North Alaskan Eskimos - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Traditionally, the North Alaskan Eskimos were organized in terms of bilocal extended families. Typically they involved about a dozen people, but many were larger, and some involved as many as sixty to eighty. Unilineal descent groups were absent. Bilocal extended Families are still important today, although in recent decades the conjugal family has become the dominant kinship unit.

Kinship Terminology. In the nineteenth century kinship terminology conformed to the Yuman type. Today, as a result of acculturation, the Eskimo type is beginning to predominate.