I am aware that the peoples of the Arctic regions do not live in igloos, etc. And I know that settlements are on ground rather than ice floes. But I was watching Nanook of the North not too long ago, and it did depict hunting expiditions out on the ice. It got me to wondering: Where is the latrine? Did they dig holes in the snow and defecate into them? Did they just do it on the snow? Did they have some sort of chamber pot for use inside of their igloos (again, I’m not talking about modern hunting dwellings; although I would not be surprised to hear that igloos are still sometimes used)?
What about the dogs and polar bears? Obviously they did not have flush toilets. Do their feces litter the frozen wastes? (Heh. “Frozen wastes”.) Of course they would be covered by blowing snow; but how long does it endure? If a polar bear shat on the ice which happened to be over land, would the feces still be there after a hundred years, buried under the ice and snow?
Weird question, I know; but it’s one that I think of every time I watch Nanook.
I lived in Iqaluit NWT for 13 months, and when I was there in 91, they had just completed an “aquaduct” that sat on top of the frozen ground much like a pipeline.
In fact, it was a pipeline, but for human waste.
All the new homes connected to it, just like any house connects to a sewer system, and the waste is transported to a central location and disposed of according to whatever the regulations require.
As far as the smaller settlements, I do not know, but when we went on hunting trips to the “flow edge”, we just did our business outside and kicked snow over it.
It was those times you really appreciated indoor plumbing.
I dunno about Eskimo poo, but I can tell you that dog crap freezes until spring, at which point it thaws and makes an unbelievable mess. You can imagine what 5 months of accumulated frozen dog feces all thawing at once is like in a small yard. Ick!
Modernized villages have an above-ground piping system as described by CrazyFoo. Bethel, AK is an example of this. Many villages have septic systems and a “honey wagon” that comes around to pump them out periodically.
More primitive, economically depressed villages have outhouses, some of which empty directly into the ocean or onto the ice in winter, although this isn’t as common any longer. At night, a “honey bucket” is used for night soil and is emptied in the morning.
In the old days, all of this plus the garbage was just hauled out onto the ice. During spring breakup, everything would just float out to sea.
On hunting trips, one would just dig a hole in the snow, I suspect, to avoid attracting bears or wolves.
As far as bears and dogs, why would it be any different than any wildlife anywhere in the world? Scat would decompose at a much slower rate, since it is frozen for most of the year, and there is probably a lot of frozen mastodon poop out there.
having seen a polar bear poop, i can say he did not poop in the woods.
he got up from where he was sleeping, walked a bit away, scratched a bit at the ice, circled a bit, scratched a bit more; then pooped. he walked over to were some other bears were, nosed them around a bit, had a wee tussle with one, then got comfy and went back to his nap.
although we didn’t get very close to the poo, it seemed a surprizingly small amount compared to the size of the bear. i’ve seen a lab leave more than the bear did.
