Angutet Arnat-llu "Men and Women"

I know that this is a highly involved topic. Men and women in the Cup'ik/Yup'ik culture each had their own roles in general. The men did the hunting while the women watched the kids and did the sewing, cooking, and other household tasks so the men could go hunting.

It's fascinating to me some of the taboos they had...and I know that their are a lot more. A teacher and local, James, mentioned during class the other day that each had their roles. He touched briefly on the men's roles in that there were hunters pissurtet and helpers ikayurtet. That's not to say that the ikayurtet didn't also hunt but that their main role was to help out in the village like gathering water, firewood, chopping wood, etc.

I certainly don't know all the tasks they would perform. One taboo mentioned was that men couldn't touch women or even walk down wind from a woman lest his hunting ability be lost. It was almost a form of cooties, but deadly serious. Life and death in a sense depended on the hunters ability to "bring home the bacon". If they happened to touch a woman, they'd wipe off the "cooties".

In fact, back 20-30 years ago or so men would sit on one side in buildings while women would sit on the other. This changed with western influence. However, I've definitely witnessed remnants of this mentality. For example, at the aformentioned funeral, men were on one side and the women were on the other...for the most part. Interesting: I definitely need to do some more reading on this.