Inuit Culture

9 Key excerpts on "Inuit Culture"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Inuit World

  • Pamela Stern(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Inuit societies during this period had much in common with each other, but also demonstrated a great range of variability. In terms of language, the greatest split was between Yupik languages of Chukotka and southwestern Alaska, and Inuit˗Iñupiaq languages of northern Alaska, Inuit Nunangat (Arctic Canada), and Greenland (Woodbury 1984). Within each of these areas, adjacent dialects were generally very similar, though they became less mutually intelligible as physical distance increased. All other aspects of society were also variable, including population density, level of mobility (how often and how far people traveled over the course of a year), economic organization (level of reliance on different resources), and social organization (leadership roles, gender roles, kinship). All Inuit groups had highly specialized technologies; particularly noteworthy were their elaborate skin clothing, transportation consisting of sleds and two types of skin boat, sophisticated and variable dwellings, and complex hunting and fishing equipment. However, the exact nature of this technology varied across the Inuit world due to constant innovation and refinement on the part of each regional group. This variability in all aspects of culture was the result of many influences, ranging from local environmental factors such as the density of subsistence resources, to levels of interaction with neighboring Inuit societies, interior First Nations, and Europeans.

  Some idea of the range of variability can be indicated by describing two quite different groups: Inuinnait of the Coronation Gulf region (known in earlier anthropological literature as Copper Inuit) and Inuvialuit of the Mackenzie Delta region (sometimes known as Mackenzie Inuit). Despite occupying adjacent regions, these two societies were far apart in many aspects of their lifeways.

  The Inuinnait lifeway is well known from modern Elders’ knowledge (e.g., Kitikmeot Heritage Society 2019) and comprehensive early ethnographic work (e.g., Jenness 1922; 1946; Rasmussen 1932; Stefansson 1919) – it was, in many ways, similar to that of their eastern neighbors, the Netsilik Inuit, made famous in the films of Asen Balikci (1970). Their years were divided into two roughly equal halves. The warm season was spent on land with movements closely attuned to the locations of caribou, fish (especially Arctic char), and migratory waterfowl. Small groups, at times consisting only of individual families, lived in skin tents with driftwood frames, moving frequently. In the fall, larger groups congregated at coastal locations, where preparations were made for winter, including the sewing of winter skin clothing. The other half of the year was very different; it was spent living in snow houses on the sea ice and hunting almost exclusively for seals at their breathing holes. In many cases, the largest aggregations of the year occurred in these winter sea-ice villages, which would often include at least one very large communal structure for drum dances and other social activities in which all participated. Snow house villages were abandoned, with their inhabitants moving to new ones, several times over the winter whenever local seal populations were hunted out. Inuinnait social organization was relatively fluid, characterized by frequent fluctuations in group size, bilateral kinship ties, a variety of partnerships linking kin and non-kin, and a lack of elaborate leadership roles.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Northern Visions

  New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History

  • Kerry Abel, Ken Coates(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • University of Toronto Press

    (Publisher)

  Anthropologists, on the other hand, have been exceptionally successful in integrating Inuit oral history into their studies, and as a result have taken a decisive leadership role in writ-ing Inuit history. The question raised here is what part, if any, should Canada's academic historians play in future Inuit historiography? 9i NORTHERN VISIONS For the purposes of this essay, the North American Arctic is defined as the homeland of the Inuit people, in most cases lying north of the tree line, and crossing national and international boundaries to include Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, and portions of Alaska. In Canada, Inuit reside in the new territory of Nunavut, the northern reaches of the remaining North west Territories, northern Quebec (or Nunavik), and northern Labrador. Inuit comprise a large majority of the population in Arctic Canada. In Nunavut, the figure ranges between 80 and 85 per cent; in Nunavik, it is even higher. This discussion will focus on the history of the Canadian Inuit, with only passing references to the status in Alaska and Greenland. On occa-sion, the Inuktitut word Qallunaat (Qallunaaq in the singular) will be used to refer to the white man. Similarly, Inuit, meaning the people (Inuk in the singular) is used throughout rather than Eskimo, a term derived from a derogatory Cree Indian word meaning eaters of raw meat. Inspiration for this commentary grew out of my research into the history of early social contact relationships between the Inuit of North Baffin and the white man. 3 Two previously published papers provided background and context: one discussing the present and future of Arctic historiography, the other comparing two forms of Arctic history—the written narrative and the oral tradition. 4 My objective here is to outline the current status of Inuit historiography, the inherent problems faced by historians, and how they might participate in the future.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Traditions, Traps and Trends

  Transfer of Knowledge in Arctic Regions

  • Jarich Oosten, Barbara Helen Miller, Jarich Oosten, Barbara Helen Miller(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Polynya Press

    (Publisher)

  ecocentric (Stairs 1992: 119). The sheer survival of Inuit for many centuries reveals how well they fitted the circumstances of life in the Arctic.

  ilisaijuq Inuit Knowledge in Settlement Days Context

  Acquiring the knowledge needed for survival in Inuit style, isumaqsajuq , was rather suddenly and drastically interfered with in the second half of the 20th century. Three years after Canada was created by an act of the British Parliament in Westminster (1867), the new confederation was greatly expanded when the British Hudson’s Bay Company transferred its “charter and trading monopoly” pertaining to the land mass to the northwest of the new dominion, known as “Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory,” in exchange for £300,000.16 The Inuit who inhabited its far northern regions had no knowledge of this, of course. Neither would they experience much of its effects for over eighty years, because the Canadian government was only interested in these regions for reasons of sovereignty: the land was of interest, not its people. Until the 1950s, little or no social policy was developed. As a result, the Inuit were, in the words of Diamond Jenness (1968: 24), “benignly neglected as Canada turned her eyes away from the Arctic, and allowed events there to run their course unhindered.” The contacts between Inuit and outsiders intruding into these areas—whalers, traders, missionaries, policemen—were, by and large, incidental.

  Notwithstanding the infrequent nature of these contacts, the Inuit met people with an entirely different culture and worldview. They not only met new knowledge, they also faced new methods of acquiring it. Missionaries who visited Inuit camps instructed them in reading, writing, arithmetic skills, geography, catechism, and English.17

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Indigenous Writes

  A Guide to First Nations, Métis, & Inuit Issues in Canada

  • Chelsea Vowel(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • HighWater Press

    (Publisher)

  http://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/icc-international.html .

  12 .   Crommunist, “Black History Month: Re Eskimos (1939),” freethoughtblogs.com , last modified February 4, 2013, http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2013/02/04/black-history-month-re-eskimos-1939/ . This blogger offers a very clear and well laid-out summary of Constance Backhouse’s book, Colour Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900–1950, as it pertains to the context of Inuit peoples becoming “Indians.”

  13 .   Section 4(1) of the Indian Act states: “A reference in this Act to an Indian does not include any person of the race of aborigines commonly referred to as Inuit.”

  14 .   Baker Lake (Hamlet) v. Canada, 1997, 107 DLR (3d) 514 (1979, FCC , Trial Division).

  15 .   Northwest Territories Fishing Regulations, CRC 1978, c 847, §2.

  16 .   Natasha MacDonald-Dupuis, “The Little-Known History of How the Canadian Government Made Inuit Wear ‘Eskimo Tags,’” (blog), last modified December 16, 2015, http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/the-little-known-history-of-how-the-canadian-government-made-inuit-wear-eskimo-tags .

  17 .   Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, “What’s In a Name?” accessed December 30, 2015, http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/name.html .

  Passage contains an image 6 Hunter-Gatherers or Trapper-Harvesters? Why Some Terms Matter The Inuit make no bones about it. Theirs is still very much a hunting culture. But what does that mean?

  Most Inuit still eat a solid diet of country food, which is just like it sounds – traditional foods such as caribou, whale, seal, fish, and so on.1 Hunting remains a central practice in Inuit communities. So, is that all it takes to be a hunting culture?

  Actually going out and hunting is a pretty important part of a hunting culture, but the act itself is not everything. The focus on hunting informs the language, the traditions, the stories, the music, and the art. According to the Inuit Art Foundation:

  The hunting theme can be found in every aspect of Inuit Culture, especially art. Many of the tools and weapons used in the past were decorated with hunting images, as were objects used by shamans. Many stories revolve around hunting. Alootook Ipellie, formerly of Iqaluit, Nunavut (now deceased), wrote that so many Inuit are good carvers because “…they come from a very visual culture. Their very livelihood depended solely on dealing with the landscape every day during hunting or gathering expeditions. They were always visualizing animals in their thoughts as they searched the land, waters, and skies for game.”2

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Encyclopedia of American Indian History

  [4 volumes]

  • Bruce E. Johansen, Barry M. Pritzker, Bruce E. Johansen, Barry M. Pritzker(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • ABC-CLIO

    (Publisher)

  Indians and non-Natives moved in as well. The far north took on strategic importance dur- ing the Cold War. In 1954, the federal Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources encouraged the Inuits to abandon their nomadic life. The depart- ment oversaw the construction of housing develop- ments, schools, and clinics. Local political decisions were made by a community council subject to non- Native approval and review. In 1959, the “govern- ment” town of Inuvik was founded as an adminis- trative center. Inuits generally found only unskilled and menial work. They also survived through depen- dence on government payments. With radical diet changes, the adoption of a sedentary life, and the appearance of drugs and alcohol, health declined markedly. The Committee for Original People’s Enti- tlement (COPE), founded in 1969, soon became the political voice of the Inuvialuits. Oil and gas deposits were found in the Beaufort Sea in the 1970s. The people never abandoned their land, which is still central to their identity. Traditional and mod- ern coexist, sometimes uneasily, for many Inuits. Although people use television (there is even radio and television programming in Inuktitut), snowmo- biles, and manufactured items, women also carry babies in the traditional hooded parkas, chew cari- bou skin to make it soft, and use the semilunar knives to cut seal meat. Full-time doctors are rare in the communities. Housing is often of poor quality. Most people are Christians. Culturally, although many stabilizing patterns of traditional culture have been destroyed, many remain. Many people live as members of extended families. Politically, community councils have gained considerably more autonomy over the past genera- tion. There is also a significant Inuit presence in the Northwest Territories legislative assembly and some presence at the federal level.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Inuit Outside the Arctic

  • Tekke Klaas Terpstra(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Barkhuis

    (Publisher)

  As other researchers have also shown, southern urban Inuit are a diverse group of people with different experiences in the South (see, for example, Elias 2011: 27-30; Kishigami 2013: 66-67; Patrick, Tomiak, Brown, Langille and Vieru 2011: 73). In general, indigenous peoples are seen as traditional, not belonging to cities (Howard and Proulx 2011: 2-3), and while, for example, my fieldwork showed more diverse experiences, perceptions of Inuit in the South correspond to this view. According to such perceptions, as others have pinpointed as well (Tomiak and Patrick 2010: 133-134, 138; Patrick et al. 2011: 71), Inuit belong in the Arctic and not in a southern Canadian city. 17 I argue that this image also appears in various non-academic sources in which Canadian Inuit outside the Arctic play a central role. For this reason, some images of Inuit in the Canadian South will be discussed next. 8.4 Images of Inuit in the Canadian South In this examination of (non-academic) sources about Inuit living or spending time in the South, the focus is on what image these sources present of Inuit outside Inuit Nunangat. Five sources about southern Inuit have been selected, including two films, one children’s novel, an autobiography and a drawing. There are other sources 17 Thisted refers to a similar perception of Inuit Culture by stating: “Inuit ‘belong’ in the Arctic region and are so closely associated with the hunting culture that it appears almost impossible to imagine the existence of the Inuit without this culture” (Thisted 2013b: 229). 8 – Inuit in southern Canada: a comparative perspective on Inuit outside the Arctic 185 that represent Inuit in southern Canada, and the goal of this examination is clearly not to present a full picture of the sources on Inuit in the South, but the sources chosen here do seem to present an image that seems rather prevalent. The first image presented is that of Inuit who had to go south for medical treatment.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Muskox Land

  Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact

  • Lyle Dick(Author)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • University of Calgary Press

    (Publisher)

  Rather, such routes were stored in memory. 125 European visitors sometimes viewed Inuit maps as erroneous in their lack of Western scientific precision, but the place names they gave to particular landmarks were the key to the prepara-tion of their own maps of these lands. 126 In summing up the spatial orientation of the Aivilik Inuit, Carpenter identified three characteristics of their approach: i) Aivilik do not con-ceptually separate space and time; ii) their acute observation of details; and hi) their concept of space, not as static enclosure such as a room with sides or boundaries, but as direction, in operation. 127 This char-acterization of Canadian Inuit might equally be applied to the Inughuit in the nineteenth century and since. 95 Muskox Land Inughuit Environmental Knowledge and Adaptability In manifold ways, the Inughuit, like other arctic peoples, reduced the risks of life through careful observation and experience of their envi-ronment. Their expertise included detailed knowledge of the charac-teristics, behaviour, migration patterns, and daily movements of arctic animals. Given the sparse distribution of the animals, it was essential that hunters be able to predict the best hunting locations, in each of the seasons, to maximize their efforts. 128 Techniques such as the periodic alteration of hunting areas and modulation of the numbers and types of animals taken were characteristically practised. To protect themselves from disaster, hunters needed to learn a myriad of environmental data, such as how to read the thickness of the sea ice, where to find snow suitable for snow-house construction, or how to predict the weather. In 1854, Kane remarked on the depth of Inughuit knowledge of their homelands. He wrote: Every movement of the ice or wind or season is noted; and they predict its influence upon the course of the birds of passage with the same sagacity that has taught them the habits of the resident animals.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  Available until 25 Jan |Learn more

  An Introduction to Native North America

  • Mark Q. Sutton(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Shamans were the primary religious practitioners, as they had some access to, and control over, the supernatural. They could also cure illnesses or curse others with disease or bad luck. Shamans conducted warfare by putting spells on the enemy. Death was not considered a natural occurrence; when someone died (through means other than infanticide or euthanasia), it was reasoned to be the result of the spell of an enemy shaman, and retaliation would follow. Shamans acquired their power through a number of means, generally by seeking a spirit-helper, either during some trial or quest. In other cases, new shamans were initiated by established shamans, who taught the trade to the novice. Both men and women could be shamans but most were men.

  Arctic Peoples Today

  Until fairly recently, many Arctic people lived in a largely traditional manner, although the fur trade sparked changes in political and social structures, violence and disease, economic systems, settlement practices, territoriality, and technology. These change accelerated during World War II when many military bases were opened and employed many Native workers. Western material culture became more prevalent, and many Arctic people moved to small towns around bases and regional centers, where they now live in Western-style houses that are not as warm as traditional housing.

  Traditional subsistence activities, such as whaling (see Freeman et al. 1998), hunting, and fishing, are still very important to the economy and social identity of many groups. Dogsleds are still used, along with snowmobiles (“metal dogsleds”), and many communities are connected by air service. Most Alaskan Natives are now Christian. An excellent documentary on contemporary Greenland Inuit life in the Arctic was presented in the series Human Planet , with the episode Arctic: Life in the Deep Freeze .

  Sidelight

  Arctic Art

  Arctic people have an artistic tradition spanning many thousands of years. Much of Arctic art embellished functional manufactured items that incorporated aspects of everyday life, such as animals and people, generally shown enjoying life. Sculpture was the primary art form and walrus ivory was its most popular medium. Bone was the second most popular material (Figure 3.6

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  State of the World's Indigenous Peoples

  Education

  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • United Nations

    (Publisher)

  Indigenous peoples and education in the Arctic region Dr. Karla Jessen Williamson and Yvonne Vizina Photo: Liv Inger Somby ARCTIC REGION 41 Chapter II Indigenous peoples and education in the Arctic region Dr. Karla Jessen Williamson and Yvonne Vizina Introduction Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region, such as the Aleut, Arctic Athabaskan, Gwich’in, Inuit and Sami, face significant challenges in protecting their traditional cultures and languages in the face of contemporary environmental, social and eco-nomic pressures. While the role of traditional cultures in education has improved in the past few decades, assessment of any achievements remains difficult. The present chapter provides an overview of Arctic indigenous peoples’ education issues, chal-lenges and successes. This chapter is guided by Arctic indigenous peoples’ principles regarding autonomy and self-determination. Each Arctic indigenous group possesses a worldview unique to its community, which is the foundation for materializing unique cultures and languages. The intergenerational transmission of indigenous knowledge, through culture and language, is a critical part of Arctic education processes, future successes and cultural security. Historical experiences, contemporary relationships and future goals are relevant to understanding and redefining educational contexts for Arctic indigenous peoples. 42 Indigenous peoples and education in the Arctic region STATE OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: EDUCATION 3 RD Volume The Arctic region It is important to note that the circumpolar Arctic may be defined in many ways. The Arctic has been identified geographically by its location above the Arctic Circle at 66°30’ N latitude; as the global area north of the treeline; or as encompassing areas where average temperatures in July do not rise above 10ºC (Dubreuil, 2011).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book