There are three forms of social grouping: the Family, House-mates, and Place-mates. (1) The family consists of a man, his wife or wives, their children and adopted children; widows and their children may be adopted, but the woman retains her own fireplace. Sometimes men are adopted, such as bachelors without any relatives, cripples, or impoverished men. Joint ownership and use of a boat and house, and common labour and toil in obtaining the means of support define the real community of the family. (2) House-mates are families that join together to build and occupy and maintain the same house. This form of establishment is especially common in Greenland, but each family keeps its separate establishment inside the common house. (3) Place-fellows. The inhabitants of the same hamlet or winter establishment form one community although no chief is elected or authority acknowledged. Generally children are betrothed when very young. The newly married pair usually live at first with the wife's family. Both polygyny and polyandry occur. A man may lend or exchange his wife for a whole season or longer, as a sign of friendship. On certain occasions it is even commanded by religious law. There is no government, but there is a kind of chief in the settlement, though his authority is very limited. He is called the "pimain," _i.e._ he who knows everything best. He decides the proper time to shift the huts from one place to another, he may ask some men to go sealing, others to go deer hunting, but there is not the slightest obligation to obey him. The men in a community may form themselves into an informal council for the regulation of affairs. The decorative art of the Eskimo is not remarkably developed, but the pictorial art consists of clever sketches of everyday scenes and there is a well developed plastic art. Many of the carvings are toys and are made for the pleasure of the work. "The religious views and practices of the Eskimo while, on the whole, alike in their fundamental traits, show a considerable amount of differentiation in the extreme east and in the extreme west. It would seem that the characteristic traits of shamanism are common to all the Eskimo tribes. The art of the shaman (angakok) is acquired by the acquisition of guardian spirits.... Besides the spirits which may become guardian spirits of men, the Eskimo believes in a great many others which are hostile and bring disaster and death.... The ritualistic development of Eskimo religion is very slight[814]."