Inuit
- 1. INUIT By: María Rull and Marina Saez
- 2. Who are the Inuit? The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland . The Inuit language is grouped under Eskimo-Aleut languages . The Inuit live throughout most of the Canadian Arctic and subarctic: in the territory of Nunavut ; the northern third of Quebec, in an area called Nunavik ; the coastal region of Labrador, in an area called Nunatsiavut ; in various parts of the Northwest Territories , mainly on the coast of the Arctic Ocean and formerly in the Yukon. Collectively these areas are known as Inuit Nunangat.
- 3. A little bit of history: The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 AD and spread eastwards across the Arctic. They displaced the related Dorset culture, the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture . Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit. Less frequently, the legends refer to the Dorset as "dwarfs". Researchers believe that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, larger weapons and other technologies that gave the expanding Inuit society an advantage. By 1300, the Inuit had settled in west Greenland, and they moved into east Greenland over the following century. In the mid 1950s, researcher Henry B. Collins determined that, based on the ruins found at Native Point, the Sadlermiut were likely the last remnants of the Dorset culture. The Sadlermiut population survived up until winter 1902-03, when exposure to new infectious diseases brought by contact with Europeans led to their extinction as a people.
- 4. In Canada and Greenland, the Inuit circulated almost exclusively north of the "Arctic tree line", the de facto southern border of Inuit society. To the south, Native American cultures were well established . The culture and technology of Inuit society that served so well in the Arctic were not suited to subarctic regions, so they did not displace their southern neighbours. The Inuit had trade relations with more southern cultures; boundary disputes were common and gave rise to aggressive actions. Warfare, in general, was not uncommon among those Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit, such as the Nunatamiut who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area, often engaged in warfare. The Central Arctic Inuit lacked the population density to do so.
- 5. Their culture and customs:
- 6. Lenguage : The Inuit speak chiefly one of the traditional Inuit languages or dialects, sometimes grouped under the term Inuktitut , but they may also speak the predominant language of the country in which they reside. Inuktitut is mainly spoken in Nunavut and, as the Greenlandic language, in some parts of Greenland. Some of the Inuit dialects were recorded in the 18th century. Until the latter half of the 20th century, most Inuit were not able to read and write in their own language. In the 1760s, Moravian missionaries arrived in Greenland, where they contributed to the development of a written system of language called Qaliujaaqpait , based on the Latin alphabet. The missionaries later brought this system to Labrador, from which it eventually spread as far as Alaska .
- 7. Food: The walrus, seal, and other fur-bearing sea mammals supply food and clothing to the Inuit. All parts of the animals were used. Parkas were made of seal-skin. The walrus hide was made into boats. In the winter seals were harpooned at their breathing holes in the ice. A hunter might have to stand still for hours waiting for the seal to come up for air. In the summer the seals came out of the water to sun themselves. The hunter can crawl close to the seal and throw a harpoon to kill the seal. In late summer the caribou were hunted. Inuit hunters made camp near the caribou grazing grounds. They would ambush the slow-moving herd with bows and arrows. The Inuit used several kinds of harpoons and spears. Large harpoons were used to hunt the walrus. Smaller spears were used for hunting small animals and birds. Wooden spear throwers were used to increase the spear's power. All spear throwers were individually made for the hunter. The length of the thrower was equal to the distance between the hunters forefinger and his elbow. This have the hunter and extra arm joint.
- 8. Transport: About the transport, Inuit used dogs sleds ( husky) , kayak for fishing and made umiaq (woman's boat).
- 10. Inuit made clothes and footwear from animal skins, sewn together using needles made from animal bones and threads made from other animal products, such as sinew. The anorak (parka) is made in a similar fashion by Arctic peoples from Europe through Asia and the Americas, including the Inuit. Some Inuit, the hood of an amauti , (women's parka, plural amautiit ) was traditionally made extra large, to allow the mother to carry a baby against her back and protect it from the harsh wind. Styles vary from region to region, from shape of the hood to length of the tails. Boots ( kamik or mukluk ) could be made of caribou or sealskin, and designs varied for men and women. During the winter, certain Inuit lived in a temporary shelter made from snow called an iglu , and during the few months of the year when temperatures were above freezing, they lived in tents made of animal skins supported by a frame of bones. Some, such as the , used driftwood, while others built sod houses.
- 11. Curiosities: (marriage, suicide and death) The marital customs among the Inuit were not strictly monogamous: many Inuit relationships were implicitly or explicitly sexual. Open marriages, polygamy, divorce, and remarriage were known. Among some Inuit groups, if there were children, divorce required the approval of the community and particularly the agreement of the elders. Marriages were often arranged, sometimes in infancy, and occasionally forced on the couple by the community. Marriage was common for women at puberty and for men when they became productive hunters. Family structure was flexible: a household might consist of a man and his wife (or wives) and children; it might include his parents or his wife's parents as well as adopted children; it might be a larger formation of several siblings with their parents, wives and children; or even more than one family sharing dwellings and resources. Every household had its head, an elder or a particularly respected man. There was also a larger notion of community as, generally, several families shared a place where they wintered. Goods were shared within a household, and also, to a significant extent, within a whole community.
- 12. THE END