Week 10 Essay: Eskimo Folk Tales

This week I read Eskimo Folk Tales as my unit. I feel like, compared to all of the other units I have read this semester, this unit is the most simple. There are really only two motifs that I have noticed throughout this unit and they aren't quite as prevalent as the motifs in the other units. In this unit, several of the stories begin with an unmarried man, which I find very interesting. The other motif I found was how the people refer to the others in their village as brothers or sisters. I also noticed that they have common morals to the stories.


The thing that makes the motif of almost all of the stories starting with wifeless men interesting to me, is because that idea sheds light on the Eskimo's culture, which I know nothing about. I love learning about a culture through the stories I read from this class. Being a science major, I don't really make a point to learn about other cultures all that often, and from reading this unit, I can learn about a really unique one. One thing that stuck out about the wifeless men was that it wasn't seen as a bad thing. It was just something that was noticed and then celebrated when the man married. In other stories, unmarried men or women can be shunned, harassed, or even killed. It makes the Eskimos have so gentle.

Another thing that I noticed was how all of the people refer to each other as brother or sister, even if they aren't actually brothers or sisters. I find that interesting when paired with the last motif I noticed. In the stories, the people put a lot of value in being truthful and not killing unnecessarily. Since Eskimos are normally very solitary with their families, they become very close, like brothers and sisters are close. With them putting such a high value on family, it makes sense to me that they would not like the thought of killing a family member.

Walrus Ivory