Naskapi The Savage Hunters of the Labrador Peninsula

Convinced that native culture survived in its purest form in the northern portions of North America, Frank Speck devoted almost twenty years of research to the Naskapi of Canada’s Labrador Peninsula during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He determined the Naskapi’s lifestyles were primitive compared to those of other natives, but their spiritual culture was highly developed. The Naskapi stressed the importance of dreams and dream interpretations, of communing with the spirit world, and of rituals honoring animal spirits.

The late Frank G. Speck, a distinguished American ethnographer, was associated with the University of Pennsylvania throughout his academic life. Leonard Broom has conducted research chiefly on ethnic and racial minorities and no social mobility and stratification. He is Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Australian National University, Canberra, and Research Associate in Sociology in the University of California, Santa Barbara.