Marriage and Family

To people of the Inuit tribe, marriage is conducted in the way  business deals are conducted in the United States. Marriage many times does not include a ceremony, and are initiated purely by the blessing of family members.  A man and woman begin living together, and from there on they care for each other in the way a husband and wife would. Among some clans of Inuit' s, a man lives with his potential brides family for a few months to prove his worth for the daughter, and once this had been proven, he is allowed to  begin sleeping with his bride-to-be. This switch from sleeping separately to sleeping together is metaphoric for the betrothal between the two people. Love marriages are becoming more common, however arranged marriages do still occur. At the time of birth, two families agree between themselves to promise their infants for marriage. Another common practice among the Inuit's is polygamy. To show off wealth, richer men within the community  participate in polygamous relationships with two women. Having multiple wives suggests to the rest of the community that a man can provide for two women.  The elder of the two wives was is generally in charge of homemaking duties while the younger, tends to be more for sexual pleasure. Polygamy with one woman and two men is also practiced but it is a lot less common due to a woman's inability to tend to more than one husband. The Inuit culture also practices 'co marriage' in which two couples conduct a wife trade temporarily, mostly  for sexual purposes. The two families involved would create a bond similar to that of cousins.

                In the Inuit culture, children's minds are said to be undeveloped at the time of birth. With this in mind, the connections made between children and their parents does not come with birth but is more learned during the first few years of life. The concept of adoption is very popular among the Inuit people due to these formed relationships in place of natal relationship. Beating of children is not uncommon, especially children that have become orphans after infancy. Many times the parents are not the only people that participate in abusive behavior towards children. Other people of the community  take part in bullying and taunting specific children, these children often with disabilities. Families that are close will sometimes adopt each others  children as it would create a connection between the two families.

Burch, Ernes S., and Werner Forman
1988  The Eskimos: University of Oklahoma Press

Maxwell, Joseph Alex
2012 A realist approach for qualitative research: Sage Publications