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111 ern Asia. It further proved a commonality of history and culture for the peoples of this vast region. Rasmussen’s initial goals for this expedition were to map the migration of the Eskimo population, to clarify questions regarding their origins and history, to examine the common traits that connected the many different Arctic cultures spanning Greenland to the Pacific, and to collect anthropological specimens from these peoples. Besides Rasmussen, the participants in the expedition were anthropologist and geographer Kai Birket-Smith, archaeologist and cartographer Therkel Mathiassen, cartographer and historian Peter Freuchen, photographer Leo Hansen, and scientific assistant Helge Bangsted. Six Greenlanders also participated as interpreters, sledge drivers, and hunters. Seventy-five sledge dogs from Thule completed the roster. FIG. 1: Knud Rasmussen during the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924. Photo by Leo Hansen, 1924. The National Museum of Denmark, Ethnographic collection. © The National Museum of Denmark. FIG. 2: Map of the routes taken by the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924. Cartography adapted by Polaris Cartographics, www.polariscartography.com. FIG. 3: Knud Rasmussen and Kaj Birket-Smith in front of “The Bellows,” Danish Island, 1921. Photo: Peter Freuchen. The National Museum of Denmark, Ethnographic collection, inv. 5-thuleb-0013. © The National Museum of Denmark. FIG. 4: Mask. Iglulik, Qajufik, Melville Peninsula, Nunavut. Collected in 1922. Seal skin. H: 25 cm. The National Museum of Denmark, Ethnographic collection, inv. P27.740. © The National Museum of Denmark. For one and a half years, the expedition was based on a small island across from Vansittart Island on the western edge of Foxe Basin, which was named Danskeøen (Danish Island) by Rasmussen. Here they built their winter base cabin, which they called “The Bellows” (fig. 3). Apart from their living quarters, it also housed their scientific equipment and a weather station. The success of the expedition depended entirely on its members’ ability to gather reliable information. As such, it was important to navigate the taboos and suspicions of the various Eskimo groups they would encounter so that these indigenous peoples would feel comfortable with the visitors and recognize that they were peaceful individuals who wanted only friendship. Many of the people the expedition would encounter had not previously seen aliens with white skin. It was equally important that the archaeologists be able to excavate the ruins of abandoned dwellings and kitchen middens in order to ascertain how these peoples, who lacked written history, had lived, dressed, and hunted in the past. This was to be a difficult and timeconsuming task but one that was key, since objects acquired through their meticulous and dutifully recorded excavations ultimately would serve as documentation with incontestable informative value. The expedition’s first foray from its base was to the nearby island of Iglulik at the eastern end of the Fury and Hecla Strait, near northern Baffin Island. Mathiassen and Freuchen made anthropological observations and cartographic measurements there. The island’s inhabitants, the Iglulingmiut, were not only hospitable but friendly, candid, and possessed of a good sense of humor. The scientists quickly established a cordial relationship with them, which resulted in the islanders providing a great many objects of anthropological interest to the expedi-


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