Iglulik Inuit

Iglulik Inuit

Environment

The Igulik Inuit lives in extremely cold temperatures, such as the High Artic, Greenland, and Alaska. Nine of the twelve months are below 0 degrees Celsius. There is no month averaging temperature of 10 Degrees. The regions they live in are characterized as “Polar Climate”; it lacks the warmth of the sun. The sun shines all day and night during the summer but barely ever shines at all in the winter. The cold climate does not permit for trees to grow, there for the environment is treeless, but other specialized plants can grow. It is so cold that the layer of ice is semi-permanent or permanent.

Climatic Adaptions

The Igulik Inuit conditions is consistently so cold, they’ve developed ways of keeping their bodies warmer. The Igulik Inuit consume large amounts of high calorie fatty foods. This helps to significantly increase the basal metabolic rate, which produce extra body heat. In response to producing extra body heat, their bodies change to be wider.

The Igulik Inuit had many ways in adapting to the cold weather. These peoples wore very thick and heavy clothing, to shield the cold from their bodies. They slept in groups and huddle with their bodies next to each other. While they were outdoors, they remain extremely active.

Language

The Igulik Inuit language, come from the Inuit-Aleut, also known as the Eskimaleut language family. The language of the Inuit can be divided into many different languages and dialects. Depending on where the group live, the dialect can be divided into individual languages. Two different main branches of the dialect are a Western and an Eastern.

 The names of the Eastern branch languages are; Inuktitut, they live in Canada, the Inupiaq live in Alaska, and the Kalaallisut live in Greenland. The Western Branch speaks Yupik. It is divided into three distinct languages; Central Yupik, Pacific Gulf Yupik, and Siberian Yupik.

The Inuktitut and Yupik languages are both quite hard to learn and speak, because they are very complex languages. The Igulik have a written version of the language but each group has different writing structure.

Gender Roles

The Inuit is one of the few societies that did not heavily rely on the gender of their people to have roles in society. The roles of individuals are not group by gender alone. When a child is born, they are not placed into their gender roles, but by the power their ancestors had. Even though they are not placed in gender roles, boys are taught to be skilled hunters and girls are conditioned to marry a man who is a skilled hunter. When the small children hit puberty they are then taken by their gender groups. They then learn specific skills that help benefit the tribe.

The woman’s role is being a housewife. She is responsible to cook, clean, take care of the children, sew clothing, and prepare the household for the harsh Artic winters. The man role is fishing and hunting. He is responsible for bring food for the family. Women can also go out and hunt whether it is because she does not have a male figure to hunt for them or because they want to hunt for themselves.

Another common trait between the men and women were the song duels. The duels were between the same genders. The male used song to battles, to show their masculinity and the women would sing about their skills. It is not taboo for gender roles to be mixed, but homosexuality is frowned upon in the Inuit society.

Even though roles were not completely defined for gender, there were still some restraints involving religion. The women for not allowed to eat raw meat while on their periods. They believe that would bring starvation to the camp. They also had to leave the camp if they became pregnant. Her husband is allowed to go visit her but she may not come back until she had the baby and was done bleeding.

The responsibility of women within the culture are equally as important and because of this the women were always given due respect. However they were never shared equal power or influence. Recent modernizations and urbanization has transformed the Inuit culture. By this extension, the impact of, roles of women and their influence within the culture have been both positive and negative.

When a child is born, they are kept very closely with the mothers. She breastfeeds the child for years or until the other child is born. If no other child is born she can breastfeeds the child for up to five years. The biological mother raises the child but eventually the older adults in the family joined it to help. Usually the older girls in the house stepped in, to take a more dominate role in helping the younger children.

I believe the protagonist in the story “The Blessed Curse” would not be well accepted in this culture. Since homosexuality was frowned upon, the Inuit may have an even harder time understanding an “intersex” person. The Inuit believed in sprits also, but like the parents of the author of “The Blessed Curse” they may believe it is a curse of evil spirits.

Subsistence

The climate grew colder during the Little Ice Age and the Inuit were forced to leave hunting and whaling sites in the high Artic. Bowhead whaling disappeared in Canada and Greenland, and the Inuit had to maintain a much poorer diet.Without whales, they lost access to essential raw materials for tools and architecture that were derived from whaling.

The food the Inuit ate are, whales, walruses, caribou, seals, polar bears, muskoxen, birds, and sometimes animals such as foxes. Even though they could not easily grow plants in the Arctic, there are plants that were naturally available. Grasses, tubers, roots, stems, berries, and seaweed were collected and preserved depending on the season and the location. The typical Inuit diet is high in protein and very high in fat. Inuit consumed an average of 75 percent of their daily energy intake from fat. Inuit were able to obtain the necessary vitamins, from their traditional winter diet, which did not contain plant matter. They found that adequate vitamin C could be obtained from raw meat such as Ringed Seal liver and whale skin. As I mention earlier, the men are responsible for hunting but this did not mean that a women isn’t allowed.

Economic systems

The Inuit hunted sea animals from boats called “gajag” which were extraordinarily buoyant, and could easily be guided by a seated person, even if completely overturned. The Inuit built kayaks made of wood frames covered with animal skins for transporting people, goods, and dogs. They also had a flat bottom so that it could come close to shore. In the winter, Inuit would also hunt sea mammals by patiently watching an aglu (breathing hole) in the ice and waiting for the air-breathing seals to use them, a technique also used by the polar bear.

During the summer their food source was more varied. They hunted migratory mammals available during the summer and stored it for surplus during the winter season.  They also gather plants that were not usually available during the winter season. All food that was gathered and caught was shared with the camp. This is a tradition of the Inuit to share food because the camp was depended on them.

Marriage

 

The Inuit were not strictly monogamous. Polygamy, divorce, and remarriage were a common practice. Many Inuit relationships were implicitly or explicitly sexually open marriages.  Among some Inuit groups divorce required the approval of the community, if there were children, and particularly the agreement of the elders. Marriages were usually arranged even before the person can talk, and occasionally forced on the couple by the community. Marriage was common for men when they became productive hunters and for women at puberty.

The household might consist of a man and his wife or wives and children. It can be structured in many ways since there is such mix in the families. The in-laws can live with the daughter or the son. They can even live in a large group that have one head of household.

Kinship

The Inuit emphasize the nuclear descent pattern, identifying only the mother , father , brother, and sister. The other relatives are grouped in one catergory. The Inuit kinship pattern did not place distinction between patrilineal and matrilineal relatives.  They focused more on the closeness or the distance between the relative. Parental sibligs are distiguish only by sex. All children of these individual are group together regardless of sex.

The Inuit people are sometimes found isolated from other families but that is usually temporay.  During the winter an Inuit husband and wife, with their kids, roam the Arctic, with a quest for food. Soon after the families are usually found in group of a least a few familes.

It seems the head of house hold, possesses the most authority. Since the familes all depend on each other for survival, it is possible to have more than one person who posses the  authority. The elders are most respected for their knowgle, experience, and age.

  Social Organization

The Inuit culture is part stratified because women do not have as much authority as the men, even though they do as much work. The women are expected to do what is considered women work. Even though some women can fish and hunt she is still not given much authority. The culture is part egalitarian because everyone is looked at as being the same, and no man is more important than a woman. But again the women lack the authority. Sex and age is an important determinant of authority. Community bond is achieved through communal song, prayer, and worship as well as the cooperative nature of economic activities.

Religion

The Inuit believed in animism: all living and non-living things had a spirit. That included people, animals, inanimate objects, and forces of nature. When a spirit died, it continued living in a different world- the spirit world. The only people who had enough power to control the spirits were the powerful religious leaders called the Shamans or 'Angakoks'. Shamans used charms and dances as a means to communicate with the spirit world. Shamans also wore carved masks-mostly representing animals- while performing their rituals. It was believed that masks had powers that enabled them to communicate with the spirits. To appease the spirits the Shamans would make recommendations. They would suggest offering gifts to the spirits, moving away, and sometimes would fine the person for breaking the rules and angering the spirits.

Political Structure

The political structure are set as The Colony, The Gemein composed of all baptized adults, The council of five to seven men, who serves as the Colony's executive board. The head preacher serves as contact with the outside world. The Boss is the Economic manager.Rules are reinforced daily, any misconduct is handle through the sanction from the person's reproach or before the council.




The Roles of Violence

Violent crimes are frowned upon. If there is any shedding of blood of another it, it will not be forgiven.Another crime that can not be forgiven for is deserting the colony. These two crimes are considered to be the worst type of crimes. People often have the misconception the Inuit pople kill their elders and those that are unproductive, this is not true. The elders are highly respected and extremely valuable to the community. When an elder is ready to go, they request the help of their family to help with thier suicide.Family members would try to attempt to dissuade the individual but the third request must be accepted.

Art

The Inuit have always carved, whether for utilitarian, decorative or religious purpose. Stones are the most commonly used for carving. A wide variety of stones types is used, from finely grained or striated sedimentary rock. Most of the carving was of animals. They also used the bones and teeth of the animals for carving. Some of the carving was sued to keep evil spirits away.

Conclusion

 The Inuit has been affected by other cultures because of urbanization. Women are now being given more authority. This is not good from the male’s point of view. I consider this culture in danger of losing its cultural identity because the earth itself is change. This will affect their way of hunting and living.  They will eventually have to move out of their environment when food becomes more limited. I do not think this culture play a big role in the modern world. I think it is easily looked beyond. I myself didn’t even know they exist. They have a very weak influence over the rest of the world because are not often heard of. If we are unaware then we could not be influence.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/inuit#ixzz1tJ4ZXYC2

http://www.inuit.com/

        
Read more: Sociopolitical organization - Hutterites http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/Hutterites-Sociopolitical-Organization.html#ixzz1ubJPCqq6
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/inuit#ixzz1tJ3vgZaI

http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/native-people-arctic

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/inuit#ixzz1tJ3aWNer

http://www.inuitart.org/histories/

http://www.jeanlouisetienne.com/poleairship/EN/images/encyclo/imprimer/33.htm

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/inuit#ixzz1tJ2MA11B

http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/Iglulik-Inuit.html

http://www.arcticvoice.org/inuit.htm

http://anthropology.uwaterloo.ca/ArcticArchStuff/thule.html

http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_inuit1.html

Sayom McIntosh