Compare And Contrast Chipewyan And Netsilik

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The Netsilik and the Chipewyan were both tribes that lived in really tough area with extreme low temperature and a lot of ice that doesn’t allow any kind of farming. These tribes rely on deer hunting a lot and the process of using the meat is handled by women. Any kind of sewing, cooking or preparation of the meat to be used is done by women, but even though women have a big role in the post hunting life in both of these communities, they have quite different roles. First, they approach kinship in two different ways. The Netsilik have a bilateral descent system, which is similar to what we have in the United States today, but not completely. Netsilik have personal kindreds which are blood relatives of a person on his or her generational level which we don’t have. The Chipewyan system is …show more content…

The Chipewyan would hunt in groups and when they come back women would prepare the meat so that men could eat first due to the fact that they are the hunters and they need energy. In terms of political life, they gathered and were really flexible about the hunt and decisions making so that they would know where to go to hunt caribou depending on the different migration routes and so on. The leader would be often a charismatic person. On the other hand, the Netsilik didn’t have a chief and didn’t have a political life, but a social control. Bands would deal with other bands and they were really autonomous. The leaders were the older hunters and they guided the community. All male votes were required when it came to important decisions. Newcomers had to have permission to stay, but had to follow a certain process. They also sang songs for different occasions like magic, hunting or even joking. When the issue was not possible to solve without losing something else, they would kill the person the person. So we can clearly see how these two tribes, even though living in somewhat the same areas are quite different in their way of

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