Among the 18) Eskimo spread out through Northwest Alaska, a person without multiple kin, according anthropologist Ernest Burch, was considered to be --

“a social freak toward whom the other members of society had no acceptable way of behaving. ...The classic case being that of a seal hunter who accidentally went adrift

on the sea as a result of wind and current action.  If conditions were unfavorable, he

might drift for days, weeks, or even months before getting back to shore again, if he

did at all, and his landfall might be tens or hundreds of miles from his home. If he landed

near a village (as often happened, since drifting ice frequently runs aground     near

points where larger villages were located), and if he were observed by one of its

inhabitants, he was in trouble. ...Unless he could identify himself --which to the Eskimo

meant proving he was related to people known by the inquisitors --he was probably

beaten to death in short order.”

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His crime?  Stealing their seals. To increase the size of the social world in which one could safely operated, one needed family members living in other villages. Being a member of the same tribe and speaking the same language was not enough.  Trusting one's neighbor who spoke the same language was a very dangerous thing to do. One could only trust one's family, one's sons and daughters, their spouses, and brothers and sisters and their spouses and offspring. 

 

Since, in most societies, “kinship is the idiom in which political interests are advanced and economic goals are maximized,” then who would help an Inupuit hunter who happen to travel outside his safe space where there were no brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces,  uncles aunts and sons and daughters on whom one could count on for shelter, food, and assistance when needed? Their lack of kin spread out over seventeen familial well-guarded territories meant one was severely restricted as to how far one could travel from home.  

 

To enter a territory devoid of kin, that is, a resident son, daughter, grandchild, uncle, or aunt was  dangerous.  Socially, they were and endogamous society, marrying only within one's ascribed territory.   For most of the year, leaving father and mother at marriage did not permit one to leave the community or territory in which one was born. 

 

To solve the problem of not having kin to protect them, they created an entirely new cultural form unknown to humankind  which they called italiuqtuq, 'to make a relative.'  Its function was to create rights to move around one neighbor's hunting territory through sexual intercourse.  Since territorial hunting rights were owned by "family member,"  their solution to the problem was to --

“make someone a relative through a voluntary act, in the same way one makes a  house,

or makes an item of clothing. Through the act, a man and woman become spouses, and

any children either of them ever had before or after, become siblings. ...sexual intercourse

was the only way that  kinship could be extended.”

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The only way one could acquire rights to move around one's neighbor's territory was to "make a relative."  "It was systematically employed to reduce danger from outside one's own district."  

Through sexual intercourse with a friend's wife from another territory, the Inupiat Eskimos created a biological linkage between hostile communities.  

 

The function of the cultural form was to increase one’s chances for survival in a dangerous world where food could be scarce and non-kin could not be trusted. The goal in life was to survive.  And to survive one needed real family members.

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Unlike nearly every other society on earth, the Inupiat Eskimo chose not to increase the size of their "family" by classifying cousins as "brothers" and "sisters," uncles and aunts as "fathers" and "mothers," and nephews and nieces as "sons, and "daughters."  As a very rational thinking people,  they chose not to violate the laws of logic and the Law of Identity.

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They clearly understood the law of non-contradiction and refused to merge cousins with siblings, uncles and aunts with fathers and mothers, and nephews and nieces with sons and daughters. For the Inupiat, the concepts were mutually exclusive and were not merged.

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Semantically, this means they refused to detach from forms held common to all  their inherent meaning-content which informed them what the qualities of being a father, mother, wife, son, daughter, and brother and sister were.  Such behavior was unusual. 

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So instead of expanding the size of their “family” by classifying collateral kin as sons, daughters, and brothers and sisters as tribes living on the Great Plains did, they chose to “make someone a relative"  through sexual intercourse.  "Sexual intercourse was the only way that  kinship could be extended.”

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Regardless of what missionaries and governmental officials thought, such sexual activity was not generated by lust. As anthropologist Ernest Burch points out: “In the chaotic circumstances of the time, this was not promiscuity, but a rational means for dealing with a difficult situation.” By an intimate act they were “creating” real sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, and uncles, and aunts whose moral duty was to aid each other in time of trouble. 

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Like so much of the tribal world,  kinship was the means for constructing a socio-economic defense to protect themselves when trespassing their neighbor's hunting grounds.  Instead of using the classificatory method to increase the size of their "family," they chose to increase its size by "making a relative" through the mutual exchange of spouses living in different familial territories.

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Convictions:

1. The creation for a new cultural form called italiuqtuq, 'to make a relative' was shaped by environmental pressures and the need to survive. 

2. For the pre-Christian inupiat Eskimo,   SOCIAL EXISTENCE RULED ESSENCE, the universal principle which is: "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19.18).