide was committed from disappointment at the failure of an undertaking. However, it was never done out of fear or cowardice except in cases where they saw that capture by an enemy was inevitable. Then they preferred death to slavery among their enemies or to being tortured to death by them…

Those who were most devoted to the deceased, if they did not take their lives in the first explosion of grief, fasted to the point of exhaustion.

[#2] I. E. P Veniaminov, Notes on the Islands of the Unalaska District. St. Petersburg: Russian-American Company, 1840: 28-29, 32-33.