# Eskimo non-migration
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [April 8, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403 "2009-04-08T16:11:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/1 "2009-04-08T16:11:20Z")
Cecil gives some interesting info, but he doesn’t really address the question. He explains how they have adapted to the climate, but not why Eskimos never migrated to warmer climates. (Other than: “…Arctic peoples possess various physiological properties that make them well suited to life amid the icebergs, and in fact cause them to endure considerable discomfort if transported to a warmer locale.”
That is to say, their bodies adapted after they settled, which means they decided to stay in this really cold, bleak place before their bodies adapted.
It seems only logical to me the efforts of living in a cold, northern climate to keep humans warm is so burdensome they would gradually go south, and their bodies would gradually adapt, as well.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/2 "2009-04-08T16:16:17Z")
With the gradual demise of the subsistence lifestyle, dependence upon manufactured goods, more education, and lack of money to pay for expensive consumer goods, more and more Alaska Natives have migrated to the larger urban centers, often with poor results. While the elders remain in the villages, the younger people are no longer satisfied with living on the edge of civilization and want to be part of what they see on TV.
There are many educated and successful Natives, and many who are just living the middle class life, but the public face of Alaska Natives is one of public intoxication and crime. While they do a lot of work on public relations to promote their culture, stereotypes still persist.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/3 "2009-04-08T16:32:43Z")
[Why do Eskimo people stay there?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/83/why-do-eskimo-people-stay-there)
> [@guizot](#):
>
> It seems only logical to me the efforts of living in a cold, northern climate to keep humans warm is so burdensome they would gradually go south, and their bodies would gradually adapt, as well.
A lot did head South. They went on to become Apaches, Aztecs etc. Why did some remain? Why not? They had enough food to survive and that’s pretty much all anyone needs. The alternative is to head out into the wild blue yonder on the off chance that there might be somewhere that’s a little better.
It’s not like timeshare salesmen visited on a regular basis, trying to sell condos in Florida.
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### Author:  [@Bluffcityguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluffcityguy)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/4 "2009-04-08T16:33:57Z")
Edited to remove duplicate link to Cecil’s article.
Dammit, too slow on the uptake.
Cheers,
bcg
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### Author:  [@pj\_england](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pj_england)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/5 "2009-04-08T17:05:07Z")
I agree Cecil. People often live where their people come from. It takes a lot of bravery to pack up and move to a location without your friends and family. Home is often the safe place for people—the world can be a scary place.
PS—I visited Chicago and would not like to live there either.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/6 "2009-04-08T17:25:51Z")
[Why do Eskimo people stay there?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/83/why-do-eskimo-people-stay-there)
And I could quite happily live in Chicago, but not in the Arctic.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/7 "2009-04-08T17:52:03Z")
1. Family and community.
2. Economics.
3. Why in the world would one want to leave the arctic?
4. Historically, other first peoples populated areas further south and were not amenable to interlopers from the north.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/8 "2009-04-08T18:17:41Z")
Since both are commenting on the same column, I’ve merged the thread started by pj\_england into the slightly earlier thread started by guizot. Carry on.
bibliophage
moderator CCC
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### Author:  [@Atomic\_Mama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Mama)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/9 "2009-04-08T19:18:53Z")
Hey, I’ve lived in Chicago, MISSISSIPPI, and Alaska! I love 'em all! I’m adaptable, I guess.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/10 "2009-04-08T19:50:21Z")
> [@Atomic\_Mama](#):
>
> Hey, I’ve lived in Chicago, MISSISSIPPI, and Alaska! I love 'em all! I’m adaptable, I guess.
If you’ve lived here, you know that there is Alaska, and then there are the cities.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/11 "2009-04-08T20:42:34Z")
> [@pj\_england](#):
>
> I agree Cecil. People often live where their people come from. It takes a lot of bravery to pack up and move to a location without your friends and family.
I would think the fact that you live in a house of ice would give you and your family and friends a pretty big nudge.
Surely people came back from the lower climates and said, “You’re crazy for living here!”
I understand that in Alaska people can get good pay in certain industries, but these came along long after the people settled there.
> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> Since both are commenting on the same column, I’ve merged the thread started by pj\_england into the slightly earlier thread started by guizot. Carry on.
>
> bibliophage
> moderator CCC
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/12 "2009-04-08T21:22:20Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> Surely people came back from the lower climates and said, “You’re crazy for living here!”
If living in the warmer climates was so good, what incentive would anyone have to travel to the frozen North?
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/13 "2009-04-08T21:33:46Z")
Eskimos don’t and didn’t live in houses made of ice. They made temporary shelters out of ice, but they typically lived in semi-subterranean houses.
The problem with moving away from a harsh inhospitable place is that the nice hospitable places already have people living in them. And these people often don’t take kindly to outsiders. So if you move to a new location you are typically going to have conflict with the people who already live there. If there are lots of you and you’re well armed, the natives are going to have to learn to put up with you. If not, you’re going to have to run back home, assuming you haven’t been killed or enslaved.
And people do migrate, it’s just that not everyone does. As long as it is possible to make a living in an area, there will be people living there.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/14 "2009-04-10T03:01:25Z")
> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> Eskimos don’t and didn’t live in houses made of ice. They made temporary shelters out of ice, but they typically lived in semi-subterranean houses.
Well, whatever. The point is that for half of the year the places where most Eskimos live is really, really cold. Just staying warm enough to be human took up a lot of their time and energy, despite the ways in which they’ve adapted.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/15 "2009-04-10T03:42:08Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> If living in the warmer climates was so good, what incentive would anyone have to travel to the frozen North?
That’s a good question, but I would offer a guess: Most didn’t migrate to colder regions by choice, and those that did mostly went to places that had climates similar to those in the places they came from.
And I’m not saying warmer climates were better; just that if you lived in a place like Alaska where you had to make so much effort just to stay humanly warm, and your cousin from San Diego comes and says, “Hey, where I live, you get cold maybe two times a year. Why do you put up with it?” then wouldn’t you probably move south?
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/16 "2009-04-10T03:45:00Z")
Nah, you can keep San Diego. I likes me my snow. Seriously.
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### Author:  [@johna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johna)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/17 "2009-04-10T15:38:24Z")
Remember that crazy uncle? Yeah, he’s the one that stayed in Alaska.
Different strokes for different cave-men.
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### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/18 "2009-04-10T16:17:54Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> That’s a good question, but I would offer a guess: Most didn’t migrate to colder regions by choice, and those that did mostly went to places that had climates similar to those in the places they came from.
>
> And I’m not saying warmer climates were better; just that if you lived in a place like Alaska where you had to make so much effort just to stay humanly warm, and your cousin from San Diego comes and says, “Hey, where I live, you get cold maybe two times a year. Why do you put up with it?” then wouldn’t you probably move south?
Because your cousin isn’t going to live in San Diego, he’s going to live next door. People very rarely migrated thousands of miles in ancient times. And even if you did start moving south, the people who already live there are often likely to become violent when strangers move in next door.
People move when they can’t make a living in their current area. So suppose you’re feeling the pinch, and it’s cold, and there isn’t enough food. You can move north, or you can move south. The south is warmer, but there are lots of people there and they’ve taken all the good spots, and the hunting is bad because there are too many people. Or you can move north, where it’s cold but the hunting is good because almost nobody lives there.
Living in the arctic requires special technology and skills. If you’ve already got those skills you can live in a place very few other people can live. If you move south you’ve got to compete against everyone else.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/19 "2009-04-10T17:08:52Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> A lot did head South. They went on to become Apaches, Aztecs etc.
Actually, it’s thought that while the ancestors of the southern Aboriginal peoples came over around 11,000 B.C., the ancestors of the Inuit (the Thule) arrived far later, around 1000 AD.
When the Thule arrived, they displaced (how is not certain) a pre-existing culture called the Dorset, whose origin is also unknown. So it might be, as far as I know, that the Dorset and southern Aboriginals shared common ancestors, similar to what you suggest. But not the Inuit.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eskimo-non-migration/492403/20 "2009-04-10T17:10:41Z")
> [@johna](#):
>
> Remember that crazy uncle? Yeah, he’s the one that stayed in Alaska.
>
> Different strokes for different cave-men.
:dubious:
As a quarter decedent of Alaskan Natives I can assure you I am not a 1/4 “cave-man”, nor crazy.
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