Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence is used to explicate a theory of the origin and development of the Caribou Eskimo culture. Historical accounts of Inuit-European contact over the past 300 years along the west coast of Hudson Bay are summarized. Archaeological excavations at the Meliadine-1 site are reported, and the artefact assemblage from this site and other collections from the Caribou Eskimo area are described. A model is offered regarding population expansion and culture change along the west coast of Hudson Bay from the end of the classic Thule phase to the Caribou Eskimo period. -- The thesis presented here refutes Birket-Smith’s theory of cultural antiquity which he used as an explanation for the “primitive” appearance of Caribou Eskimo material culture. It is proposed that the Caribou Eskimo culture developed from a local variant of the Thule culture over the past 200 years. Contact with Europeans during this period has had a profound effect on the value systems and exploitative patterns of the Caribou Eskimos, accelerating the deterioration of the material culture which had been on-going since the end of the classic Thule phase.ud
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