ABSTRACT
The lives of hunters and trappers show more variety of form than we should expect, for these people are essentially dependent on the animals and plants of the country where they live. Therefore, they must act differently according to whether they live in the tropical forests of the Congo, Ceylon, or Sumatra, in the polar regions of Greenland or Alaska, or in the deserts or steppes of Africa or Asia. Mutual help also constitutes a characteristic of Eskimo economics in Greenland. It is only if some one has borrowed something without the knowledge of the owner, that he is compelled to make restitution for the object lost. The communistic traits, as with all hunters and collectors, imply the absence of private property, the place of which is taken by the right of the sovereign tribe to the hunting-ground.
