One example from Alaska was called the "bladder feast," which sounds a bit less appetizing. Who are we to disappoint the spirits? This game was played only in Greenland, but other spouse-exchange rituals were practiced elsewhere.
The idea seemed to be that the spirits would be more willing to cooperate if you did it that way. To play at home: gather together a number of married couples (according to some sources, singles could play too) wait for the angekok to contact the spirits turn out the lights screw a random member of the opposite sex turn on the lights.
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The prayer-meeting aspect failed to overcome the objections of the early Christian missionaries, one of whom called it the "whore game." Those guys really know how to ruin a party. This was a sort of combination of seven minutes in heaven, Roman orgy, and prayer meeting. The best known example of ritual spouse exchange was the "putting-out-of-the-lamps game" played in Greenland. Often the point was to effect some desired outcome, such as better weather or hunting conditions. This sort of spouse exchange was always associated with a religious purpose, and was always done at the instigation of an angekok (shaman). The most widespread was ritual spouse exchange, practiced in one form or another in every region where Eskimos lived, from eastern Greenland to the Bering Sea. There were several contexts in which a husband would let another man sleep with his wife. The lending of wives to perfect strangers happened occasionally in some places, but it was never the widespread custom it has been made out to be. But did they offer that privilege to any horny schmuck who showed up on the front stoop? Generally not. It’s true Eskimo men sometimes let other men sleep with their wives. Besides which, it never really worked quite the way a certain sixteen-year-old used to imagine. Since the coming of the missionaries, that sort of thing just doesn’t happen any more.
I notice you use the present tense "loan." Did you have travel plans in case I gave the right answer? Sorry to disappoint, but the Eskimos have gone and let Christianity ruin a beautiful thing. I guess I wasn’t the only kid who ever dreamed of running away to join the Eskimos. I have heard this claim in various social gatherings as an example of how we might resolve jealousy issues, but I am skeptical and wonder whether this is an urban legend or has specific contextual constraints. The question is whether Eskimos loan their wives to strangers. Dear Straight Dope: I want to clear up a question about a certain Eskimo social custom.
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