FREE ESSAY ON MIKE HUNT

MIKE HUNT

The Inuit
I. Intoduction
The Inuit are people that inhabit small enclaves in the coastal areas of 
Greenland, Arctic North America, and extreme northeastern Siberia. The 
name Inuit means the real people. In 1977 the Inuit Circumpolar 
Conference officially adopted Inuit as the replacement for the term 
"Eskimo." There are several related linguistic groups of Arctic people. 
Many of these groups prefer to be called by their specific "tribal" names 
rather than as Inuits. In Alaska the term "Eskimo" is still commonly used.
I. Physical Characteristics and Regional Groupings
The Inuit vary within about 2 inches of an average height of 5 foot 4 inches, 
and they display metabolic, circulatory, and other adaptations to the Arctic 
climate. They inhabit an area spanning almost 3200 miles and have a wider 
geographical range than any other aboriginal people and are the most 
sparsely distributed people on earth. 
II. History
The Inuit share many cultural traits with Siberian Arctic peoples and with 
their own closest relatives, the Aleuts. The oldest archaeological sites 
identifiable as Inuit date from about 2000 BC and are somewhat distinct 
from later Inuit sites. By about 1800 BC the highly developed Old Whaling 
or Bering Sea culture and related cultures had emerged in Siberia and in the 
Bering Strait region. In eastern Canada the Old Dorset culture flourished 
from about 1000 to 800 BC until about AD 1000 to 1300. The Thule Inuit, 
who by AD 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland, overran the Dorset people. 
There, Inuit culture was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after 
1700, by Danish settlers.
III. Language and Literature
The languages of the Inuit people constitute a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut 
language family. A major linguistic division occurs in Alaska, according to 
whether the speakers call themselves Inuit or Yuit. The eastern branch of 
the subfamily stretches from eastern Alaska across Canada and through 
northern into southern Greenland. This subfamily is generally called 
Inupiaq in Alaska, but also Inuktitut in Canada and Kalaallisut in 
Greenland. It consists of many dialects, each understandable to speakers of 
neighboring dialects, although not to speakers of geographically distant 
dialects. The western branch, called Yupik, includes three distinct 
languages, Central Alaskan Yupik and Pacific Gulf Yupik in Alaska and 
Siberian Yupik in Alaska and Canada. Each of these has several dialects. 
The Inupiaq dialects have more than 40,000 speakers in Greenland and more 
than 20,000 in Alaska and Canada. About 17,000 people speak Yupik 
languages. In the former Soviet Union about 1,000 people spoke it. 
Explorers and traders do not learn these languages because they are 
some of the most complex and difficult in the world. They rely on a jargon 
composed of Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian, and Inupiaq and Yupik words. 
V. Social Organization
The manners and customs of the Inuit are remarkably uniform 
despite the widespread diffusion of the people. The family is the most 
significant social unit. Marriages are generally open to choice. The usual 
pattern is monogamy, but both polygyny and polyandry also happen. 
Marriage is based on a strict division of labor. The husband and wife have 
their own tools, household goods, and other personal possessions. Men build 
houses, hunt, and fish. Women cook, dress animal skins, and make clothing. 
If one does not take care and help ones kin they will be ridiculed by the 
community. In extreme cases they can be put to death. If someone of one 
group harms someone from another, there could be a possible blood feud. 
This is strongly disapproved. Some groups control disputes by means of 
wrestling matches or song duels. These songs tend to be insulting. The loser 
of these might be driven from the community.
Alliances between groups that are not related are formed and 
maintained by gift giving and the showing of respect. The highest such form 
of gift giving occurs when a head of a household offers the opportunity of a 
temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult women of his household. 
The women can refuse, then they present a different gift. 
VI. Provision of Food
The Inuit mainly eats fish, seals, whales, and related sea mammals. 
The flesh of these is eaten cooked, dried, or frozen. The seal is their main 
winter food and most valuable resource. They are used for dog food, 
clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoons lines, as well as 
fuel for both light and heat. In Alaska and Canada, caribou are hunted in 
the summer. They also hunt polar bear, fox, hare, and Arctic birds, for 
important supplies. Whale, walrus, and caribou require longer hunting trips 
than one kinship group can do on there own. Many families go on seasonal 
hunting and fishing trips that take them from one end of a customary 
territory to the other, trading with other groups along the way. 
VII. Housing, Transportation, and Clothing
Igloos are Inuit "iglu" houses. They come in two kinds. One is made 
from walrus or sealskin tents for the summer. The other is made of stone, 
with driftwood or whalebone frames and chinked and covered with moss or 
sod for the winter. The entrance is long and narrow. It is just high enough 
to have one person crawl through it. During long journeys some Inuit made 
winter houses out of snow blocks shaped in a dome. These houses are rare in 
Greenland and unknown in Alaska. At one time they were permanent winter 
houses of the Inuit in central and eastern Canada. In the 20th century many 
Inuit have moved into towns to live in government built, western housing.
The traditional way of transpiration is the kayak, the umiak, and the 
dogsled. The kayak is a lightweight canoe like hunting boat made of a wood 
frame completely covered with sealskin except for a round center opening, 
where one person sits. The skin around the person can be tightened to make 
the kayak waterproof. The umiak is a larger boat by about 30 feet long and 
8 feet wide. It is made of a wood frame covered with walrus skin. It is used 
for whaling expeditions and to transport families and goods. The sled is 
pulled by a team of native dogs. Until iron runners were introduced, ivory 
and whalebone were mainly used. In the last half-century motorboats and 
snowmobiles have become important modes of travel. 
Traditionally the Inuit men and women dress the same. They wear 
waterproof boots, double-layer trousers, and the parka; a tight-fitting 
double-layer pullover jacket with a hood, all made of skins and furs. An 
enlarged hood forms a convenient cradle for nursing infants.
VIII. Religious Beliefs
Traditionally the Inuit believe in a form of animism. Animism is the 
belief that all objects and living beings have a spirit. Everything occurs 
through some spirit. Spirits can effect people's lives intrinsically. Although 
prayer can not control them, magical charms and talismans can control 
them. The shaman is the person that can best control the spirits. They are 
usually consulted to heal illnesses and resolve serious problems. Communal 
and individual taboos are observed to avoid offending animal spirits, and 
animals killed for food must be handled with prescribed rituals.
Inuit rituals and myths reflect preoccupation with survival in a hostile 
environment. Vague beliefs of an afterlife or reincarnation exist, but these 
receive little emphasis. Most beliefs center on preparation for the hunt, and 
myths tend to deal with the relations that exist between humans, animals, 
and the environment. In arctic Canada, Greenland, Labrador, and southern 
Alaska, large numbers of Inuit have converted to Christianity. 
IX. Adjusting to Change
In the 20th century the Inuit have become more assertive, forming 
organizations to represent their interests, such as the Alaska Federation of 
Natives. The organizations have been instrumental in resolving land claims 
since 1971. In Greenland the 1970's and 1980's were marked by a campaign 
for home rule from Denmark. In December 1991 the Canadian government 
agreed to the creation of a new unit known as Nunavut in eastern Northwest 
Territories. Approved in May 1992, it will have an area of about 2 million 
square km (about 772,500 square miles). The Inuit people will have political 
control and broad economic rights over the territory.
The international Circumpolar Conference, founded in 1977, meets 
every three years. It provides a forum for Greenland and North American 
Inuit to discuss common problems, lobby for an Inuit voice in the planning of 
economic development, and promote the preservation of the environment.
Bibliography
Ray, Dorothy Jean. Aleut and Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in South Alaska.
Washington, 1981, 1986. Scholarly survey of traditional and market art. Companion book on
North Alaska, 1977.
Burch, Ernest S. Jr. The Eskimos. Oklahoma, 1988. Heavily illustrated introduction to the
traditional culture of the Inuit and the Aleut.
Wilder, Edna. Once Upon an Eskimo Time. Alaska Northwest, 1987. An accurate account of
Eskimo life before the white man.
Elibrary.com , http://www.elibrary.com/s/encartal/search.cgi, line 418: