Inuit

Inuit also Innuit (în´y¡-ît)  noun
plural Inuit or  Inuits also Innuit  or  Innuits
1.A member of any of the Eskimo peoples of North America and especially of Arctic Canada and Greenland.
2.Any or all of the Eskimo languages of the Inuit.

[Eastern Eskimo, people.]

Inuit

Inuit, native people inhabiting small enclaves in the coastal areas of Greenland, Arctic North America (including Canada and Alaska), and extreme northeastern Siberia. In 1977 the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, held in Barrow, Alaska, officially adopted Inuit (meaning "the real people") as the replacement for the term Eskimo. There are several related linguistic groups of Inuit, including the Kalaallit in Greenland, the Inuvialuit in Canada, and the Inupiat, Yupiget, Yuplit, and Alutiit in Alaska. Many of these groups prefer to be called by their specific tribal names rather than Inuit.
From archaeological, linguistic, and physiological evidence, most scholars conclude that the Inuit migrated across the Bering Strait to Arctic North America. The Inuit share many cultural traits with Siberian Arctic peoples and with their own closest relatives, the Aleuts. The oldest archaeological sites identifiable as Inuit, in southwest Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, date from about 2000 BC. By about 1800 BC the highly developed Old Whaling or Bering Sea culture and related cultures had emerged in Siberia and in the Bering Strait region. In eastern Canada the Old Dorset culture flourished from about 1000 to 800 BC until about AD 1000 to 1300. The Dorset people were overrun by the Thule Inuit, who by AD 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland. There, Inuit culture was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after 1700, by Danish settlers.

The manners and customs of the Inuit, like their language, are remarkably uniform despite the widespread diffusion of the people. The family- including the nuclear family, nearby relatives, and relations by marriage- is the most significant social unit. In traditional culture, marriages, although sometimes arranged, are generally open to individual choice. Food sources such as game and fish are considered community property. The underlying social law is the obligation to help one's kin.

The traditional Inuit diet consists mainly of fish, seals, whales, and related sea mammals, the flesh of which is eaten cooked, dried, or frozen. The seal is the Inuits' staple winter food and most valuable resource. It provides them with dog food, clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoon lines, as well as fuel for both light and heat. Many families follow a seasonal hunting and fishing cycle that takes them from one end to the other of their customary territory; trade with other groups often occurs along the way. Today many Inuit work for wages and buy commercially prepared food.

Inuit houses (igloos) are of two kinds: walrus or sealskin tents for summer and huts or houses for winter. Winter houses are usually made of stone, with a driftwood or whalebone frame, chinked and covered with moss or sod. The entrance is a long, narrow passage just high enough to admit a person crawling on hands and knees. During long journeys some Canadian Inuit build winter houses of snow blocks piled in a dome shape. In the 20th century many Inuit have moved into towns to live in government-built, Western-style housing. The principal traditional means of transportation are the kayak, the umiak (open boat), and the dogsled. Traditional Inuit dress for both men and women consists of watertight boots, double-layer trousers, and a parka, a tight-fitting double-layer pullover jacket with a hood, all made of skins and furs.

Traditional Inuit beliefs are a form of animism, according to which all objects and living beings have a spirit. Intrinsically neither good nor bad, spirits can affect people's lives and, although not influenced by prayers, can be controlled by magical charms and talismans. The person best equipped to control spirits is the shaman, but anyone with the appropriate charms or amulets can exercise such control. Inuits put little emphasis on beliefs of an afterlife or reincarnation. Most communal rites center on preparation for the hunt, and myths tend to deal with the relations that exist between humans, animals, and the environment. In parts of Canada, Greenland, and southern Alaska, many Inuit have converted to Christianity.

• 604 track _Flying Inuit_ MP3 by Neuwerk off of _Mushroom Trance Vol.1_ compilation CDx2 on Cameleon (1997)
• post hardcore indie rock track _The Inuit Promise_ MP3 by Hum off of _Downward Is Heavenward_ (1998)
• Amaguq is the trickster in Inuit mythology
• film _Atanarjuat The Fast Runner_ (vhs/pal) is the first feature film in the Inuktitut language, spoken by the Inuit tribes of northern Canada. The film, based on an ancient Inuit legend, is set at the dawn of the millennium. It's an epic tale of love, betrayal, and revenge, set in motion by an evil force brought to the village of Igloolik by a mysterious shaman. Conceived by the late Paul Apak Angilirq, who co-wrote the screenplay, the film was shot on widescreen digital video by Norman Cohn (one of the few non-Inuit crew members on the shoot) and directed by Zacharias Kunuk. Kunuk and his crew meticulously re-created the conditions the Inuit tribes lived under before exposure to Southern influences, using information handed down from tribe elders and the journals of Captain William Edward Parry, a British explorer who visited the area in 1822. The film tells the story of Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaq), an unassuming young man who falls in love with Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu), whose hand has already been promised to the scheming Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq), the son of the tribal chief. Atanarjuat doesn't think he's strong enough to fight Oki, and relies on his older brother, the powerful Amaqjuaq (Pakkak Innukshuk), to look out for him. But eventually, the jealous Oki challenges Atanarjuat to a brutal contest for Atuat's hand. Atanarjuat wins, and weds his love, but his problems are far from over. While Atuat is pregnant, Oki's sister, the flirtatious Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk), seduces Atanarjuat and becomes his second wife. She disrupts Atanarjuat's family from within while Oki plans his revenge. Atanarjuat the Fast Runner won the Camera D'Or at Cannes in 2001, and was selected for the 2002 New Directors/New Films Festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
  

TelexExternal LinkInternal LinkInventory Cache