ABSTRACT
The large permanent villages of the North Alaskan and Bering Sea whale hunters and the fragmented mobile groups of the Caribou Eskimo represent extremes of settlement and community types occurring within an area of considerable cultural and linguistic uniformity. While the diversity of the social forms found within hunting and gathering societies may comprise only a narrow segment of the total spectrum of social types, a proper appreciation of this diversity will be an important step toward their proper classification and eventually toward an understanding of the problems of process or evolution. The seasonal economic cycles of the Copper and Netsilik Eskimo were identical in main features. Whatever the chief segments or sorts of relationships that may have existed within Eskimo local groups, they were always identified by name with a territory. Leadership was weakly developed among the Copper Eskimo and personal qualities alone appear to have been responsible for whatever authority certain individuals enjoyed.
