Difference between revisions of "Eskimo" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[Category:Politics and social sciences]]
 
[[Category:Politics and social sciences]]
 
[[Category:Anthropology]]
 
[[Category:Anthropology]]
 
[[Category:Ethnic group]]
 
[[Category:Ethnic group]]
  
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[[Image:Inuktitut dialect map.png|thumb|right|Distribution of [[Inuit language]] variants across the Arctic. Yupik languages are not represented here.]]
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[[Image:Inuit Amautiq 1995-06-15.jpg|thumb|250 px|right|Two young [[Inuit]] mothers wearing amautit (women's parkas with hood) ([[Nunavut]] Territory, [[Canada]])]]
  
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'''Eskimos''' or '''Esquimaux''' is a term referring to aboriginal [[people]] who inhabit the [[circumpolar]] region, excluding [[Scandinavia]] and most of [[Russia]], but including the easternmost portions of [[Siberia]]. There are two main groups of Eskimos: the [[Inuit]] of northern [[Alaska]], [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]], and the [[Yupik]], comprising speakers of four distinct [[Yupik languages]] and originating in western Alaska, in southcentral Alaska along the [[Gulf of Alaska]] coast, and in the Russian Far East.
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'''Eskimos''' or '''Esquimaux''' is a term referring to [[Indigenous peoples|aboriginal people]] who, together with the related [[Aleut]]s, inhabit the [[circumpolar]] region, excluding [[Scandinavia]] and most of [[Russia]], but including the easternmost portions of [[Siberia]]. They are culturally and biologically distinguishable from other [[Native Americans]] in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]]. There are two main groups of Eskimos: the [[Inuit]] of northern [[Alaska]], Canada, and [[Greenland]], and the [[Yupik]], comprising speakers of four distinct [[Yupik languages]] and originating in western Alaska, in South Central Alaska along the [[Gulf of Alaska]] coast, and in the Russian Far East. The term "Eskimo" is not acceptable to those of Canada, who prefer ''Inuit'' or those of Greenland who refer to themselves as ''Kalaallit''; however these terms are not appropriate for the Yupik, whose language and [[ethnic group|ethnicity]] is distinct from the Inuit. The Aleut culture developed separately from the Inuit around 4,000 years ago.
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Although spread over a vast geographical area, there are many commonalities among the different Inuit and Yupik groups. Of particular note are their [[shamanism|shamanistic]] beliefs and practices, although these have all but died out in recent times. Contemporary Eskimo generally live in settled communities with modern technology and houses instead of the traditional [[igloo]]s, and have come to accept employment and other changes to their lifestyle although they continue to be self-sufficient through their [[hunting]] and [[fishing]]. The harsh climate still determines much about their lives, and they must maintain a balance between those traditions that have supported them well for generations and changes brought through contact with other cultures.  
  
 
== Terminology ==
 
== Terminology ==
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The term ''Eskimo'' is broadly inclusive of the two major groups, the [[Inuit]]—including the Kalaallit (Greenlanders) of Greenland, Inuit and Inuinnait of Canada, and Inupiat of northern Alaska—and the [[Yupik]] peoples—the [[Naukan]] of Siberia, the [[Siberian Yupik]] of [[Siberia]] in Russia and [[St. Lawrence Island]] in Alaska, the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik]] of Alaska, and the [[Alutiiq]] (Sug'piak or Pacific Eskimo) of southcentral Alaska.
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[[Image:Seal Hunter 1999-04-03.jpg|thumb|250 px|right|Seal hunter at the floe edge near Cape Dorset (Nunavut Territory, Canada)]]
  
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However, in Canada and Greenland, ''Eskimo'' is widely considered pejorative and offensive, and has been replaced overall by ''Inuit''. The preferred term in Canada's Central Arctic is ''Inuinnait'', and in the eastern Canadian Arctic ''Inuit''. The language is often called ''Inuktitut'', though other local designations are also used. The Inuit of Greenland refer to themselves as ''Greenlanders'' or, in their own language, ''Kalaallit'', and to their language as ''Greenlandic'' or ''Kalaallisut''.<ref name="kaplan">Kaplan, Lawrence. (2002). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/inuitoreskimo.html "Inuit or Eskimo: Which names to use?"]. [[Alaska Native Language Center]], [[University of Alaska Fairbanks]]. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref>
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The term '''Eskimo''' is broadly inclusive of the two major groups, the [[Eskimo#Inuit|Inuit]]—including the [[Eskimo#Kalaallit|Kalaallit]] (Greenlanders) of [[Greenland]], Inuit and Inuinnait of [[Canada]], and [[Eskimo#Inupiat|Inupiat]] of northern Alaska—and the [[Yupik]] peoples—the [[Naukan]] of Siberia, the [[Eskimo#Yupik|Yupik]] of [[Siberia]] in [[Russia]] and [[St. Lawrence Island]] in Alaska, the [[Eskimo#Yup'ok|Yup'ik]] of Alaska, and the [[Eskimo#Alutiiq|Alutiiq]] (Sug'piak or Pacific Eskimo) of southcentral Alaska. The anthropologist [[Thomas Huxley]] in ''On the Methods and Results of Ethnology'' (1865) defined the "Esquimaux race" to be the indigenous peoples in the Arctic region of northern Canada and Alaska. He described them to "certainly present a new stock" (different from the other indigenous peoples of North America). He described them to have straight black hair, dull skin complexion, short and squat, with high cheek bones and long skulls.
  
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Because of the linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences between Yupik and Inuit languages and peoples, there is still uncertainty as to what term encompassing all Yupik and Inuit people will be acceptable to all. There has been some movement to use ''Inuit'' as a term encompassing all peoples formerly described as ''Eskimo'', Inuit and Yupik alike. The [[Inuit Circumpolar Conference]], representing a circumpolar population of 150,000 Inuit and Yupik people of Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, defines ''Inuit'' in its charter as including "the Inupiat, Yupik (Alaska), Inuit, Inuvialuit (Canada), Kalaallit (Greenland) and Yupik (Russia)."<ref name="ICCcharter">Inuit Circumpolar Conference. (2006). [http://inuitcircumpolar.com/index.php?auto_slide=&ID=374&Lang=En&Parent_ID=&current_slide_num= "Charter."] Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada). Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref> Strictly speaking, however, ''Inuit'' refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of Canada, and the Kalaallit of Greenland, but not to the Yupik peoples or languages of Alaska and Siberia. This is because the [[Yupik language]]s are linguistically distinct from the Inupiaq and other Inuit languages, and the peoples are ethnically and culturally distinct as well. The word ''Inuit'' does not occur in the Yupik languages of Alaska and [[Siberia]].<ref name="kaplan"/>
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However, in Canada and Greenland, ''Eskimo'' is widely considered pejorative and offensive, and has been replaced overall by ''Inuit.'' The preferred term in Canada's Central Arctic is ''Inuinnait,'' and in the eastern Canadian Arctic ''Inuit.'' The language is often called ''Inuktitut,'' though other local designations are also used. The Inuit of Greenland refer to themselves as ''Greenlanders'' or, in their own language, ''Kalaallit,'' and to their language as ''Greenlandic'' or ''Kalaallisut.''<ref name=Kaplan/>
  
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Thus, in [[Alaska]], ''Eskimo'' continues to be acceptable, and is the preferred term when speaking collectively of all Inupiaq and Yupik people, or of all Inuit and Yupik people of the world.<ref name="kaplan"/> Alaskans also use the term ''[[Alaska Natives | Alaska Native]]'', though this term is also inclusive of [[Aleut]] and [[American Indian | Indians]] people of Alaska, and is of course exclusive of Inuit or Yupik people originating outside the state. The term has important legal usage in Alaska and the rest of the [[United States]] as a result of the [[Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act]] of 1971.
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Because of the linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences between Yupik and Inuit languages and peoples, there is still uncertainty as to what term encompassing all Yupik and Inuit people will be acceptable to all. There has been some movement to use ''Inuit'' as a term encompassing all peoples formerly described as ''Eskimo,'' Inuit and Yupik alike. Strictly speaking, however, ''Inuit'' does not refer to the Yupik peoples or languages of Alaska and Siberia. This is because the [[Yupik language]]s are linguistically distinct from the Inupiaq and other Inuit languages, and the peoples are ethnically and culturally distinct as well. The word ''Inuit'' does not occur in the Yupik languages of Alaska and [[Siberia]].<ref name=Kaplan/>
  
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The term "Eskimo" is also used in some linguistic or ethnographic works to denote the larger branch of Eskimo-Aleut languages, the smaller branch being Aleut. In this usage, Inuit (together with Yupik, and possibly also Sireniki), are sub-branches of the Eskimo language family. See details in articles [[Eskimo]] and [[Eskimo-Aleut languages]].
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The term "Eskimo" is also used in some linguistic or ethnographic works to denote the larger branch of Eskimo-Aleut languages, the smaller branch being Aleut. In this usage, Inuit (together with Yupik, and possibly also Sireniki), are sub-branches of the Eskimo language family.  
  
 
=== Origin of the term Eskimo ===
 
=== Origin of the term Eskimo ===
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Some [[Algonquian language]]s call Eskimos by names that mean "eaters of raw meat" or something that sounds similar. The [[Plains Ojibwe]], for example, use the word ''êškipot'' ("one who eats raw," from ''ašk-'', "raw," and ''-po-'', "to eat") to refer to Eskimos. It is entirely possible that the Ojibwe have adopted words resembling "Eskimo" by borrowing them from French, and the French word merely ''sounds'' like Ojibwe words that can be interpreted as "eaters of raw meat."
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A variety of competing etymologies for the term "Eskimo" have been proposed over the years, but the most likely source is the [[Montagnais]] word meaning "snowshoe-netter." Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighboring [[Mi'kmaq]] people using words that sound very much like ''eskimo,'' many researchers have concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word.<ref name="mailhot"/><ref name=Goddard>Ives Goddard, "Synonymy." In David Damas (ed.) ''Handbook of North American Indians:Volume 5 Arctic'' (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1985, 978-0874741858), 5-7.</ref><ref>Lyle Campbell, ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America.'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 394.</ref>
  
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But in the period of the earliest attested French use of the word, the Plains Ojibwe were not in contact with Europeans, nor did they have very much direct contact with the Inuit in pre-colonial times.
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An alternative etymology is "people who speak a different language." This was suggested by Jose Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Montagnais.<ref name="mailhot">J. Mailhot, "L'étymologie de «Esquimau» revue et corrigée." ''Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies'' 2(2) (1978):59–70.</ref>
  
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The [[Innu-aimun]] (Montagnais) language, a dialect of [[Cree language|Cree]] which was known to French traders at the time of the earliest attestation of ''esquimaux'', does not have vocabulary fitting this etymological analysis. Furthermore, since Cree people also traditionally consumed raw meat, a pejorative significance based on this etymology seems unlikely. A variety of competing etymologies have been proposed over the years, but the most likely source is the Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter." Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighbouring [[Mi'kmaq]] people using words that sound very much like ''eskimo'', many researchers have concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word.<ref name="mailhot">Mailhot, J. (1978). "L'étymologie de «Esquimau» revue et corrigée." ''Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies'' 2-2:59-70.</ref><ref name="goddard">Goddard, Ives (1984). "Synonymy." In ''Arctic'', ed. David Damas. Vol. 5 of ''Handbook of North American Indians'', ed. William C. Sturtevant, pp. 5-7. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Cited in Campbell 1997</ref><ref name="campbell">Campbell, Lyle (1997). ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America'', pg. 394. New York: Oxford University Press</ref>
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The primary reason that the term ''Eskimo'' is considered derogatory is the perception that in [[Algonquian languages]] it means "eaters of raw meat," despite numerous opinions to the contrary.<ref name="mailhot"/><ref name=Goddard/> <ref name="natlang">[http://www.native-languages.org/iaq23.htm Setting the Record Straight About Native Languages: What Does "Eskimo" Mean In Cree?] Native Languages of the Americas website. Retrieved September 20, 2011.</ref>Nevertheless, it is commonly felt in Canada and Greenland that the term ''Eskimo'' is pejorative.<ref name=Kaplan>Lawrence Kaplan, [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/resources/inuit-eskimo/ "Inuit or Eskimo: Which names to use?"]. Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2002. Retrieved September 19, 2011.</ref><ref name="stern1">Pamela R. Stern, ''Historical Dictionary of the Inuit'' (Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0810850583).</ref>
  
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The anthropologist [[Thomas Huxley]] in ''On the Methods and Results of Ethnology'' (1865) defined the "Esquimaux race" to be the indigenous peoples in the Arctic region of northern Canada and Alaska. He described them to "certainly present a new stock" (different from the other indigenous peoples of North America).  He described them to have straight black hair, dull skin complexion, short and squat, with high cheek bones and long skulls.
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===Languages===
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[[Image:Inuktitut dialect map.png|thumb|right|250 px|Distribution of [[Inuit language]] variants across the Arctic. Yupik languages are not represented here.]]
  
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== Main Ethnic Groups ==
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Inuit languages comprise a [[dialect]] continuum, or dialect chain, that stretches from [[Unalakleet, Alaska | Unalaska]] and [[Norton Sound]] in Alaska, across northern Alaska and Canada, and east all the way to Greenland. Changes from western (Inupiaq) to eastern dialects are marked by the dropping of vestigial Yupik-related features, increasing consonant assimilation (for example, ''kumlu,'' meaning "thumb," changes to ''kuvlu,'' changes to ''kullu''), and increased consonant lengthening, and lexical change. Thus, speakers of two adjacent Inuit dialects would usually be able to understand one another, but speakers from dialects distant from each other on the dialect continuum would have difficulty understanding one another.<ref name=Kaplan2>Lawrence Kaplan, [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/resources/yupik-inuit/ "Comparative Yupik and Inuit"]. Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved September 20, 2011.</ref>
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===Inuit==={{Main|Inuit}}
 
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[[Image:Eskimo Family NGM-v31-p564-2.jpg|thumb|right|An Inuit family]]
 
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The Inuit inhabit the [[Arctic]] and [[Bering Sea]] coasts of [[Siberia]] and [[Alaska]] and Arctic coasts of the [[Northwest Territories]], [[Nunavut]], [[Quebec]], [[Labrador]], and [[Greenland]]. Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, sea mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter.  
 
  
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==== Canada's Inuit ====
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The [[Sirenikski]] language (extinct) is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family, but other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.<ref name=Kaplan2/>
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{{Main|Inuit}}
 
  
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Canadian Inuit live primarily in [[Nunavut]] (a territory of Canada), [[Nunavik]] (the northern part of [[Quebec]]) and in [[Nunatsiavut]] (the Inuit settlement region in [[Labrador]]).
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The four Yupik languages, including [[Alutiiq language | Alutiiq]] (Sugpiaq), [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Central Alaskan Yup'ik]], [[Naukan]] (Naukanski), and [[Siberian Yupik | Siberian Yupik]] are distinct languages with phonological, morphological, and lexical differences, and demonstrating limited mutual intelligibility. Additionally, both Alutiiq Central Yup'ik have considerable dialect diversity. The northernmost Yupik languages—Siberian Yupik and Naukanski Yupik—are linguistically only slightly closer to Inuit than is Alutiiq, which is the southernmost of the Yupik languages. Although the grammatical structures of Yupik and Inuit languages are similar, they have pronounced differences phonologically, and differences of vocabulary between Inuit and any of one of the Yupik languages is greater than between any two Yupik languages.<ref name=Kaplan2/>
  
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==== Inupiat ====
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==History==
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{{Main|Inupiat}}
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{{readout||left|250px|Those previously referred to as "Eskimo" include both [[Inuit]] and [[Yupik]] cultures}}
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The earliest known Eskimo cultures were the [[Paleo-Eskimo]], the [[Dorset culture|Dorset]] and [[Saqqaq culture]], which date as far back as 5,000 years ago. They appear to have developed from the [[Arctic small tool tradition]] culture. [[Genetics|Genetic]] studies have shown that Paleo-Eskimos were of different stock from other [[Native Americans]].<ref>Daniel Cressey, [http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080529/full/news.2008.863.html#B1 Unexpected origin of an early Eskimo] ''Nature News'', May 29, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2011.</ref> Later, around 1,000 years ago, people of the [[Thule culture]] arrived and expanded throughout the area.
  
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The Inupiat or Inupiaq people are the [[Inuit]] people of Alaska's [[Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska|Northwest Arctic]] and [[North Slope Borough, Alaska|North Slope]] boroughs and the [[Bering Strait]]s region, including the [[Seward Peninsula]]. [[Barrow, Alaska|Barrow]], the northernmost city in the United States, is in the Inupiaq region. Their language is known as [[Inupiaq language|Inupiaq]].
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Approximately 4,000 years ago, the [[Aleut]] (also known as Unangam) culture developed separately, not being considered part of the Eskimo culture today.  
  
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==== Inuvialuit ====
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Approximately 1,500–2,000 years ago, apparently in Northwestern Alaska, two other distinct variations appeared. The [[Inuit]] language branch became distinct and in only several hundred years spread across northern [[Alaska]], [[Canada]], and into [[Greenland]].
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{{main|Inuvialuit}}
 
  
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The Inuvialuit live in the western [[Canadian Arctic]] region. They are descendants of the [[Thule people]], of which other descendants inhabit [[Russia]] and parts of [[Scandinavia]].  Their homeland - the [[Inuvialuit Settlement Region]] - covers the [[Arctic Ocean]] coastline area from the [[Alaska]]n border east to [[Amundsen Gulf]] and includes the western [[Canadian Arctic islands|Canadian Arctic Islands]]. The land was demarked in 1984 by the [[Inuvialuit Final Agreement]].
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Today the two main groups of Eskimos are the [[Inuit]] of northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and the [[Yupik]] in western Alaska and South Central Alaska along the Gulf of Alaska coast, and in the Russian Far East.
  
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====  Kalaallit ====  
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== Culture ==
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{{main|Kalaallit}}
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[[Image:Inuit man 1906.jpg|right|thumb|200 px|King Island or Ukivok Native Eskimo, 1906]]
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[[Eskimo]] groups cover a huge area stretching from Eastern [[Siberia]] through [[Alaska]] and [[Northern Canada]] (including [[Labrador Peninsula]]) to [[Greenland]]. There is a certain unity in the cultures of the Eskimo groups. 
  
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The Kalaallit live in [[Greenland]], which is called Kalaallit Nunaat in [[Kalaallisut language|Kalaallisut]].
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Although a large distance separated the Asiatic Eskimos and Greenland Eskimos, their [[shaman]]istic [[seance]]s showed many similarities. Important examples of shamanistic practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders. Also the usage of a specific shaman's language is documented among several Eskimo groups, including groups in Asia. Similar remarks apply for aspects of the belief system not directly linked to shamanism:
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* [[tattoo]]ing<ref name=Krutak>Lars Krutak, [http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/arctic_tattoos.htm Tattoos of the early hunter-gatherers of the  Arctic] The Vanishing Tatoo. Retrieved October 25, 2007.</ref>
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* accepting the killed game as a dear guest visiting the hunter<ref>E. S. Rubcova, ''Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes,'' Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. (Moscow & Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954), 218</ref>
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* usage of [[amulet]]s<ref>Rubcova (1954), 380</ref>
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* lack of [[totem]] animals<ref>{{ru icon}} A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos transcript (in Russian) </ref><ref>A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, "The Sociological Theory of Totemism." In ''Structure and Function in Primitive Society.'' (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1965).</ref>
  
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=== Yupik ===
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==Inuit==
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{{main | Yupik}}
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{{Main|Inuit}}
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[[Image:Eskimo Family NGM-v31-p564-2.jpg|thumb|250 px|left|An Inuit family]]
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The Inuit inhabit the [[Arctic]] and [[Bering Sea]] coasts of [[Siberia]] and [[Alaska]] and Arctic coasts of the [[Northwest Territories]], [[Nunavut]], [[Quebec]], [[Labrador]], and [[Greenland]]. Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, sea mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter.
  
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The Yupik are [[indigenous peoples|indigenous or aboriginal]] peoples who live along the coast of western [[Alaska]], especially on the [[Yukon River|Yukon]]-[[Kuskokwim River|Kuskokwim]] delta and along the Kuskokwim River ([[Central Alaskan Yup'ik]]), in southern Alaska (the [[Alutiiq]]) and in the [[Russian Far East]] and [[St. Lawrence Island]] in western Alaska (the [[Siberian Yupik]]).
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Canadian Inuit live primarily in [[Nunavut]] (a territory of Canada), [[Nunavik]] (the northern part of [[Quebec]]) and in [[Nunatsiavut]] (the Inuit settlement region in [[Labrador]]).
  
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==== Alutiiq ====
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=== Inupiat ===
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{{Main|Alutiiq}}
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[[Image:Inuit women 1907.jpg|thumb|200 px|right|Inuit woman, Alaska, c. 1907]]
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{{Main|Inupiat}}
  
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The Alutiiq also called ''Pacific Yupik'' or ''Sugpiaq'', are a southern, coastal branch of [[Yupik]].  They are not to be confused with the [[Aleut]]s, who live further to the southwest, including along the [[Aleutian Islands]]. They traditionally lived a coastal lifestyle, subsisting primarily on ocean resources such as [[salmon]], [[halibut]], and [[whale]], as well as rich land resources such as berries and land mammals. Alutiiq people today live in coastal fishing communities, where they work in all aspects of the modern economy, while also maintaining the cultural value of subsistence. The [[Alutiiq language]] is relatively close to that spoken by the Yupik in the [[Bethel, Alaska]] area, but is considered a distinct language with two major dialects: the Koniag dialect, spoken on the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and on [[Kodiak Island]], and the Chugach dialect, is spoken on the southern [[Kenai Peninsula]] and in [[Prince William Sound]]. Residents of [[English Bay, Alaska | Nanwalek]], located on southern part of the Kenai Peninsula near [[Seldovia, Alaska | Seldovia]], speak what they call Sugpiaq and are able to understand those who speak Yupik in Bethel. With a population of approximately 3,000, and the number of speakers in the mere hundreds, Alutiiq communities are currently in the process of revitalizing their language.
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The Inupiat or Inupiaq people are the [[Inuit]] people of Alaska's [[Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska|Northwest Arctic]] and [[North Slope Borough, Alaska|North Slope]] boroughs and the [[Bering Strait]]s region, including the [[Seward Peninsula]]. [[Barrow, Alaska|Barrow]], the northernmost city in the United States, is in the Inupiaq region. Their language is known as [[Inupiaq language|Inupiaq]].
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==== Central Alaskan Yup'ik ====
 
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{{Main|Central Alaskan Yup'ik}}
 
  
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''Yup'ik'', with an apostrophe, denotes the speakers of the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language]], who live in western Alaska and southwestern Alaska from southern [[Norton Sound]] to the north side of [[Bristol Bay]], on the [[Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta]], and on [[Nelson Island]] The use of the apostrophe in the name ''Yup'ik'' denotes a longer pronunciation of the ''p'' sound than found in Siberian Yupik. Of all the [[:Category:Indigenous languages of Alaska | Alaska Native languages]], Central Alaskan Yup'ik has the most speakers, with about 10,000 of a total Yup'ik population of 21,000 still speaking the language. There are five dialects of Central Alaskan Yup'ik, including General Central Yup'ik and the Egegik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, dialects. In the latter two dialects, both the language and the people are called ''Cup'ik''.<ref name="centralyup'ik">Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/cy.html "Central Alaskan Yup'ik."] [[Alaska Native Language Center]], [[University of Alaska Anchorage]]. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref>
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Inupiat people continue to rely heavily on subsistence [[hunting]] and [[fishing]], including [[whaling]]. The capture of a [[whale]] benefits each member of a community, as the animal is butchered and its [[meat]] and [[blubber]] allocated according to a traditional formula. Even city-dwelling relatives thousands of miles away are entitled to a share of each whale killed by the hunters of their ancestral village. [[Muktuk]], the skin of bowhead and other whales, is rich in vitamins [[Retinol|A]] and [[Vitamin C|C]] and contributes to good health in a population with limited access to fruits and vegetables.
  
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==== Siberian Yupik (Yuit)====
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In recent years the exploitation of oil and other resources has been an important revenue source for the Inupiat. The [[Trans-Alaska Pipeline System|Alaska Pipeline]] connects the [[Prudhoe Bay]] wells with the port of [[Valdez, Alaska|Valdez]] in south central Alaska.
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{{Main|Siberian Yupik}}
 
  
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Siberian Yupik reside along the Bering Sea coast of the [[Chukchi Peninsula]] in [[Siberia]] in the [[Russian Far East]]<ref name="kaplanB"/> and in the villages of [[Gambell, Alaska | Gambell]] and [[Savoonga, Alaska | Savoonga]] on [[St. Lawrence Island]] in Alaska.<ref name="siberianyupik">Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/sy.html "Siberian Yupik."] [[Alaska Native Language Center]], [[University of Alaska Anchorage]]. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref>  The [[Siberian Yupik language | Central Siberian Yupik]] spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula and on St. Lawrence Island is nearly identical. About 1,050 of a total Alaska population of 1,100 Siberian Yupik people in Alaska still speak the language, and it is still the first language of the home for most St. Lawrence Island children. In Siberia, about 300 of a total of 900 Siberian Yupik people still learn the language, though it is no longer learned as a first language by children.<ref name="siberianyupik"/>
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Inupiat people have grown more concerned in recent years that [[climate change]] is threatening their traditional lifestyle. The warming trend in the [[Arctic]] affects the Inupiaq lifestyle in numerous ways, for example: thinning sea ice makes it more difficult to harvest [[bowhead whale]], seals, [[walrus]], and other traditional foods; warmer winters make travel more dangerous and less predictable; later-forming [[sea ice]] contributes to increased flooding and [[erosion]] along the coast, directly imperiling many coastal villages. The [[Inuit Circumpolar Conference]], a group representing indigenous peoples of the Arctic, has made the case that climate change represents a threat to their human rights.  
  
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==== Naukan====
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Inupiaq groups often have a name ending in "miut."  One example is the [[Nunamiut people|Nunamiut]], a generic term for inland Inupiaq [[caribou]] hunters. During a period of [[starvation]] and [[influenza]] brought by American and European whaling crews, most of these moved to the coast or other parts of Alaska between 1890 and 1910.<ref> John Bockstoce, ''Whales, Ice, & Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic.'' (University of Washington Press, 1995).</ref>  A number of Nunamiut returned to the mountains in the 1930s. By 1950, most Nunamiut groups, like the Killikmiut, had coalesced in [[Anaktuvuk Pass]], a village in northcentral Alaska. Some of the Nunamiut remained nomadic until the 1950s.
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{{Main|Naukan}}
 
  
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About 70 of 400 Naukan people still speak the Naukanski. The Naukan originate on the the Chukot Peninsula in [[Chukotka Autonomous Okrug]] in [[Siberia]].<ref name="kaplanB"/>
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=== Inuvialuit ===
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{{main|Inuvialuit}}
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== Culture ==
 
  
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[[Eskimo]] groups comprise a huge area stretching from [[Eastern Siberia]] through [[Alaska]] and [[Northern Canada]] (including [[Labrador Peninsula]]) to [[Greenland]]. Important examples of [[Shamanism|shamanistic]] practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders.<ref name=KleiSon-Esk>Kleivan 1985</ref><ref name=Mer-BecHalfHid>Merkur 1985</ref><ref name="Gabus" />
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The Inuvialuit, or Western Canadian Inuit, are Inuit people who live in the western [[Canadian Arcti]]c region. Like other Inuit, they are descendants of the [[Thule people]]. Their homeland - the [[Inuvialuit Settlement Region]] - covers the [[Arctic Ocean]] coastline area from the [[Alaska]]n border east to [[Amundsen Gulf]] and includes the western [[Canadian Arctic islands|Canadian Arctic Islands]]. The land was demarked in 1984 by the [[Inuvialuit Final Agreement]].
  
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Do the belief systems of various Eskimo groups have such common features that justifies speaking about “Eskimo” belief systems? There is a certain unity in the cultures of the Eskimo groups.<ref name=Ras-ThulF>Rasmussen 1926</ref><ref name=Mau-Mor>Mauss 1979</ref> Although a large distance separated the Asiatic Eskimos and Greenland Eskimos, their shamanistic seances showed many similarities.<ref name=Men-Pop>Menovščikov 1996 [1968]</ref> Similar remarks apply for comparisons of Asiatic with North American Eskimo shamanisms.<ref name=Vit-Sam/> Also the usage of a specific shaman's language is documented among several Eskimo groups,<ref name=Mer-BecHalfHid/><ref name=KleiSon-Esk/> including Asian ones.<ref>Rubcova 1954, pg. 128</ref>
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===  Kalaallit ===
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'''Kalaallit''' is the [[Kalaallisut language|Greenlandic]] term for the population living in [[Greenland]]. The singular term is ''kalaaleq''. Their language is called ''[[Kalaallisut]]''. About 80 to 90 percent of Greenland's population, or approximately 44,000 to 50,000 people, identify as being Kalaallit.<ref name=Hessel>Ingo Hessel, ''Arctic Spirit'' (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2006, ISBN 978-1553651895).</ref><ref>Geoffery Baldacchino, ''Extreme Tourism: Lessons from the World's Cold Water Islands'' (Elsevier Science, 2006, ISBN 978-0080446561), 101.</ref>
  
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Similar remarks apply for aspects of the belief system not directly linked to shamanism:
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The Kalaallit have a strong artistic tradition based on sewing animal skins and making masks. They are also known for an art form of figures called ''[[tupilaq]]'' or an "evil spirit object." [[Sperm whale]] [[ivory]] remains a valued medium for carving.<ref name=Hessel/>
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* [[tattoo]]ing<ref name=Kut-Tat>[http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/arctic_tattoos.htm Tattoos of the early hunter-gatherers of the  Arctic] written by [http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/lars_krutak.htm Lars Krutak]</ref>
 
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* accepting the killed game as a dear guest visiting the hunter<ref>Rubcova 1954, pg. 218</ref>
 
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* usage of [[amulet]]s<ref>Rubcova 1954, pg. 380</ref>
 
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* lack of [[totem]] animals<ref name=radio>{{ru icon}} [http://www.echo.msk.ru/guests/6456/ A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos]</ref><ref name=Rad-Tot>Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1952) The Sociological Theory of Totemism. In Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe: The Free Press.</ref>
 
  
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===Languages===
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===Netsilik===
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{{Main|Eskimo-Aleut languages}}
 
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The term ''Eskimo'' has fallen out of favour in Canada and Greenland, where it is considered [[pejorative]] and the term ''Inuit'' has become more common. However, the term ''Eskimo'' is still considered acceptable among [[Alaska Natives]] of Yupik and Inupiaq (Inuit) heritage, and is preferred over ''Inuit'' as a collective reference. To date, no replacement term for ''Eskimo'' inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people has achieved acceptance across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples.
 
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The Inuit and Yupik peoples are related to the [[Aleut]]s from the [[Aleutian Islands]] in Alaska. The Eskimo languages, together with the [[Aleut language]], comprise the [[Eskimo-Aleut languages | Eskimo-Aleut language group]].
 
  
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The [[Sirenik language|Sireniki language]] is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family, but other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.<ref name="kaplanB"/>
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The Netsilik Inuit (Netsilingmiut - People of the Seal) live predominately in the communities of [[Kugaaruk, Nunavut|Kugaaruk]] and [[Gjoa Haven, Nunavut|Gjoa Haven]] of the [[Kitikmeot Region]], [[Nunavut]] and to a smaller extent in [[Taloyoak, Nunavut|Taloyoak]] and the north [[Qikiqtaaluk Region]]. They were, in the early twentieth century, among the last Northern indigenous people to encounter missionaries from the south. The missionaries introduced a system of written language called ''Qaniujaaqpait,'' based on [[syllabics]], to the Netsilik in the 1920s. Eastern [[Canada|Canadian]] Inuit, among them the Netsilik, were the only Inuit peoples to adopt a syllabic system of [[writing]].
  
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Inuit languages comprise a [[dialect continuum]], or dialect chain, that stretches from [[Unalakleet, Alaska | Unalaska]] and [[Norton Sound]] in Alaska, across northern Alaska and Canada, and east all the way to Greenland. Changes from western (Inupiaq) to eastern dialects are marked by the dropping of vestigial Yupik-related features, increasing consonant assimilation (e.g., ''kumlu'', meaning "thumb," changes to ''kuvlu'', changes to ''kullu''), and increased consonant lengthening, and lexical change. Thus, speakers of two adjacent Inuit dialects would usually be able to understand one another, but speakers from dialects distant from each other on the dialect continuum would have difficulty understanding one another.<ref name="kaplanB">Kaplan, Lawrence. (2001-12-10). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/yupik_inuit.html "Comparative Yupik and Inuit"]. [[Alaska Native Language Center]], [[University of Alaska Fairbanks]]. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref>
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The region where they live has an extremely long winter and stormy conditions in the spring, when starvation was a common danger. The cosmos of many other Eskimo cultures include protective guardian powers, but for the Netsilik the general hardship of life resulted in the extensive use of such measures, and even dogs could have amulets.<ref>Knud Rasmussen, ''Thulei utazás''. (Világjárók) (Budapest: Gondolat, 1965. (Hungarian translation of German original 1926), 268.</ref> Unlike the Igluliks, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had eighty amulets, so many that he could hardly play.<ref>I. Kleivan and B. Sonne, "Arctic Peoples," in ''Eskimos: Greenland and Canada,'' section VIII, fascicle 2. Institute of Religious Iconography, State University Groningen. (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1985. Iconography of religions), 43</ref>
  
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The four Yupik languages, including [[Alutiiq language | Alutiiq]] (Sugpiaq), [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language | Central Alaskan Yup'ik]], [[Naukan]] (Naukanski), and [[Siberian Yupik | Siberian Yupik]] are distinct languages with phonological, morphological, and lexical differences, and demonstrating limited mutual intelligibility. Additionally, both Alutiiq Central Yup'ik have considerable dialect diversity. The northernmost Yupik languages—Siberian Yupik and Naukanski Yupik—are linguistically only slightly closer to Inuit than is Alutiiq, which is the southernmost of the Yupik languages.  Although the grammatical structures of Yupik and Inuit languages are similar, they have pronounced differences phonologically, and differences of vocabulary between Inuit and any of one of the Yupik languages is greater than between any two Yupik languages.<ref name="kaplanB"/>
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In addition one man had seventeen names taken from his ancestors that were intended to protect him.<ref>Rasmussen, 1965.</ref><ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 15</ref>
  
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The [[Sirenik language|Sireniki language]] is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family, but other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.<ref name="kaplanB"/>
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Among the Netsilik, [[tattooing]] was considered to provide power that could affect which world a woman goes to after her death.<ref>Rasmussen 1965, 256, 279</ref>
  
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An overview of the '''Eskimo-Aleut''' languages family is given below:
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===Tikigaq===
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:'''Aleut'''
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The '''Tikigaq''', an Inuit people, live two hundred miles north of the [[Arctic Circle]], {{convert|330|mi|km|0}} southwest of [[Barrow, Alaska]], in an [[Inupiaq]] village of [[Point Hope, Alaska]].<ref>[http://www.tikigaq.com/point_hope.shtml Point Hope, Alaska] Tikigaq Corporation: An Alaska Native Village Corporation. Retrieved September 20, 2011. </ref> The Tikigaq are the oldest continuously settled Native American site on the continent. They are native whale hunters with centuries of experience co-existing with the [[Chukchi Sea]] that surrounds their Point Hope Promontory on three sides. "Tikigaq" means "index finger" in the [[Inupiaq language]].
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::[[Aleut language]]  
 
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:::Western-Central dialects: Atkan, Attuan, Unangan, Bering (60-80 speakers)
 
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:::Eastern dialect: Unalaskan, Pribilof (400 speakers)
 
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:'''Eskimo''' (Yup'ik, Yuit, and Inuit)
 
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::[[Yupik language|Central Alaskan Yup'ik]] (10,000 speakers)
 
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::[[Alutiiq]] or Pacific Gulf Yup'ik (400 speakers)
 
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::[[Siberian Yupik language | Central Siberian Yupik]] or Yuit (Chaplinon and St Lawrence Island, 1400 speakers)
 
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::[[Naukan]] (70 speakers)
 
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::[[Inuit language|Inuit]] or Inupik (75,000 speakers)
 
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:::[[Inupiaq language|Iñupiaq]] (northern Alaska, 3,500 speakers)
 
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:::[[Inuvialuktun]] or Inuktun (western Canada; 765 speakers)
 
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:::[[Inuktitut]] (eastern Canada; together with Inuktun and [[Inuinnaqtun]], 30,000 speakers)
 
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:::[[Kalaallisut language|Kalaallisut]] (Greenland, 47,000 speakers)
 
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:'''[[Sirenik]]''' (extinct)
 
  
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===Religion===
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The Tikigaq relied on berries and roots for food, local willows for house frames, and moss or grass for lamp wicks and insulation. Today, distribution and movement of game, especially the [[beluga]], [[Bowhead whale]], [[caribou]], [[Pinniped|seal]], [[walrus]], fur-bearing animals, [[polar bear]] and [[grizzly bear]], directly effect the lives of Tikigaq.<ref>[http://www.tikigaq.com/inupiaq_people.shtml Iñupiaq People] Tikigaq Corporation: An Alaska Native Village Corporation. Retrieved September 20, 2011.</ref>
  
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== Yupik ==
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{{Main|Yupik}}
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[[Image:Yupik mask Branly 70-1999-1-2.jpg|thumb|200 px|right|Fish mask of the Yup'ik people.]]
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The Yupik live along the coast of western [[Alaska]], especially on the [[Yukon River|Yukon]]-[[Kuskokwim River|Kuskokwim]] delta and along the Kuskokwim River ([[Central Alaskan Yup'ik]]), in southern Alaska (the [[Alutiiq]]) and in the [[Russian Far East]] and [[Saint Lawrence Island]] in western Alaska (the [[Siberian Yupik]]). 
  
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[[Image:Yupik shaman Nushagak.jpg|thumb|[[Central Alaskan Yup'ik|Yup'ik]] [[shaman]] exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. [[Nushagak, Alaska|Nushagak]], [[Alaska]], 1890s.<ref name="fienupriordanphoto">Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1994). ''Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition''. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 206.) Nushagak, located on [[Nushagak Bay]] of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska, is part of the territory of the Yup'ik, speakers of the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language]].</ref>]]
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=== Alutiiq ===
  
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'''Shamanism among Eskimo peoples''' refers to those aspects of the various [[Eskimo]] cultures that are related to the [[Shamanism|shamans’]] role as a [[Shamanism#Mediator|mediator]] between people and spirits, souls, and mythological beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Eskimo groups, but today are rarely practiced,<ref>Merkur 1985:4</ref> and it was already in the decline among many groups even in the times when the first major ethnological researches were done,<ref>Merkur 1985:132</ref> just an example: among Polar Eskimos, in the end of 19<sup>the</sup> century, Sagloq died, the last shaman who was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea—and many other former shamanic capabiblities went lost even in that time as well ([[ventriloquism]], [[sleight-of-hand]]).<ref>Merkur 1985:134</ref>
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[[Image:AlutiiqDancer.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Alutiiq dancer]]
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The Alutiiq also called ''Pacific Yupik'' or ''Sugpiaq,'' are a southern, coastal branch of [[Yupik]]. They are not to be confused with the [[Aleut]]s, who live further to the southwest, including along the [[Aleutian Islands]]. They traditionally lived a coastal lifestyle, subsisting primarily on ocean resources such as [[salmon]], [[halibut]], and [[whale]], as well as rich land resources such as berries and land mammals. Alutiiq people today live in coastal fishing communities, where they work in all aspects of the modern economy, while also maintaining the cultural value of subsistence. The [[Alutiiq language]] is relatively close to that spoken by the Yupik in the [[Bethel, Alaska]] area, but is considered a distinct language with two major dialects: the Koniag dialect, spoken on the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and on [[Kodiak Island]], and the Chugach dialect, is spoken on the southern [[Kenai Peninsula]] and in [[Prince William Sound]]. Residents of [[English Bay, Alaska | Nanwalek]], located on southern part of the Kenai Peninsula near [[Seldovia, Alaska | Seldovia]], speak what they call Sugpiaq and are able to understand those who speak Yupik in Bethel. With a population of approximately 3,000, and the number of speakers in the mere hundreds, Alutiiq communities are currently in the process of revitalizing their language.
  
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The term “shamanism” has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, some indigenous cultures of [[Siberia]] were described as having [[Shamanism in Siberia|shamans]], but the term is now commonly used for other cultures as well. In general, the shamanistic belief systems accept that certain people (shamans) can act as [[Shamanism#Mediator|mediators]] with the spirit world,<ref name=med>Hoppál 2005:45–50</ref> contacting the various entities (spirits, souls, and mythological beings) that populate the universe in those systems.
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====Chugach====
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[[image:Chugach.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Chugach man in traditional dress]]
  
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Shamans use various means, including music, recitation of [[Epic poetry|epic]], dance, and ritual objects<ref>Hoppál 2005:14</ref> to interact with the spirit world - either for the benefit of the community or for doing harm. They may have spirits that assist them and may also travel to other worlds (or other aspects of this world). Most Eskimo groups had such a mediator function,<ref>Menovščikov 1968:442</ref> and the person fulfilling the role was believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (e.g. Nuliayuk among the [[Netsilik Inuit]] and Takanaluk-arnaluk in Aua's narration) to “release” the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their “stolen” souls. ''Shaman'' is used in an Eskimo context in a number of English-language publications, both academic<ref name=KleiSon-Esk>Kleivan & Sonne 1985</ref><ref name=Mer-BecHalfHid>Merkur 1985</ref> and popular,<ref name=Vit-Sam>Vitebsky 2001</ref> generally in reference to the [[angakkuq]] among the [[Inuit]]. The {{IPA|/aˈliɣnalʁi/}} of the [[Siberian Yupik]]s is also translated as “shaman” in both Russian and English literature.<ref>Rubcova 1954, pp. 203–19</ref><ref>Menovščikov 1968, p. 442</ref>
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'''Chugach''' is the name of the group of people in the region of the [[Kenai Peninsula]] and [[Prince William Sound]]. The Chugach people speak the Chugach dialect of the [[Alutiiq language]].  
  
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Shamanism among the Eskimo peoples exhibits some characteristic features not universal in shamanism, such as a [[soul dualism|dualistic]] concept of the [[soul]] in certain groups, and specific links between the living, the souls of hunted animals and dead people.<ref>Vitebsky 1996:14</ref> The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls. In Greenland, the transgression of this ''death taboo'' could turn the soul of the dead into a ''tupilak'', a restless ghost which scared game away. Animals were thought to flee hunters who violated taboos.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:12–13, 18–21, 23</ref>
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The Chugach people gave their name to [[Chugach National Forest]], the [[Chugach Mountains]], and [[Alaska]]'s [[Chugach State Park]], all located in or near the traditional range of the Chugach people in southcentral Alaska. [[Chugach Alaska Corporation]], an [[Alaska Native Regional Corporations | Alaska Native regional corporation]] created under the [[Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act]] of 1971, also derives its name from the Chugach people, many of whom are shareholders of the corporation.
  
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==== Shamanic intiation ====
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=== Central Alaskan Yup'ik ===
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[[Image:Nunivak maskette.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Yup'ik man of Nunivak Island, 1929]]
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{{Main|Central Alaskan Yup'ik}}
  
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Unlike many Siberian traditions, in which spirits ''force'' individuals to become shamans, most Eskimo shamans ''choose'' this path.<ref name=Dio-Sam>Diószegi 1962</ref> Even when someone receives a “calling,” that individual may refuse it.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:24</ref> The process of becoming an Eskimo shaman usually involves difficult learning and [[initiation]] rites, sometimes including a [[vision quest]]. Like the shamans of other cultures, some Eskimo shamans are believed to have special qualifications: they may have been an animal during a previous period, and thus be able to use their valuable experience for the benefit of the community.<ref name=Bar-Esk>Barüske, Heinz. 1969. “Die Seele, die alle Tiere durchwanderte,” in ''Eskimo Märchen'', 19–23 (tale 7). Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs.</ref><ref name=Vit-Sam>Vitebsky 1996, p. 106</ref><ref>Rasmussen, Knud, ed. and coll. 1921 “The Soul that Lived in the Bodies of All Beasts,” in ''Eskimo Folk-Tales'', ed. and trans. W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists, 100. London: Gyldendal.</ref>
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''Yup'ik'', with an apostrophe, denotes the speakers of the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language]], who live in western Alaska and southwestern Alaska from southern [[Norton Sound]] to the north side of [[Bristol Bay]], on the [[Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta]], and on [[Nelson Island]]. The use of the apostrophe in the name ''Yup'ik'' denotes a longer pronunciation of the ''p'' sound than found in Siberian Yupik. Of all the [[:Category:Indigenous languages of Alaska|Alaska Native languages]], Central Alaskan Yup'ik has the most speakers, with about 10,000 of a total Yup'ik population of 21,000 still speaking the language. There are five dialects of Central Alaskan Yup'ik, including General Central Yup'ik and the Egegik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, dialects. In the latter two dialects, both the language and the people are called ''Cup'ik''.<ref>Alaska Native Language Center, [http://www.uaf.edu/anla/collections/cayupik/ "Central Alaskan Yup'ik."] Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved September 20, 2011.</ref>
  
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The initiation process varies from culture to culture. It may include:
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=== Siberian Yupik (Yuit)===
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{{Main|Siberian Yupik}}
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* a specific kind of vision quest, such as among the [[Chugach]].
 
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* various kinds of out-of-body experiences such seeing oneself as skeleton, exemplified in Aua's ([[#Iglulik|Iglulik]]) narration and a Baker Lake artwork<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:38, plate XXIII</ref><ref>Vitebsky 1996:18</ref>
 
  
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==== Shamanic Language====
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Siberian Yupik reside along the Bering Sea coast of the [[Chukchi Peninsula]] in [[Siberia]] in the [[Russian Far East]]<ref name=Kaplan2/> and in the villages of [[Gambell, Alaska | Gambell]] and [[Savoonga, Alaska|Savoonga]] on [[St. Lawrence Island]] in Alaska.<ref>Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). [http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/sy.html "Siberian Yupik."] Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.</ref> The [[Siberian Yupik language|Central Siberian Yupik]] spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula and on Saint Lawrence Island is nearly identical. About 1,050 of a total Alaska population of 1,100 Siberian Yupik people in Alaska still speak the language, and it is still the first language of the home for most Saint Lawrence Island children. In Siberia, about 300 of a total of 900 Siberian Yupik people still learn the language, though it is no longer learned as a first language by children. Like the Netsiliks, the Yupik also practiced [[tattooing]].<ref name=Krutak/>
  
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In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly [[Archaism|archaic]] version of the normal language interlaced with special [[metaphor]]s and speech styles. Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech.<ref>Merkur 1985:7</ref> In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialised babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with “alien” beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little “alien” - just like spirits or animal souls).<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:6,14,33</ref> The motif of a distinction between spirit and “real” human is also present in a tale of Ungazigmit (subgroup of [[Siberian Yupik]])<ref>Rubcova 1954, p. 175 (34)–(38)</ref>
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=== Naukan===
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{{cquote|The oldest man asked the girl: “What, are you not a spirit?” The girl answered: “I am not a spirit. Probably, are you spirits?” The oldest man said: “We are not spirits, [but] real human”}}
 
  
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==== Soul dualism ====
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The Naukan originate on the the Chukot Peninsula in [[Chukotka Autonomous Okrug]] in [[Siberia]]. It is estimated that about 70 of 400 Naukan people still speak the Naukanski.
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{{Main|Soul dualism}}
 
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The Eskimo shaman may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing [[Infertility|infertile]] women, and securing the success of hunts. These seemingly unrelated functions can be grasped better by understanding the concept of soul dualism which, with some variation, underlies them.
 
  
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;Healing
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===Caribou Eskimos===
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:It is held that the cause of sickness is ''soul theft'', in which someone (perhaps an enemy shaman or a spirit) has stolen the soul of the sick person. The person remains alive because people have multiple souls, so stealing the appropriate soul causes illness or a moribund state rather than immediate death. It takes a shaman to retrieve the stolen soul.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:177</ref> According to another variant among [[Ammassalik]] Eskimos in East Greenland, the joints of the body have their own small souls, the loss of which causes pain.<ref name="Gabus">Gabus 1970:274</ref>
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“Caribou Eskimos” is a collective name for several groups of inland Eskimos (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the [[tree line]] and the west shore of [[Hudson Bay]]. They do not form a political unit and contacts between the groups are loose, but they share an inland lifestyle and exhibit some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiuts did have contact with the sea where they took part in seal hunts.<ref>Gabus 1970:145</ref>
  
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;Fertility
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The Caribou had a [[dualism|dualistic]] concept of the [[soul]]. The soul associated with respiration was called ''umaffia'' (place of life)<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18</ref> and the personal soul of a child was called ''tarneq'' (corresponding to the ''nappan'' of the Copper Eskimos). The ''tarneq'' was considered so weak that it needed the guardianship of a name-soul of a dead relative. The presence of the ancestor in the body of the child was felt to contribute to a more gentle behavior, especially among boys.<ref>Gabus 1970:111</ref> This belief amounted to a form of [[reincarnation]].<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18, Gabus 1970:212</ref>
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:The shaman provides assistance to the soul of an unborn child to allow its future mother to become pregnant.<ref name=Mer-BecHalfHidfour>Merkur 1985, p. 4</ref>
 
  
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;Success of hunts
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Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou had no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, variously named Sila or Pinga, take her place, controlling [[caribou]] instead of marine animals. Some groups made a distinction between the two figures, while others considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:31, 36</ref>
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:When game is scarce the shaman can visit a mythological being who protects all sea creatures (usually the Sea Woman [[Sedna (mythology)|Sedna]]). Sedna keeps the souls of sea animals in her house or in a pot. If the shaman pleases her, she releases the animal souls thus ending the scarcity of game.<ref name=KleiSon-Esk/>
 
  
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It is the shaman's ''free soul'' that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive.<ref name=Mer-BecHalfHidfour/> When a new shaman is first initiated, the initiator extracts the shaman's free soul and introduces it to the helping spirits so that they will listen when the new shaman invokes them<ref name="Mer-BecHalfHidonetwoone">Merkur 1985:121</ref>; or according to an another explanation (that of the Iglulik shaman Aua) the souls of the vital organs of the apprentice must move into the helping spirits: the new shaman should not feel fear of the sight of his new helping spirits.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:170</ref>
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Caribou shamans performed [[fortune-telling]] through ''qilaneq,'' a technique of asking a ''qila'' (spirit). The shaman placed his glove on the ground, and raised his staff and belt over it. The qila then entered the glove and drew the staff to itself. Qilaneq was practiced among several other Eskimo groups, where it was used to receive "yes" or "no" answers to questions.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:108, Kleivan & Sonne 1985:26</ref><ref>Gabus 1970:227–228</ref>
  
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Animals may have souls that are shared across their species.<ref name="Mer-BecHalfHid" /> A human child's developing soul is usually “supported” by a ''name-soul'': a baby can be named after a deceased relative, invoking the departed name-soul which will then accompany and guide the child until adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls amounts to a sort of [[reincarnation]] among some groups, such as the Caribou Eskimos.<ref name=KleiSon-Esk/>
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==Religion==
  
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==== Social position ====
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[[Image:Yupik shaman Nushagak.jpg|thumb|[[Central Alaskan Yup'ik|Yup'ik]] [[shaman]] exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. [[Nushagak, Alaska|Nushagak]], [[Alaska]], 1890s.<ref>Ann Fienup-Riordan. ''Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition.'' (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 206. </ref>]]
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The term “[[shamanism]]” has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, some indigenous cultures of [[Siberia]] were described as having shamans, but the term is now commonly used for other cultures as well. In general, the shamanistic belief systems accept that certain people (shamans) can act as mediators with the spirit world,<ref>Mihály Hoppál. ''Sámánok Eurázsiában.'' (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2005. “Shamans in Eurasia”), 45–50</ref> contacting the various entities (spirits, souls, and mythological beings) that populate the universe in those systems.
  
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The boundary between shaman and lay person was not always clearly demarcated. Non-shamans could also experience [[hallucination]]s,<ref>Merkur 1985:41–42</ref><ref>Gabus 1970:18,122</ref> almost every Eskimo may report memories about ghosts, animals in human form, little people living in remoted places.<ref>Merkur 1985:41</ref> Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readliy as everyday hunting adventures.<ref>Gabus 1970:203</ref> The ability to have and command helping spirits was characteristic of shamans, but non-shamans could also profit from spirit powers through the use of [[amulets]]. In one extreme instance a Netsilingmiut child had eighty amulets for protection.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne:43</ref><ref name=thatmany>Rasmussen 1965: 262</ref>
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Shamanism among Eskimo peoples refers to those aspects of the various Eskimo cultures that are related to the shamans’ role as a mediator between people and spirits, souls, and mythological beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Eskimo groups, but today are rarely practiced, and it was already in the decline among many groups even in the times when the first major ethnological researches were done.<ref>Daniel Merkur, ''Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit.'' (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985), 132</ref> For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, Sagloq died, the last shaman who was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea.<ref>Merkur, 134</ref>
  
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Shamans use various means, including music, recitation of [[Epic poetry|epic]], dance, and ritual objects<ref>Hoppál 2005:14</ref> to interact with the spirit world - either for the benefit of the community or for doing harm. They may have spirits that assist them and may also travel to other worlds (or other aspects of this world). Most Eskimo groups had such a mediator function,<ref>Menovščikov, "Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes," translated into English and published in: Vilmos Diószegi and Mihály Hoppál, [1968] ''Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia.'' (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1996.) 
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  1968:442</ref> and the person fulfilling the role was believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (such as Nuliayuk, the Sea Woman) to “release” the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their “stolen” souls. ''Shaman'' is used in an Eskimo context in a number of English-language publications, both academic and popular, generally in reference to the [[angakkuq]] among the [[Inuit]]. The {{IPA|/aˈliɣnalʁi/}} of the [[Siberian Yupik]]s is also translated as “shaman” in both Russian and English literature.<ref>Rubcova 1954, 203–219</ref><ref>Menovščikov 1968, 442</ref>
  
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Shamanism among the Eskimo peoples exhibits some characteristic features not universal in shamanism, such as a [[dualism|dualistic]] concept of the [[soul]] in certain groups, and specific links between the living, the souls of hunted animals and dead people.<ref>Vitebsky 1996, 14</ref> The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls. In Greenland, the transgression of this ''death taboo'' could turn the soul of the dead into a ''tupilak,'' a restless ghost which scared game away. Animals were thought to flee hunters who violated taboos.<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 12–13, 18–21, 23</ref>
  
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==== Secrecy and Publicity ====
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The Eskimo belief system includes a number of supernatural beings. One such cosmic being known as ''Moon Man'' was thought to be friendly towards people and their souls as they arrive in celestial places.<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 30</ref><ref>Rasmussen 1965, 279</ref> This belief differs from that of the Greenland Eskimos, where the Moon’s anger was feared as a consequence of some taboo breaches.
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It was believed in several contexts that [[secrecy]] or [[privacy]] may be needed for an act or an object (either beneficial or harmful, intended or incidental) to be effective, and that [[publicity]] may neutralize its effects.
 
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* Magic formulae usually required secrecy and could lose their power if they became known by other people than their owners.
 
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* Deliberately harmful magical acts ''(ilisiinneq)'' had to be done in secrecy.
 
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* If the victim of another detrimental magical act (''tupilak''-making) had enough magical power (for example through amulets) to notice the act and “rebound” it back to the perpetrator, the endangered person could escape retribution only by public confession of his planned (and failed) sorcery.
 
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* a [[rite of passage]] celebrating the first major hunting success of a boy often contained a “partaking” element: the whole community cut the dead animal or took part in its consumption. The function of this rite was to establish a positive relationship between the young man and the game animal; because the killed animal could bring danger to the hunter, this ritual lessened the danger by sharing the responsibility.
 
  
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Some of the shaman's functions can be understood in the light of this notion of secrecy versus publicity. The cause of illness was usually believed to be soul theft or a breach of some taboo (such as miscarriage). Public confession (lead by the shaman during a public seance) could bring relief to the patient. Similar public rituals were used in the cases of taboo breaches that endangered the whole community (bringing the wrath of mythical beings causing calamities).<ref name=KleiSon-Esk/>
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Silap Inua was a sophisticated concept among Eskimo cultures (where its manifestation varied). Often associated with weather, it was conceived of as a power contained in people.<ref>Rasmussen 1965, 106</ref> Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Eskimos) held that Sila originated as a giant baby whose parents were killed in combat between giants.<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 31</ref>
  
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==== Tribes ====
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The Sea Woman was known as ''Nuliayuk'' “the lubricous one.”<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 27</ref> If the people breached certain [[taboo]]s, she would hold the marine animals in the tank of her lamp. When this happened the shaman had to visit her to beg for game. The Netsilik myth concerning her origin stated that she was an orphan girl who had been mistreated by her community. Several barriers had to be surmounted (such as a wall or a dog) and in some instances even the Sea Woman herself must be fought. If the shaman succeeds in appeasing her the animals will be released as normal.
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;Inuit
 
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:Among the Canadian Inuit, the shaman was known as an [[Angakkuq]]<ref name="livingdict1">{{cite web|url=http://www.livingdictionary.com/term/viewTerm.jsp?term=49131186863|title=angakkuq|work=Asuilaak Living Dictionary|accessdate=2007-04-24}}</ref> ([[Inuktitut]]) or Angatkuq<ref name=livingdict>{{cite web|url=http://www.livingdictionary.com/term/viewTerm.jsp?term=69151420164|title=angatkuq|work=Asuilaak Living Dictionary|accessdate=2007-04-24}}</ref> ([[Inuvialuktun]]) ([[Inuktitut syllabics]] '''ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ''').
 
  
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;Iglulik  
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The Iglulik variant of a myth explaining the Sea Woman’s origins involves a girl and her father. The girl did not want to marry. However, a bird managed to trick her into marriage and took her to an island. The girl's father managed to rescue his daughter, but the bird created a storm which threatened to sink their boat. Out of fear the father threw his daughter into the ocean, and cut her fingers as she tried to climb back into the boat. The cut joints became various sea mammals and the girl became a ruler of marine animals, living under the sea. Later on her remorseful father joined her. This local variant differs from several others, like that of the Netsiliks, which is about an orphan girl mistreated by her community.
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:According to Aua (an informant and friend of the anthropologist Rasmussen), one of the shaman's tasks among the [[Igloolik, Nunavut|Iglulik Inuit]] is to help the community in times when marine animals, which are kept by the Sea Woman (Takanaluk-arnaluk) in a pit in her house, are scarce. If taboo breaches that displease her lead to the failure of sea hunts, the shaman must visit her. Several barriers must be surmounted (such as a wall or a dog) and in some instances even the Sea Woman herself must be fought. If the shaman succeeds in appeasing her the animals will be released as normal.
 
  
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The Iglulik variant of a myth explaining the Sea Woman’s origins involves a girl and her father. The girl did not want to marry. However, a bird managed to trick her into marriage and took her to an island. The girl's father managed to rescue his daughter, but the bird created a storm which threatened to sink their boat. Out of fear the father threw his daughter into the ocean, and cut her fingers as she tried to climb back into the boat. The cut joints became various sea mammals and the girl became a ruler of marine animals, living under the sea. Later on her remorseful father joined her.
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=== Shamanic intiation ===
  
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This local variant differs from several others, like that of the Netsiliks, which is about an orphan girl mistreated by her community.
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Unlike many Siberian traditions, in which spirits ''force'' individuals to become shamans, most Eskimo shamans ''choose'' this path.<ref>Sam Diószegi. ''Vilmos. Samanizmus.''Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár (Budapest: Gondolat, 1962)</ref> Even when someone receives a “calling,” that individual may refuse it.<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985:24</ref> The process of becoming an Eskimo shaman usually involves difficult learning and [[initiation]] rites, sometimes including a [[vision quest]]. Like the shamans of other cultures, some Eskimo shamans are believed to have special qualifications: they may have been an animal during a previous period, and thus be able to use their valuable experience for the benefit of the community.<ref>Heinz Barüske, “Die Seele, die alle Tiere durchwanderte,” in ''Eskimo Märchen.'' (tale 7). (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs, 1969, 19–23</ref><ref>Vitebsky 1996, 106</ref><ref>Knud Rasmussen, “The Soul that Lived in the Bodies of All Beasts,” in ''Eskimo Folk-Tales,'' trans. W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists. (London: Gyldendal, 1921), 100.</ref>
  
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Aua also passed on information about the ability of an apprentice shaman to see themself as a skeleton,<ref name=skeleton>Merkur 1985, p. 122</ref> naming each part using the specific [[#Special language|shaman language]].<ref name=skeleton/><ref>Rasmussen 1965:170</ref>
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The initiation process varies from culture to culture. It may include:
  
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* a specific kind of vision quest, such as among the [[Chugach]].
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* various kinds of out-of-body experiences such seeing oneself as skeleton, exemplified in Aua's ([[#Iglulik|Iglulik]]) narration and a Baker Lake artwork <ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 38, plate XXIII</ref><ref>Vitebsky 1996, 18</ref>
  
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;Inuit at Amitsoq Lake
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=== Shamanic language===
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:For the Inuit at Amitsoq Lake (a rich fishing ground) sewing of many items was seasonally prohibited. Boot soles, for example could only be sewn far away from settlements in designated places.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:244</ref> Children at Amitsoq had a game called ''tunangusartut'' in which they imitated the adults behavior towards the spirits, including shamanizing, even reciting the same verbal formulae as shamans. This game was not considered offensive because a “spirit can understand the joke.”<ref>Rasmussen 1965:245</ref>
 
  
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;Netsilik Inuit
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In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly [[Archaism|archaic]] version of the normal language interlaced with special [[metaphor]]s and speech styles. Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech.<ref>Merkur 1985, 7</ref> In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialized babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with “alien” beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little “alien” - just like spirits or animal souls).<ref>Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 6, 14, 33</ref> The motif of a distinction between spirit and “real” human is also present in a tale of Ungazigmit (subgroup of [[Siberian Yupik]])<ref>Rubcova 1954, 175,  34–38</ref> The oldest man asked the girl: “What, are you not a spirit?” The girl answered: “I am not a spirit. Probably, are you spirits?” The oldest man said: “We are not spirits, [but] real human.”
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:The [[Netsilik Inuit]] (Netsilingmiut - People of the Seal) live in a region with an extremely long winter and stormy conditions in the spring, where starvation was a common danger.<ref name=thatmany/>  
 
  
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The cosmos of many other Eskimo cultures include protective guardian powers, but for the Netsilik the general hardship of life resulted in the extensive use of such measures, and even dogs could have amulets.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:268</ref> Unlike the Igluliks, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had eighty amulets, so many that he could hardly play.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne:43</ref><ref name=thatmany>Rasmussen 1965: 262</ref> In addition one man had seventeen names taken from his ancestors that were intended to protect him.<ref name=thatmany/><ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:15</ref>
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=== Soul dualism ===
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{{Main|Soul dualism}}
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The Eskimo shaman may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing [[Infertility|infertile]] women, and securing the success of hunts. These seemingly unrelated functions can be grasped better by understanding the concept of soul dualism which, with some variation, underlies them.
  
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Among the Netsilik, [[tattooing]] provided power that could affect which world a woman goes to after her death.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:256,279</ref>
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;Healing
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:It is held that the cause of sickness is ''soul theft,'' in which someone (perhaps an enemy shaman or a spirit) has stolen the soul of the sick person. The person remains alive because people have multiple souls, so stealing the appropriate soul causes illness or a moribund state rather than immediate death. It takes a shaman to retrieve the stolen soul.<ref>Rasmussen 1965, 177</ref> According to another variant among [[Ammassalik]] Eskimos in East Greenland, the joints of the body have their own small souls, the loss of which causes pain.<ref>Gabus, 274</ref>
  
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The Sea Woman was known as Nuliayuk “the lubricous one”.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:27</ref> If the people breached certain taboos, she would hold the marine animals in the tank of her lamp. When this happened the shaman had to visit her to beg for game. The Netsilik myth concerning her origin stated that she was an orphan girl who had been mistreated by her community.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:278</ref>
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;Fertility
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:The shaman provides assistance to the soul of an unborn child to allow its future mother to become pregnant.<ref>Merkur 1985, 4</ref>
  
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Another cosmic being known as ''Moon Man'' was thought to be friendly towards people and their souls as they arrive in celestial places.<ref name=moons>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:30</ref><ref>Rasmussen 1965:279</ref> This belief differs from that of the Greenland Eskimos, where the Moon’s anger was feared as a consequence of some taboo breaches.<ref name=moons/>
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;Success of hunts
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:When game is scarce the shaman can visit a mythological being who protects all sea creatures (usually the Sea Woman [[Sedna (mythology)|Sedna]]). Sedna keeps the souls of sea animals in her house or in a pot. If the shaman pleases her, she releases the animal souls thus ending the scarcity of game.  
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[[Silap Inua|Sila]] was a sophisticated concept among Eskimo cultures (where its manifestation varied). Often associated with weather, it was conceived of as a power contained in people.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:106</ref> Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Eskimos) held that Sila originated as a giant baby whose parents were killed in combat between giants.<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:31</ref>
 
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;Caribou Eskimos
 
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:“Caribou Eskimos” is a collective name for several groups of inland Eskimos (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the [[tree line]] and the west shore of [[Hudson Bay]]. They do not form a political unit and contacts between the groups are loose, but they share an inland lifestyle and exhibit some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiuts did have contact with the sea where they took part in seal hunts.<ref>Gabus 1970:145</ref>
 
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The Caribou had a [[soul dualism|dualistic concept of the soul]]. The soul associated with respiration was called ''umaffia'' (place of life)<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18</ref> and the personal soul of a child was called ''tarneq'' (corresponding to the ''nappan'' of the Copper Eskimos). The ''tarneq'' was considered so weak that it needed the guardianship of a name-soul of a dead relative. The presence of the ancestor in the body of the child was felt to contribute to a more gentle behavior, especially among boys.<ref>Gabus 1970:111</ref> This belief amounted to a form of [[reincarnation]].<ref>Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18, Gabus 1970:212</ref>
 
  
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Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou had no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, variously named Sila or Pinga, take her place, controlling [[caribou]] instead of marine animals. Some groups made a distinction between the two figures, while others considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.<ref>Kleivan &Sonne 1985:31, 36</ref>
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It is the shaman's ''free soul'' that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive. When a new shaman is first initiated, the initiator extracts the shaman's free soul and introduces it to the helping spirits so that they will listen when the new shaman invokes them<ref>Merkur 1985, 121</ref>; or according to an another explanation (that of the Iglulik shaman Aua) the souls of the vital organs of the apprentice must move into the helping spirits: the new shaman should not feel fear of the sight of his new helping spirits.<ref>Rasmussen 1965, 170</ref>
  
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Caribou shamans performed [[fortune-telling]] through ''qilaneq'', a technique of asking a ''qila'' (spirit). The shaman placed his glove on the ground, and raised his staff and belt over it. The qila then entered the glove and drew the staff to itself. Qilaneq was practiced among several other Eskimo groups, where it was used to receive "yes" or "no" answers to questions.<ref>Rasmussen 1965:108, Kleivan & Sonne 1985:26</ref><ref>Gabus 1970:227–228</ref>
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A human child's developing soul is usually “supported” by a ''name-soul'': a baby can be named after a deceased relative, invoking the departed name-soul which will then accompany and guide the child until adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls amounts to a sort of [[reincarnation]] among some groups, such as the Caribou Eskimos.
  
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;Yupik
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The boundary between shaman and lay person was not always clearly demarcated. Non-shamans could also experience [[hallucination]]s,<ref>Merkur 1985, 41–42</ref> almost every Eskimo may report memories about ghosts, animals in human form, little people living in remote places. Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readily as everyday hunting adventures.<ref>Gabus 1970, 203</ref> The ability to have and command helping spirits was characteristic of shamans, but non-shamans could also profit from spirit powers through the use of [[amulet]]s.<ref>Kleivan and Sonne, 1985.</ref>
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:Like the Netsiliks, the Yupik also practised [[tattooing]].<ref name=Kut-Tat>[http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/arctic_tattoos.htm Tattoos of the early hunter-gatherers of the  Arctic] written by [http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/lars_krutak.htm Lars Krutak]</ref>
 
  
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;Ungazigmit
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==Contemporary Eskimo==
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{{IPA notice}}
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Eskimos throughout the U.S. and Canada live in largely settled communities, working for corporations and unions, and have come to embrace other cultures and contemporary conveniences in their lifestyle. Although still self-sufficient through their time-honored traditions of fishing and hunting, the Eskimos are no longer completely dependent on their own arctic resources. Many have adopted the use of modern technology in the way of [[snowmobile]]s instead of [[dog sled]]s, and modern houses instead of [[igloo]]s.  
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:The [[Siberian Yupik]]s had shamans.<ref>Menovshchikov 1968[1996]:442</ref><ref name=ssipr>[http://www.nsu.ru/ip/eskimos.php#3 Духовная культура (Spiritual culture)], subsection of [http://www.nsu.ru/ip/ Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири)]—see the section on [http://www.nsu.ru/ip/eskimos.php Eskimos]</ref> The Ungazigmit people, speaking the largest of the [[Siberian Yupik language]] variants, had {{IPA|/aˈliɣnalʁi/}}s, who received presents for their shamanizing. These payments were known as {{IPA|/aˈkiliːɕaq/}}. In the language spoken by Ungazigmit, there were many words to distinguish the different kinds of payments one might make or gifts one might give, depending on the nature and occasion (such as a marriage).<ref name=shamfare>Rubcova 1954:173</ref> These included such fine distinctions as “thing, given to someone who has none,” “thing, given, not begged for,” “thing, given to someone as to anybody else” and “thing, given for exchange”.<ref>Rubcova 1954:62</ref>
 
  
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As for a special shamanic language known in several Eskimo groups, also the Ungazigmit had a special [[Allegory|allegoric]] usage of some expressions.<ref>Rubcova 1954:128</ref>
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The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 granted Alaska natives some 44 million acres of land and established native village and regional corporations to encourage economic growth. In 1990 the Eskimo population of the United States was approximately 57,000, with most living in Alaska. There are over 33,000 Inuit in Canada (the majority living in [[Nunavut]]), the Northwest Territories, North Quebec, and Labrador. Nunavut was created out of the Northwest Territories in 1999 as a predominately Inuit territory, with political separation. A settlement with the Inuit of Labrador established (2005) Nunatsiavut, which is a self-governing area in north and central east Labrador. There are also Eskimo populations in [[Greenland]] and [[Siberia]].
  
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;Chugach
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In 2011, John Baker became the first Inupiat Eskimo, and the first Native Alaskan since 1976, to win the [[Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race]], setting a new record time.<ref>Iditarod Staff, The Iditarod Has a New Champion: Kotzebue Alaska’s John Baker ''Eye on the Trail'' (March 15, 2011).</ref> He was greeted by drummers and dancers from his Inupiat tribe, many relatives and supporters from his home town of Kotzebue, as well as Denise Michels, the first Inupiat to be elected mayor of Nome.<ref>Yereth Rosen, Alaska Native wins Iditarod for 1st time since 1976 ''Reuters'' (March 15, 2011).</ref>
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:The [[Chugach]] people live on the southern-most coasts of Alaska. Birket-Smith conducted fieldwork among them in the 1950s, by which time shamanism was already extinct. As among other Eskimo groups, Chugach apprentice shamans were not forced to become shamans by the spirits, but instead deliberately visited lonely places and walked for many days as part of a [[vision quest]] that resulted in the visitation of a spirit. The apprentice passed out, and the spirit took him or her to another place (like the mountains or the depths of the sea). Whilst there, the spirit instructed the apprentice in their calling, such as teaching them the shaman’s song.<ref>Merkur 1985, p. 125</ref>
 
  
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==References==
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==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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*{{cite book |last=Diószegi |first=Vilmos |title=Samanizmus |year=1962 |Gondolat |location=Budapest |series=Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár}}
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*Bockstoce, John. ''Whales, Ice, & Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic.'' Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0295974477
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*{{cite book |last=Gabus |first=Jean |title=A karibu eszkimók |year=1970 |publisher=Gondolat Kiadó |location=Budapest}} Translation of the original: {{cite book |title=Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous |year=1944 |publisher=Libraire Payot Lausanne}}
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*Campbell, Lyle. ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America.'' New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0195140507
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*{{cite book |last=Hoppál |first=Mihály |title=Sámánok Eurázsiában |year=2005 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |location=Budapest |language=Hungarian |isbn=963-05-8295-3}} (The title means “Shamans in Eurasia,” the book is written in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], but it is also published in German, Estonian and Finnish). [http://www.akkrt.hu/main.php?folderID=906&pn=2&cnt=31&catID=&prodID=17202&pdetails=1 Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian)]
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*Damas, David (ed.). ''Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 5 Arctic''. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 1985. ISBN 978-0874741858
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*{{cite book |last=Kleivan |first=I. |coauthors=B. Sonne |title=Eskimos: Greenland and Canada |year=1985 |publisher=Institute of Religious Iconography • State University Groningen. E.J. Brill |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |series=Iconography of religions, section VIII, "Artic Peoples," fascicle 2 |isbn=90-04-07160-1}}
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*Diószegi, Vilmos. ''Samanizmus.'' Budapest: Gondolat, 1962. Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár  
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*{{cite book |last=Mauss |first=Marcel |others=in collab. with Henri Beuchat; translated, with a foreword, by James J. Fox |title=Seasonal variations of the Eskimo: a study in social morphology |origyear=c1950 |year=1979 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=London}}
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*Fienup-Riordan, Ann. ''Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
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*{{cite book |last=Menovščikov, G. A. (Г. А. Меновщиков) |title=Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes}} Translated into English and published in: {{cite book |last=Diószegi |first=Vilmos |coauthors=Mihály Hoppál |title=Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia |origyear=1968 |year=1996 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó |location=Budapest}}
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*Gabus, Jean. ''A karibu eszkimók.'' Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó, 1970. Translation of the original: ''Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous.''  Lausanne: Libraire Payot, 1944.
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*{{cite book |last=Merkur |first=Daniel |title=Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit |year=1985 |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell |location=Stockholm |series: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis • Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion}}
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*Gubser, Nicholas. ''The Nunamiut Eskimos, Hunters of Caribou'', New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969. {{ASIN|B000WQ6YFC}}
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*{{cite book |last=Rasmussen |first=Knud |authorlink=Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen |title=Thulefahrt |year=1926 |publisher=Frankurter Societăts-Druckerei |location=Frankfurt am Main}}
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*Hoppál, Mihály. ''Sámánok Eurázsiában.'' Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2005. In Hungarian ISBN 9630582953
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*{{cite book |last=Rasmussen |first=Knud |title=Thulei utazás |language=Hungarian |publisher=Gondolat |series=Világjárók |location=Budapest |year=1965 |others=transl. Detre Zsuzsa}} Hungarian translation of Rasmussen 1926.
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*Ingstad, Helge. ''Nunamiut; among Alaska's Inland Eskimos''. Countryman, 2006. ISBN 978-0881507614
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*{{cite book |last=Rubcova |first=E. S. |title=Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes (Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect) |year=1954 |publisher=Academy of Sciences of the USSR |location=Moscow • Leningrad}} Original data: {{cite book |last=Рубцова |first=Е. С. |title=Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект) |year=1954 |publisher=Академия Наук СССР |location=Москва • Ленинград}}
+
*Kleivan, Inge, and Birgitte Sonne. ''Eskimos: Greenland and Canada.'' Brill Academic Pub, 1997. ISBN 9004071601
−
*{{cite book |last=Vitebsky |first=Piers |authorlink=Piers Vitebsky |title=The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul - Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon |year=2001 |publisher=Duncan Baird |isbn=1-903296-18-8}}
+
*Mauss, Marcel. Translated, with a foreword by James J. Fox. ''Seasonal variations of the Eskimo: a study in social morphology.'' London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2004 (original 1950). ISBN 978-0415330350
−
* {{cite book |last=Vitebsky |first=Piers |title=A sámán |series=Bölcsesség • hit • mítosz |publisher=Magyar Könyvklub • Helikon Kiadó |location=Budapest |year=1996 |isbn=963 208 361 X}} Translation of the original: {{cite book |title=The Shaman (Living Wisdom) |year=1995 |publisher=Duncan Baird}}
+
*Menovščikov, G. A. (Г. А. Меновщиков). ''Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes,'' Translated into English and published in: Vilmos Diószegiand, ''Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia''. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1996 (original 1968). ISBN  978-9630569651
−
*{{cite book |last=Voigt |first=Miklós |title=Világnak kezdetétől fogva / Történeti folklorisztikai tanulmányok|year=2000 |publisher=Universitas Könyvkiadó |location=Budapest |language=Hungarian |isbn=963 9104 39 6}} In it, on pp 41–45: ''Sámán—a szó és értelme'' (The etymology and meaning of word shaman).
+
*Merkur, Daniel. ''Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit''. Routledge, 2016 (original 1985). ISBN 978-1138964471
−
 
+
*Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. ''Structure and Function in Primitive Society.'' Glencoe: The Free Press, 1965. ISBN 978-0029256206
−
 
+
*Rasmussen, Knud (ed.) “The Soul that Lived in the Bodies of All Beasts,” in ''Eskimo Folk-Tales,'' ed. and trans. W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists. London: Gyldendal, 1921.
−
 
+
*Rasmussen, Knud. ''Thulefahrt'' Frankfurt am Main: Frankurter Societăts-Druckerei, 1926. (in German)
−
 
+
*Rasmussen, Knud. ''Thulei utazás.'' (Világjárók)  Budapest: Gondolat, 1965. (Hungarian translation of Rasmussen 1926).
 +
*Rasmussen, Knud (ed.). ''Eskimo Folk-Tales''.  Dodo Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1409987253
 +
*Rubcova, E. S. ''Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes'' (Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect) Moscow & Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954. {{ASIN|B00460ZHEY}} (Original data: Рубцова Е. С. Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект) 1954 Академия Наук СССР Москва • Ленинград.)
 +
*Sprott, Julie E. ''Raising Young Children in an Alaskan Iñupiaq Village The Family, Cultural, and Village Environment of Rearing.'' Praeger, 2003. ISBN 0897897897
 +
*Stern, Pamela R. ''Historical Dictionary of the Inuit''. Scarecrow Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0810850583
 +
*Vitebsky, Piers. ''The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul - Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon.'' London: Duncan Baird, 2001. ISBN 1903296188
 +
*Vitebsky, Piers. ''A sámán'' Bölcsesség • hit • mítosz Budapest: Magyar Könyvklub, 1996 Helikon Kiadó   ISBN 963548254X (Translation of the original: Secrets of the Shaman (Living Wisdom) London: Duncan Baird, 1995. ISBN 0705430618
 +
*Voigt, Miklós. Világnak kezdetétől fogva / Történeti folklorisztikai tanulmányok. Budapest: Universitas Könyvkiadó, 2000.  ISBN 978-9639104396 (in Hungarian)  In it, on pp 41–45: ''Sámán—a szó és értelme'' (The etymology and meaning of word shaman).
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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*[http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/asiatic_eskimos.shtml The Asiatic (Siberian) Eskimos]
+
All links retrieved March 20, 2024.
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*[http://www.beginband.com/akstudies/ Eskimo Music]
 
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*[http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxeskimo.html Origin of the word "Eskimo"]
 
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*[http://www.bartleby.com/61/24/E0212400.html American Heritage Dictionary: Eskimo]
 
−
*[http://content.lib.washington.edu/nowellweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Frank H. Nowell Photographs]  Photographs documenting scenery, towns, businesses, mining activities, Native Americans, and Eskimos in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska from 1901-1909.
 
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*[http://content.lib.washington.edu/alaskawcanadaweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Alaska and Western Canada Collection] Images documenting Alaska and Western Canada, primarily the provinces of Yukon Territory and British Columbia depicting scenes of the Gold Rush of 1898, city street scenes, Eskimo and Native Americans of the region, hunting and fishing, and transportation.
 
−
*[http://content.lib.washington.edu/warnerweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Arthur Churchill Warner Photographs] Includes images of Eskimos from 1898-1900.
 
−
*[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/meskimoicefloe.html Did Eskimos put their elderly on ice floes to die?] article by Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
 
−
 
 
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* [http://www.nsu.ru/ip/eskimos.php#3 Духовная культура (Spiritual culture)], subsection of [http://www.nsu.ru/ip/ Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири)]—see the section on [http://www.nsu.ru/ip/eskimos.php Eskimos]
 
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 +
* The Peoples of the Red Book [http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/asiatic_eskimos.shtml The Asiatic (Siberian) Eskimos] (in English)
 +
* [http://content.lib.washington.edu/nowellweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Frank H. Nowell Photographs]  Photographs documenting scenery, towns, businesses, mining activities, Native Americans, and Eskimos in the vicinity of Nome, Alaska from 1901-1909.
 +
* [http://content.lib.washington.edu/alaskawcanadaweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Alaska and Western Canada Collection] Images documenting Alaska and Western Canada, primarily the provinces of Yukon Territory and British Columbia depicting scenes of the Gold Rush of 1898, city street scenes, Eskimo and Native Americans of the region, hunting and fishing, and transportation.
 +
* [http://content.lib.washington.edu/warnerweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Arthur Churchill Warner Photographs] Includes images of Eskimos from 1898-1900.
 +
* [http://www.knewways.com/?p=500 Wisdom from Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder, Angaangaq]
  
 
{{Credits|Eskimo|120843580|Shamanism_among_Eskimo_peoples|157699048|}}
 
{{Credits|Eskimo|120843580|Shamanism_among_Eskimo_peoples|157699048|}}

Latest revision as of 21:30, 20 March 2024


Two young Inuit mothers wearing amautit (women's parkas with hood) (Nunavut Territory, Canada)

Eskimos or Esquimaux is a term referring to aboriginal people who, together with the related Aleuts, inhabit the circumpolar region, excluding Scandinavia and most of Russia, but including the easternmost portions of Siberia. They are culturally and biologically distinguishable from other Native Americans in the United States and Canada. There are two main groups of Eskimos: the Inuit of northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and the Yupik, comprising speakers of four distinct Yupik languages and originating in western Alaska, in South Central Alaska along the Gulf of Alaska coast, and in the Russian Far East. The term "Eskimo" is not acceptable to those of Canada, who prefer Inuit or those of Greenland who refer to themselves as Kalaallit; however these terms are not appropriate for the Yupik, whose language and ethnicity is distinct from the Inuit. The Aleut culture developed separately from the Inuit around 4,000 years ago.

Although spread over a vast geographical area, there are many commonalities among the different Inuit and Yupik groups. Of particular note are their shamanistic beliefs and practices, although these have all but died out in recent times. Contemporary Eskimo generally live in settled communities with modern technology and houses instead of the traditional igloos, and have come to accept employment and other changes to their lifestyle although they continue to be self-sufficient through their hunting and fishing. The harsh climate still determines much about their lives, and they must maintain a balance between those traditions that have supported them well for generations and changes brought through contact with other cultures.

Terminology

Seal hunter at the floe edge near Cape Dorset (Nunavut Territory, Canada)

The term Eskimo is broadly inclusive of the two major groups, the Inuit—including the Kalaallit (Greenlanders) of Greenland, Inuit and Inuinnait of Canada, and Inupiat of northern Alaska—and the Yupik peoples—the Naukan of Siberia, the Yupik of Siberia in Russia and St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, the Yup'ik of Alaska, and the Alutiiq (Sug'piak or Pacific Eskimo) of southcentral Alaska. The anthropologist Thomas Huxley in On the Methods and Results of Ethnology (1865) defined the "Esquimaux race" to be the indigenous peoples in the Arctic region of northern Canada and Alaska. He described them to "certainly present a new stock" (different from the other indigenous peoples of North America). He described them to have straight black hair, dull skin complexion, short and squat, with high cheek bones and long skulls.

However, in Canada and Greenland, Eskimo is widely considered pejorative and offensive, and has been replaced overall by Inuit. The preferred term in Canada's Central Arctic is Inuinnait, and in the eastern Canadian Arctic Inuit. The language is often called Inuktitut, though other local designations are also used. The Inuit of Greenland refer to themselves as Greenlanders or, in their own language, Kalaallit, and to their language as Greenlandic or Kalaallisut.[1]

Because of the linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences between Yupik and Inuit languages and peoples, there is still uncertainty as to what term encompassing all Yupik and Inuit people will be acceptable to all. There has been some movement to use Inuit as a term encompassing all peoples formerly described as Eskimo, Inuit and Yupik alike. Strictly speaking, however, Inuit does not refer to the Yupik peoples or languages of Alaska and Siberia. This is because the Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inupiaq and other Inuit languages, and the peoples are ethnically and culturally distinct as well. The word Inuit does not occur in the Yupik languages of Alaska and Siberia.[1]

The term "Eskimo" is also used in some linguistic or ethnographic works to denote the larger branch of Eskimo-Aleut languages, the smaller branch being Aleut. In this usage, Inuit (together with Yupik, and possibly also Sireniki), are sub-branches of the Eskimo language family.

Origin of the term Eskimo

A variety of competing etymologies for the term "Eskimo" have been proposed over the years, but the most likely source is the Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter." Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighboring Mi'kmaq people using words that sound very much like eskimo, many researchers have concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word.[2][3][4]

An alternative etymology is "people who speak a different language." This was suggested by Jose Mailhot, a Quebec anthropologist who speaks Montagnais.[2]

The primary reason that the term Eskimo is considered derogatory is the perception that in Algonquian languages it means "eaters of raw meat," despite numerous opinions to the contrary.[2][3] [5]Nevertheless, it is commonly felt in Canada and Greenland that the term Eskimo is pejorative.[1][6]

Languages

Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic. Yupik languages are not represented here.

Inuit languages comprise a dialect continuum, or dialect chain, that stretches from Unalaska and Norton Sound in Alaska, across northern Alaska and Canada, and east all the way to Greenland. Changes from western (Inupiaq) to eastern dialects are marked by the dropping of vestigial Yupik-related features, increasing consonant assimilation (for example, kumlu, meaning "thumb," changes to kuvlu, changes to kullu), and increased consonant lengthening, and lexical change. Thus, speakers of two adjacent Inuit dialects would usually be able to understand one another, but speakers from dialects distant from each other on the dialect continuum would have difficulty understanding one another.[7]

The Sirenikski language (extinct) is sometimes regarded as a third branch of the Eskimo language family, but other sources regard it as a group belonging to the Yupik branch.[7]

The four Yupik languages, including Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Naukan (Naukanski), and Siberian Yupik are distinct languages with phonological, morphological, and lexical differences, and demonstrating limited mutual intelligibility. Additionally, both Alutiiq Central Yup'ik have considerable dialect diversity. The northernmost Yupik languages—Siberian Yupik and Naukanski Yupik—are linguistically only slightly closer to Inuit than is Alutiiq, which is the southernmost of the Yupik languages. Although the grammatical structures of Yupik and Inuit languages are similar, they have pronounced differences phonologically, and differences of vocabulary between Inuit and any of one of the Yupik languages is greater than between any two Yupik languages.[7]

History

Did you know?
Those previously referred to as "Eskimo" include both Inuit and Yupik cultures

The earliest known Eskimo cultures were the Paleo-Eskimo, the Dorset and Saqqaq culture, which date as far back as 5,000 years ago. They appear to have developed from the Arctic small tool tradition culture. Genetic studies have shown that Paleo-Eskimos were of different stock from other Native Americans.[8] Later, around 1,000 years ago, people of the Thule culture arrived and expanded throughout the area.

Approximately 4,000 years ago, the Aleut (also known as Unangam) culture developed separately, not being considered part of the Eskimo culture today.

Approximately 1,500–2,000 years ago, apparently in Northwestern Alaska, two other distinct variations appeared. The Inuit language branch became distinct and in only several hundred years spread across northern Alaska, Canada, and into Greenland.

Today the two main groups of Eskimos are the Inuit of northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and the Yupik in western Alaska and South Central Alaska along the Gulf of Alaska coast, and in the Russian Far East.

Culture

King Island or Ukivok Native Eskimo, 1906

Eskimo groups cover a huge area stretching from Eastern Siberia through Alaska and Northern Canada (including Labrador Peninsula) to Greenland. There is a certain unity in the cultures of the Eskimo groups.

Although a large distance separated the Asiatic Eskimos and Greenland Eskimos, their shamanistic seances showed many similarities. Important examples of shamanistic practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders. Also the usage of a specific shaman's language is documented among several Eskimo groups, including groups in Asia. Similar remarks apply for aspects of the belief system not directly linked to shamanism:

Inuit

Main article: Inuit
An Inuit family

The Inuit inhabit the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts of Siberia and Alaska and Arctic coasts of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Labrador, and Greenland. Until fairly recent times, there has been a remarkable homogeneity in the culture throughout this area, which traditionally relied on fish, sea mammals, and land animals for food, heat, light, clothing, tools, and shelter.

Canadian Inuit live primarily in Nunavut (a territory of Canada), Nunavik (the northern part of Quebec) and in Nunatsiavut (the Inuit settlement region in Labrador).

Inupiat

Inuit woman, Alaska, c. 1907
Main article: Inupiat

The Inupiat or Inupiaq people are the Inuit people of Alaska's Northwest Arctic and North Slope boroughs and the Bering Straits region, including the Seward Peninsula. Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States, is in the Inupiaq region. Their language is known as Inupiaq.

Inupiat people continue to rely heavily on subsistence hunting and fishing, including whaling. The capture of a whale benefits each member of a community, as the animal is butchered and its meat and blubber allocated according to a traditional formula. Even city-dwelling relatives thousands of miles away are entitled to a share of each whale killed by the hunters of their ancestral village. Muktuk, the skin of bowhead and other whales, is rich in vitamins A and C and contributes to good health in a population with limited access to fruits and vegetables.

In recent years the exploitation of oil and other resources has been an important revenue source for the Inupiat. The Alaska Pipeline connects the Prudhoe Bay wells with the port of Valdez in south central Alaska.

Inupiat people have grown more concerned in recent years that climate change is threatening their traditional lifestyle. The warming trend in the Arctic affects the Inupiaq lifestyle in numerous ways, for example: thinning sea ice makes it more difficult to harvest bowhead whale, seals, walrus, and other traditional foods; warmer winters make travel more dangerous and less predictable; later-forming sea ice contributes to increased flooding and erosion along the coast, directly imperiling many coastal villages. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, a group representing indigenous peoples of the Arctic, has made the case that climate change represents a threat to their human rights.

Inupiaq groups often have a name ending in "miut." One example is the Nunamiut, a generic term for inland Inupiaq caribou hunters. During a period of starvation and influenza brought by American and European whaling crews, most of these moved to the coast or other parts of Alaska between 1890 and 1910.[14] A number of Nunamiut returned to the mountains in the 1930s. By 1950, most Nunamiut groups, like the Killikmiut, had coalesced in Anaktuvuk Pass, a village in northcentral Alaska. Some of the Nunamiut remained nomadic until the 1950s.

Inuvialuit

The Inuvialuit, or Western Canadian Inuit, are Inuit people who live in the western Canadian Arctic region. Like other Inuit, they are descendants of the Thule people. Their homeland - the Inuvialuit Settlement Region - covers the Arctic Ocean coastline area from the Alaskan border east to Amundsen Gulf and includes the western Canadian Arctic Islands. The land was demarked in 1984 by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

Kalaallit

Kalaallit is the Greenlandic term for the population living in Greenland. The singular term is kalaaleq. Their language is called Kalaallisut. About 80 to 90 percent of Greenland's population, or approximately 44,000 to 50,000 people, identify as being Kalaallit.[15][16]

The Kalaallit have a strong artistic tradition based on sewing animal skins and making masks. They are also known for an art form of figures called tupilaq or an "evil spirit object." Sperm whale ivory remains a valued medium for carving.[15]

Netsilik

The Netsilik Inuit (Netsilingmiut - People of the Seal) live predominately in the communities of Kugaaruk and Gjoa Haven of the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut and to a smaller extent in Taloyoak and the north Qikiqtaaluk Region. They were, in the early twentieth century, among the last Northern indigenous people to encounter missionaries from the south. The missionaries introduced a system of written language called Qaniujaaqpait, based on syllabics, to the Netsilik in the 1920s. Eastern Canadian Inuit, among them the Netsilik, were the only Inuit peoples to adopt a syllabic system of writing.

The region where they live has an extremely long winter and stormy conditions in the spring, when starvation was a common danger. The cosmos of many other Eskimo cultures include protective guardian powers, but for the Netsilik the general hardship of life resulted in the extensive use of such measures, and even dogs could have amulets.[17] Unlike the Igluliks, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had eighty amulets, so many that he could hardly play.[18]

In addition one man had seventeen names taken from his ancestors that were intended to protect him.[19][20]

Among the Netsilik, tattooing was considered to provide power that could affect which world a woman goes to after her death.[21]

Tikigaq

The Tikigaq, an Inuit people, live two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, 330 miles (531 km) southwest of Barrow, Alaska, in an Inupiaq village of Point Hope, Alaska.[22] The Tikigaq are the oldest continuously settled Native American site on the continent. They are native whale hunters with centuries of experience co-existing with the Chukchi Sea that surrounds their Point Hope Promontory on three sides. "Tikigaq" means "index finger" in the Inupiaq language.

The Tikigaq relied on berries and roots for food, local willows for house frames, and moss or grass for lamp wicks and insulation. Today, distribution and movement of game, especially the beluga, Bowhead whale, caribou, seal, walrus, fur-bearing animals, polar bear and grizzly bear, directly effect the lives of Tikigaq.[23]

Yupik

Main article: Yupik
Fish mask of the Yup'ik people.

The Yupik live along the coast of western Alaska, especially on the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta and along the Kuskokwim River (Central Alaskan Yup'ik), in southern Alaska (the Alutiiq) and in the Russian Far East and Saint Lawrence Island in western Alaska (the Siberian Yupik).

Alutiiq

Alutiiq dancer

The Alutiiq also called Pacific Yupik or Sugpiaq, are a southern, coastal branch of Yupik. They are not to be confused with the Aleuts, who live further to the southwest, including along the Aleutian Islands. They traditionally lived a coastal lifestyle, subsisting primarily on ocean resources such as salmon, halibut, and whale, as well as rich land resources such as berries and land mammals. Alutiiq people today live in coastal fishing communities, where they work in all aspects of the modern economy, while also maintaining the cultural value of subsistence. The Alutiiq language is relatively close to that spoken by the Yupik in the Bethel, Alaska area, but is considered a distinct language with two major dialects: the Koniag dialect, spoken on the Alaska Peninsula and on Kodiak Island, and the Chugach dialect, is spoken on the southern Kenai Peninsula and in Prince William Sound. Residents of Nanwalek, located on southern part of the Kenai Peninsula near Seldovia, speak what they call Sugpiaq and are able to understand those who speak Yupik in Bethel. With a population of approximately 3,000, and the number of speakers in the mere hundreds, Alutiiq communities are currently in the process of revitalizing their language.

Chugach

Chugach man in traditional dress

Chugach is the name of the group of people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. The Chugach people speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language.

The Chugach people gave their name to Chugach National Forest, the Chugach Mountains, and Alaska's Chugach State Park, all located in or near the traditional range of the Chugach people in southcentral Alaska. Chugach Alaska Corporation, an Alaska Native regional corporation created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, also derives its name from the Chugach people, many of whom are shareholders of the corporation.

Central Alaskan Yup'ik

Yup'ik man of Nunivak Island, 1929


Yup'ik, with an apostrophe, denotes the speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language, who live in western Alaska and southwestern Alaska from southern Norton Sound to the north side of Bristol Bay, on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and on Nelson Island. The use of the apostrophe in the name Yup'ik denotes a longer pronunciation of the p sound than found in Siberian Yupik. Of all the Alaska Native languages, Central Alaskan Yup'ik has the most speakers, with about 10,000 of a total Yup'ik population of 21,000 still speaking the language. There are five dialects of Central Alaskan Yup'ik, including General Central Yup'ik and the Egegik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, dialects. In the latter two dialects, both the language and the people are called Cup'ik.[24]

Siberian Yupik (Yuit)

Main article: Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik reside along the Bering Sea coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in Siberia in the Russian Far East[7] and in the villages of Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska.[25] The Central Siberian Yupik spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula and on Saint Lawrence Island is nearly identical. About 1,050 of a total Alaska population of 1,100 Siberian Yupik people in Alaska still speak the language, and it is still the first language of the home for most Saint Lawrence Island children. In Siberia, about 300 of a total of 900 Siberian Yupik people still learn the language, though it is no longer learned as a first language by children. Like the Netsiliks, the Yupik also practiced tattooing.[9]

Naukan

The Naukan originate on the the Chukot Peninsula in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Siberia. It is estimated that about 70 of 400 Naukan people still speak the Naukanski.

Caribou Eskimos

“Caribou Eskimos” is a collective name for several groups of inland Eskimos (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the tree line and the west shore of Hudson Bay. They do not form a political unit and contacts between the groups are loose, but they share an inland lifestyle and exhibit some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiuts did have contact with the sea where they took part in seal hunts.[26]

The Caribou had a dualistic concept of the soul. The soul associated with respiration was called umaffia (place of life)[27] and the personal soul of a child was called tarneq (corresponding to the nappan of the Copper Eskimos). The tarneq was considered so weak that it needed the guardianship of a name-soul of a dead relative. The presence of the ancestor in the body of the child was felt to contribute to a more gentle behavior, especially among boys.[28] This belief amounted to a form of reincarnation.[29]

Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou had no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, variously named Sila or Pinga, take her place, controlling caribou instead of marine animals. Some groups made a distinction between the two figures, while others considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.[30]

Caribou shamans performed fortune-telling through qilaneq, a technique of asking a qila (spirit). The shaman placed his glove on the ground, and raised his staff and belt over it. The qila then entered the glove and drew the staff to itself. Qilaneq was practiced among several other Eskimo groups, where it was used to receive "yes" or "no" answers to questions.[31][32]

Religion

Yup'ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s.[33]

The term “shamanism” has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, some indigenous cultures of Siberia were described as having shamans, but the term is now commonly used for other cultures as well. In general, the shamanistic belief systems accept that certain people (shamans) can act as mediators with the spirit world,[34] contacting the various entities (spirits, souls, and mythological beings) that populate the universe in those systems.

Shamanism among Eskimo peoples refers to those aspects of the various Eskimo cultures that are related to the shamans’ role as a mediator between people and spirits, souls, and mythological beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Eskimo groups, but today are rarely practiced, and it was already in the decline among many groups even in the times when the first major ethnological researches were done.[35] For example, at the end of the nineteenth century, Sagloq died, the last shaman who was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea.[36]

Shamans use various means, including music, recitation of epic, dance, and ritual objects[37] to interact with the spirit world - either for the benefit of the community or for doing harm. They may have spirits that assist them and may also travel to other worlds (or other aspects of this world). Most Eskimo groups had such a mediator function,[38] and the person fulfilling the role was believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (such as Nuliayuk, the Sea Woman) to “release” the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their “stolen” souls. Shaman is used in an Eskimo context in a number of English-language publications, both academic and popular, generally in reference to the angakkuq among the Inuit. The /aˈliɣnalʁi/ of the Siberian Yupiks is also translated as “shaman” in both Russian and English literature.[39][40]

Shamanism among the Eskimo peoples exhibits some characteristic features not universal in shamanism, such as a dualistic concept of the soul in certain groups, and specific links between the living, the souls of hunted animals and dead people.[41] The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls. In Greenland, the transgression of this death taboo could turn the soul of the dead into a tupilak, a restless ghost which scared game away. Animals were thought to flee hunters who violated taboos.[42]

The Eskimo belief system includes a number of supernatural beings. One such cosmic being known as Moon Man was thought to be friendly towards people and their souls as they arrive in celestial places.[43][44] This belief differs from that of the Greenland Eskimos, where the Moon’s anger was feared as a consequence of some taboo breaches.

Silap Inua was a sophisticated concept among Eskimo cultures (where its manifestation varied). Often associated with weather, it was conceived of as a power contained in people.[45] Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Eskimos) held that Sila originated as a giant baby whose parents were killed in combat between giants.[46]

The Sea Woman was known as Nuliayuk “the lubricous one.”[47] If the people breached certain taboos, she would hold the marine animals in the tank of her lamp. When this happened the shaman had to visit her to beg for game. The Netsilik myth concerning her origin stated that she was an orphan girl who had been mistreated by her community. Several barriers had to be surmounted (such as a wall or a dog) and in some instances even the Sea Woman herself must be fought. If the shaman succeeds in appeasing her the animals will be released as normal.

The Iglulik variant of a myth explaining the Sea Woman’s origins involves a girl and her father. The girl did not want to marry. However, a bird managed to trick her into marriage and took her to an island. The girl's father managed to rescue his daughter, but the bird created a storm which threatened to sink their boat. Out of fear the father threw his daughter into the ocean, and cut her fingers as she tried to climb back into the boat. The cut joints became various sea mammals and the girl became a ruler of marine animals, living under the sea. Later on her remorseful father joined her. This local variant differs from several others, like that of the Netsiliks, which is about an orphan girl mistreated by her community.

Shamanic intiation

Unlike many Siberian traditions, in which spirits force individuals to become shamans, most Eskimo shamans choose this path.[48] Even when someone receives a “calling,” that individual may refuse it.[49] The process of becoming an Eskimo shaman usually involves difficult learning and initiation rites, sometimes including a vision quest. Like the shamans of other cultures, some Eskimo shamans are believed to have special qualifications: they may have been an animal during a previous period, and thus be able to use their valuable experience for the benefit of the community.[50][51][52]

The initiation process varies from culture to culture. It may include:

  • a specific kind of vision quest, such as among the Chugach.
  • various kinds of out-of-body experiences such seeing oneself as skeleton, exemplified in Aua's (Iglulik) narration and a Baker Lake artwork [53][54]

Shamanic language

In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly archaic version of the normal language interlaced with special metaphors and speech styles. Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech.[55] In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialized babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with “alien” beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little “alien” - just like spirits or animal souls).[56] The motif of a distinction between spirit and “real” human is also present in a tale of Ungazigmit (subgroup of Siberian Yupik)[57] The oldest man asked the girl: “What, are you not a spirit?” The girl answered: “I am not a spirit. Probably, are you spirits?” The oldest man said: “We are not spirits, [but] real human.”

Soul dualism

The Eskimo shaman may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing infertile women, and securing the success of hunts. These seemingly unrelated functions can be grasped better by understanding the concept of soul dualism which, with some variation, underlies them.

Healing
It is held that the cause of sickness is soul theft, in which someone (perhaps an enemy shaman or a spirit) has stolen the soul of the sick person. The person remains alive because people have multiple souls, so stealing the appropriate soul causes illness or a moribund state rather than immediate death. It takes a shaman to retrieve the stolen soul.[58] According to another variant among Ammassalik Eskimos in East Greenland, the joints of the body have their own small souls, the loss of which causes pain.[59]
Fertility
The shaman provides assistance to the soul of an unborn child to allow its future mother to become pregnant.[60]
Success of hunts
When game is scarce the shaman can visit a mythological being who protects all sea creatures (usually the Sea Woman Sedna). Sedna keeps the souls of sea animals in her house or in a pot. If the shaman pleases her, she releases the animal souls thus ending the scarcity of game.

It is the shaman's free soul that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive. When a new shaman is first initiated, the initiator extracts the shaman's free soul and introduces it to the helping spirits so that they will listen when the new shaman invokes them[61]; or according to an another explanation (that of the Iglulik shaman Aua) the souls of the vital organs of the apprentice must move into the helping spirits: the new shaman should not feel fear of the sight of his new helping spirits.[62]

A human child's developing soul is usually “supported” by a name-soul: a baby can be named after a deceased relative, invoking the departed name-soul which will then accompany and guide the child until adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls amounts to a sort of reincarnation among some groups, such as the Caribou Eskimos.

The boundary between shaman and lay person was not always clearly demarcated. Non-shamans could also experience hallucinations,[63] almost every Eskimo may report memories about ghosts, animals in human form, little people living in remote places. Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readily as everyday hunting adventures.[64] The ability to have and command helping spirits was characteristic of shamans, but non-shamans could also profit from spirit powers through the use of amulets.[65]

Contemporary Eskimo

Eskimos throughout the U.S. and Canada live in largely settled communities, working for corporations and unions, and have come to embrace other cultures and contemporary conveniences in their lifestyle. Although still self-sufficient through their time-honored traditions of fishing and hunting, the Eskimos are no longer completely dependent on their own arctic resources. Many have adopted the use of modern technology in the way of snowmobiles instead of dog sleds, and modern houses instead of igloos.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 granted Alaska natives some 44 million acres of land and established native village and regional corporations to encourage economic growth. In 1990 the Eskimo population of the United States was approximately 57,000, with most living in Alaska. There are over 33,000 Inuit in Canada (the majority living in Nunavut), the Northwest Territories, North Quebec, and Labrador. Nunavut was created out of the Northwest Territories in 1999 as a predominately Inuit territory, with political separation. A settlement with the Inuit of Labrador established (2005) Nunatsiavut, which is a self-governing area in north and central east Labrador. There are also Eskimo populations in Greenland and Siberia.

In 2011, John Baker became the first Inupiat Eskimo, and the first Native Alaskan since 1976, to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, setting a new record time.[66] He was greeted by drummers and dancers from his Inupiat tribe, many relatives and supporters from his home town of Kotzebue, as well as Denise Michels, the first Inupiat to be elected mayor of Nome.[67]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lawrence Kaplan, "Inuit or Eskimo: Which names to use?". Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2002. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 J. Mailhot, "L'étymologie de «Esquimau» revue et corrigée." Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies 2(2) (1978):59–70.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ives Goddard, "Synonymy." In David Damas (ed.) Handbook of North American Indians:Volume 5 Arctic (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1985, 978-0874741858), 5-7.
  4. ↑ Lyle Campbell, American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 394.
  5. ↑ Setting the Record Straight About Native Languages: What Does "Eskimo" Mean In Cree? Native Languages of the Americas website. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  6. ↑ Pamela R. Stern, Historical Dictionary of the Inuit (Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0810850583).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lawrence Kaplan, "Comparative Yupik and Inuit". Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  8. ↑ Daniel Cressey, Unexpected origin of an early Eskimo Nature News, May 29, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lars Krutak, Tattoos of the early hunter-gatherers of the Arctic The Vanishing Tatoo. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  10. ↑ E. S. Rubcova, Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. (Moscow & Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954), 218
  11. ↑ Rubcova (1954), 380
  12. ↑ (Russian) A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos transcript (in Russian)
  13. ↑ A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, "The Sociological Theory of Totemism." In Structure and Function in Primitive Society. (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1965).
  14. ↑ John Bockstoce, Whales, Ice, & Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. (University of Washington Press, 1995).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2006, ISBN 978-1553651895).
  16. ↑ Geoffery Baldacchino, Extreme Tourism: Lessons from the World's Cold Water Islands (Elsevier Science, 2006, ISBN 978-0080446561), 101.
  17. ↑ Knud Rasmussen, Thulei utazás. (Világjárók) (Budapest: Gondolat, 1965. (Hungarian translation of German original 1926), 268.
  18. ↑ I. Kleivan and B. Sonne, "Arctic Peoples," in Eskimos: Greenland and Canada, section VIII, fascicle 2. Institute of Religious Iconography, State University Groningen. (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1985. Iconography of religions), 43
  19. ↑ Rasmussen, 1965.
  20. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 15
  21. ↑ Rasmussen 1965, 256, 279
  22. ↑ Point Hope, Alaska Tikigaq Corporation: An Alaska Native Village Corporation. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  23. ↑ Iñupiaq People Tikigaq Corporation: An Alaska Native Village Corporation. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  24. ↑ Alaska Native Language Center, "Central Alaskan Yup'ik." Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  25. ↑ Alaska Native Language Center. (2001-12-07). "Siberian Yupik." Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. Retrieved on 2007-04-06.
  26. ↑ Gabus 1970:145
  27. ↑ Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18
  28. ↑ Gabus 1970:111
  29. ↑ Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18, Gabus 1970:212
  30. ↑ Kleivan & Sonne 1985:31, 36
  31. ↑ Rasmussen 1965:108, Kleivan & Sonne 1985:26
  32. ↑ Gabus 1970:227–228
  33. ↑ Ann Fienup-Riordan. Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 206.
  34. ↑ Mihály Hoppál. Sámánok Eurázsiában. (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2005. “Shamans in Eurasia”), 45–50
  35. ↑ Daniel Merkur, Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit. (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1985), 132
  36. ↑ Merkur, 134
  37. ↑ Hoppál 2005:14
  38. ↑ Menovščikov, "Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes," translated into English and published in: Vilmos Diószegi and Mihály Hoppál, [1968] Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia. (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1996.) 1968:442
  39. ↑ Rubcova 1954, 203–219
  40. ↑ Menovščikov 1968, 442
  41. ↑ Vitebsky 1996, 14
  42. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 12–13, 18–21, 23
  43. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 30
  44. ↑ Rasmussen 1965, 279
  45. ↑ Rasmussen 1965, 106
  46. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 31
  47. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 27
  48. ↑ Sam Diószegi. Vilmos. Samanizmus.Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár (Budapest: Gondolat, 1962)
  49. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985:24
  50. ↑ Heinz Barüske, “Die Seele, die alle Tiere durchwanderte,” in Eskimo Märchen. (tale 7). (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diederichs, 1969, 19–23
  51. ↑ Vitebsky 1996, 106
  52. ↑ Knud Rasmussen, “The Soul that Lived in the Bodies of All Beasts,” in Eskimo Folk-Tales, trans. W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists. (London: Gyldendal, 1921), 100.
  53. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 38, plate XXIII
  54. ↑ Vitebsky 1996, 18
  55. ↑ Merkur 1985, 7
  56. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne 1985, 6, 14, 33
  57. ↑ Rubcova 1954, 175, 34–38
  58. ↑ Rasmussen 1965, 177
  59. ↑ Gabus, 274
  60. ↑ Merkur 1985, 4
  61. ↑ Merkur 1985, 121
  62. ↑ Rasmussen 1965, 170
  63. ↑ Merkur 1985, 41–42
  64. ↑ Gabus 1970, 203
  65. ↑ Kleivan and Sonne, 1985.
  66. ↑ Iditarod Staff, The Iditarod Has a New Champion: Kotzebue Alaska’s John Baker Eye on the Trail (March 15, 2011).
  67. ↑ Yereth Rosen, Alaska Native wins Iditarod for 1st time since 1976 Reuters (March 15, 2011).

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bockstoce, John. Whales, Ice, & Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0295974477
  • Campbell, Lyle. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0195140507
  • Damas, David (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 5 Arctic. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 1985. ISBN 978-0874741858
  • Diószegi, Vilmos. Samanizmus. Budapest: Gondolat, 1962. Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár
  • Fienup-Riordan, Ann. Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
  • Gabus, Jean. A karibu eszkimók. Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó, 1970. Translation of the original: Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous. Lausanne: Libraire Payot, 1944.
  • Gubser, Nicholas. The Nunamiut Eskimos, Hunters of Caribou, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969. ASIN B000WQ6YFC
  • Hoppál, Mihály. Sámánok Eurázsiában. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2005. In Hungarian ISBN 9630582953
  • Ingstad, Helge. Nunamiut; among Alaska's Inland Eskimos. Countryman, 2006. ISBN 978-0881507614
  • Kleivan, Inge, and Birgitte Sonne. Eskimos: Greenland and Canada. Brill Academic Pub, 1997. ISBN 9004071601
  • Mauss, Marcel. Translated, with a foreword by James J. Fox. Seasonal variations of the Eskimo: a study in social morphology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2004 (original 1950). ISBN 978-0415330350
  • Menovščikov, G. A. (Г. А. Меновщиков). Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes, Translated into English and published in: Vilmos Diószegiand, Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1996 (original 1968). ISBN 978-9630569651
  • Merkur, Daniel. Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit. Routledge, 2016 (original 1985). ISBN 978-1138964471
  • Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe: The Free Press, 1965. ISBN 978-0029256206
  • Rasmussen, Knud (ed.) “The Soul that Lived in the Bodies of All Beasts,” in Eskimo Folk-Tales, ed. and trans. W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists. London: Gyldendal, 1921.
  • Rasmussen, Knud. Thulefahrt Frankfurt am Main: Frankurter Societăts-Druckerei, 1926. (in German)
  • Rasmussen, Knud. Thulei utazás. (Világjárók) Budapest: Gondolat, 1965. (Hungarian translation of Rasmussen 1926).
  • Rasmussen, Knud (ed.). Eskimo Folk-Tales. Dodo Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1409987253
  • Rubcova, E. S. Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes (Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect) Moscow & Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954. ASIN B00460ZHEY (Original data: Рубцова Е. С. Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект) 1954 Академия Наук СССР Москва • Ленинград.)
  • Sprott, Julie E. Raising Young Children in an Alaskan Iñupiaq Village The Family, Cultural, and Village Environment of Rearing. Praeger, 2003. ISBN 0897897897
  • Stern, Pamela R. Historical Dictionary of the Inuit. Scarecrow Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0810850583
  • Vitebsky, Piers. The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul - Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon. London: Duncan Baird, 2001. ISBN 1903296188
  • Vitebsky, Piers. A sámán Bölcsesség • hit • mítosz Budapest: Magyar Könyvklub, 1996 Helikon Kiadó ISBN 963548254X (Translation of the original: Secrets of the Shaman (Living Wisdom) London: Duncan Baird, 1995. ISBN 0705430618
  • Voigt, Miklós. Világnak kezdetétől fogva / Történeti folklorisztikai tanulmányok. Budapest: Universitas Könyvkiadó, 2000. ISBN 978-9639104396 (in Hungarian) In it, on pp 41–45: Sámán—a szó és értelme (The etymology and meaning of word shaman).

External links

All links retrieved March 20, 2024.

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