Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth

Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex

Bernard Saladin d'Anglure, Peter Frost

• Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780887558306
• eBook ISBN: 9780887555572
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Ujarak, Iqallijuq, and Kupaaq were elders from the Inuit community on Igloolik Island in Nunavut. The three elders, among others, shared with Bernard Saladin d'Anglure the narratives which make up the heart of Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth. Through their words, and historical sources recorded by Franz Boas and Knud Rasmussen, Saladin d'Anglure examines the Inuit notion of personhood and its relationship to cosmology and mythology.

Central to these stories are womb memories, narratives of birth and reincarnation, and the concept of the third sex—an intermediate identity between male and female. As explained through first-person accounts and traditional legends, myths, and folk tales, the presence of transgender individuals informs Inuit relationships to one another and to the world at large, transcending the dualities of male and female, human and animal, human and spirit.

This new English edition includes the 2006 preface by Claude Lévi-Strauss and an afterword by Bernard Saladin d'Anglure.

INTERLUDE 1

Song of Saittuq

This is the song of the invalid shaman Saittuq who lived in the home of the shaman Ava; Ujarak, Ava’s son, had long known this song.1

Ajaa uvanga ajaja ajaja,

iglirli2 majja ijigivara aa

nunarjuarli Sunauvva mannaa

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

ajaa I’m the one ajaja ajaja who’s looking at this platform

and to my great surprise there’s now the vast land

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

natirli3 majjaa ijigivaraa,

sikuliajuarli4 sunauvva mannaa

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

this ground I’m looking at here,

now to my great surprise there’s the big ice floe,

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

kataglii5 kannaa ijigivaraa

taqqirjuarli sunauvva kannaa,

ajaja ajaja ajaa ajaja ajaja ajaa

and this entrance way I’m looking at below,

now to my great surprise there’s the huge moon down there,

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

Igalaarli6 pikka ijigivaraa

siqinirjuarli sunauvvali unaa

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

and this windowpane I’m looking at up there,

now to my great surprise there’s the huge sun,

ajaja ajaja ajaa ajaja ajaja ajaa

Akili7 majja ijigivaraa

imarjuarli8 sunauvva mannaa

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

and this meat larder I’m looking at here, now to my great surprise

there’s the big sea here very close,

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

igluli9 majja ijigivaraa

silarjuarmi10 sunauvva mannaa

ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaja ajaa

and this dome of the igloo I’m looking at up there,

now to my great surprise ther...

Table of contents

• Preface to the 2006 Edition
• Foreword
• The Storytellers
• Introduction
• Interlude 1
• Chapter 1
• Interlude 2
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Conclusion
• Afterword
• Glossary of Inuktitut Terms
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Photo Credits
• Index