Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
, an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
from Alaska, northern Canada, parts of Siberia and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some
Alaska Native religion
Traditional Alaskan Native religion involves mediation between people and spirits, souls, and other immortal beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Inuit (including Iñupiat), Yupik, Aleut, and Northwest Coastal Indian c ...
s. Traditional Inuit religious practices include
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
and
shamanism
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...
, in which spiritual healers mediate with spirits.
Today many Inuit follow
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, but traditional Inuit spirituality continues as part of a living, oral tradition and part of contemporary Inuit society. Inuit who balance indigenous and Christian theology practice
religious syncretism.
Inuit
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
provides a narrative about the world and the place of people within it.
Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley
Rachel Attituq Qitsualik-Tinsley is a Canadian writer. She was a winner of the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature in 2015 for ''Skraelings'', which she cowrote with her husband Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley. The book was also a ...
writes:
Traditional stories,
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
s, and
taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
s of the Inuit are often precautions against dangers posed by their harsh
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
environment.
Knud Rasmussen
Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studie ...
asked his guide and friend
Aua, an ''
angakkuq'' (spiritual healer), about Inuit religious beliefs among the
Iglulingmiut (people of
Igloolik) and was told: "We don't believe. We fear." Authors Inge Kleivan and Birgitte Sonne debate possible conclusions of Aua's words, because the angakkuq was under the influence of
Christian missionaries, and later he even converted to Christianity. Their study also analyses beliefs of several Inuit groups, concluding (among others) that fear was not diffuse.
Inuit cultural beliefs
Iglulik
Among the Canadian Inuit, a spiritual healer is known as an ''
angakkuq'' (plural: ''angakkuit'',
Inuktitut syllabics ''ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ'' or ''ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ'') in
Inuktitut or ''angatkuq'' in
Inuvialuktun. The duties of an ''angakkuq'' include helping the community when marine animals, kept by Takanaluk-arnaluk or Sea Woman in a pit in her house, become scarce, according to the Aua, an informant and friend of the anthropologist Rasmussen. Aua described the ability of an apprentice ''angakkuq'' to see himself as a skeleton,
[ Merkur 1985:122] naming each part using the specific shaman language.
[ Rasmussen 1965:170][
]
Inuit at Amitsoq Lake
The Inuit at Amitsoq Lake (a rich fishing ground) on King William Island had seasonal and other prohibitions for sewing certain items. Boot soles, for example, could only be sewn far away from settlements in designated places. Children at Amitsoq once had a game called ''tunangusartut'' in which they imitated the adults' behaviour towards the spirits, even reciting the same verbal formulae as ''angakkuit''. According to Rasmussen, this game was not considered offensive because a "spirit can understand the joke."
Netsilik Inuit
The homelands of the Netsilik Inuit (''Netsilingmiut'' meaning "People of the Seal") have extremely long winters and stormy springs. Starvation was a common danger.[ Rasmussen 1965:262]
While other Inuit cultures feature protective guardian powers, the Netsilik have traditional beliefs that life's hardships stemmed from the extensive use of such measures. Unlike the Iglulik Inuit, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. Even dogs could have amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had 80 amulets, so many that he could hardly play.[Kleivan & Sonne:43] One particular man had 17 names taken from his ancestors and intended to protect him.[
]Tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
ing among Netsilik women provided power and could affect which world they went to after their deaths.
Nuliajuk, the Sea Woman, was described as "the lubricous one". If the people breached certain taboos, she held marine animals in the basin of her ''qulliq
The qulliq (seal-oil, blubber or soapstone lamp, iu, ᖁᓪᓕᖅ, ''kudlik'' ; ik, naniq), is the traditional oil lamp used by Arctic peoples, including the Inuit, the Chukchi people, Chukchi and the Yupik peoples.
This characteristic ty ...
'' an oil lamp
An oil lamp is a lamp used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times. Th ...
that burns seal fat. When this happened the ''angakkuq'' had to visit her to beg for game. In Netsilik oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
, she was originally an orphan girl mistreated by her community.
Moon Man, another cosmic being, is benevolent towards humans and their souls as they arrived in celestial places.[ Kleivan & Sonne 1985:30] This belief differs from that of the Greenlandic Inuit
Greenlanders ( kl, Kalaallit / Tunumiit / Inughuit; da, Grønlændere) are people identified with Greenland or the indigenous people, the Greenlandic Inuit (''Grønlansk Inuit''; Kalaallit, Inughuit, and Tunumiit). This connection may be r ...
, in which the Moon's wrath could be invoked by breaking taboos.[
Sila or ]Silap Inua
In Inuit religion, Silap Inua ('possessor of spirit', ᓯᓚᑉ ᐃᓄᐊ) or Silla ('breath, spirit', ᓯᓪᓚ) is similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life and the method of locomo ...
, often associated with weather, is conceived of as a power contained within people. Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Inuit
Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest ...
) believed Sila was originally a giant baby whose parents died fighting giants.
Caribou Inuit
Caribou Inuit
Caribou Inuit ( iu, Kivallirmiut/ᑭᕙᓪᓕᕐᒥᐅᑦ), barren-ground caribou hunters, are Inuit who live west of Hudson Bay in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W in Northern Canada. They were originally na ...
is a collective name for several groups of inland Inuit (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut, and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the tree line
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...
and the west shore of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
. They do not form a political unit and maintain only loose contact, but they share an inland lifestyle and some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiut took part in seal hunts in the ocean.
The Caribou have a dualistic concept of the soul. The soul associated with respiration is called ''umaffia'' (place of life)[ Kleivan & Sonne 1985:18] and the personal soul of a child is called ''tarneq'' (corresponding to the ''nappan'' of the Copper Inuit). The tarneq is considered so weak that it needs 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. This belief amounted to a form of reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...
.
Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou have no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, named Sila or Pinga, control the caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
, as opposed to marine animals. Some groups have made a distinction between the two figures, while others have considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.
Caribou angakkuit performed fortune-telling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical wi ...
through ''qilaneq'', a technique of asking questions to a ''qila'' (spirit). The angakkuq 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 Alaskan Native groups and provided "yes" or "no" answers to questions.
Copper Inuit
Spiritual beliefs and practices among Inuit are diverse, just like the cultures themselves. Similar remarks apply for other beliefs: term ''silap inua
In Inuit religion, Silap Inua ('possessor of spirit', ᓯᓚᑉ ᐃᓄᐊ) or Silla ('breath, spirit', ᓯᓪᓚ) is similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life and the method of locomo ...
'' / ''sila'', ''hillap inua'' / ''hilla'' (among Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
), ''ellam yua'' / ''ella'' (among Yup'ik
The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik ( own name ''Yup'ik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an I ...
) has been used with some diversity among the groups.[Kleivan & Sonne 1986: 31] In many instances it refers to "outer space", "intellect", "weather", "sky", "universe":[Nuttall 1997: 75][ Merkur 1985: 235–240][ Gabus 1970: 230–234] there may be some correspondence with the presocratic
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...
concept of logos
''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...
.[Saladin d'Anglure 1990]
In some other groups, this concept was more personified ( among Siberian Yupik
Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits (russian: Юиты), are a Yupik peoples, Yupik people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far Russian Far East, northeast of the Russia, Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alask ...
).[ Menovščikov 1968: 447]
Among Copper Inuit
Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest ...
, this "Wind Indweller" concept is related to spiritual practice: ''angakkuit'' were believed to obtain their power from this indweller, moreover, even their helping spirits were termed as ''silap inue''.[ Merkur 1985: 230]
Anirniit
The Inuit believed that all things have a form of spirit
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
or soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
(in Inuktitut: ''anirniq'' meaning "breath"; plural ''anirniit''), just like humans. These spirits are held to persist after death—a common belief present in most human societies. However, the belief in the pervasiveness of spirits—the root of Inuit worldview—has consequences. According to a customary Inuit saying, "The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls." Since all beings possess souls like those of humans, killing an animal is little different from killing a person. Once the anirniq of the dead animal or human is liberated, it is free to take revenge. The spirit of the dead can only be placated by obedience to custom, avoiding taboos, and performing the right rituals.
The harshness and randomness of life in the Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
ensured that Inuit lived constantly in fear of unseen forces. A run of bad luck could end an entire community and begging potentially angry and vengeful but unseen powers for the necessities of day-to-day survival is a common consequence of a precarious existence. For the Inuit, to offend an ''anirniq'' was to risk extinction. The principal role of the angakkuq in Inuit culture and society was to advise and remind people of the rituals and taboos they needed to obey to placate the spirits, since he was held to be able to see and contact them.
The anirniit are seen to be a part of the sila — the sky or air around them — and are merely borrowed from it. Although each person's anirniq is individual, shaped by the life and body it inhabits, at the same time it is part of a larger whole. This enabled Inuit to borrow the powers or characteristics of an ''anirniq'' by taking its name. Furthermore, the spirits of a single class of thing — be it sea mammals
Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their re ...
, polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
s, or plants — are in some sense held to be the same and can be invoked through a keeper or master who is connected with that class of thing. In some cases, it is the anirniq of a human or animal who becomes a figure of respect or influence over animals things through some action, recounted in a traditional tale. In other cases, it is a ''tuurngaq'', as described below.
Since the arrival of Christianity among the Inuit, anirniq has become the accepted word for a soul in the Christian sense. This is the root word for other Christian terms: ''anirnisiaq'' means ''angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
'' and ''God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
'' is rendered as ''anirnialuk'', the great spirit.
Tuurngait
Some spirits have never been connected to physical bodies. These are called ''tuurngait'' (also ''tornait'', '' tornat'', ''tornrait'', singular ''tuurngaq'', ''torngak'', '' tornrak'', ''tarngek'') and "are often described as a shaman's helping spirits, whose nature depends on the respective angakkuq".[ Neuhaus 2000:48] Helpful spirits can be called upon in times of need and " ..are there to help people," explains Inuit elder Victor Tungilik. Some tuurngait are evil, monstrous, and responsible for bad hunts and broken tools. They can possess humans, as recounted in the story of Atanarjuat. An angakkuq with good intentions can use them to heal sickness and find animals to hunt and feed the community. They can fight or exorcise bad tuurngait, or they can be held at bay by rituals; However, an angakkuq with harmful intentions can also use tuurngait for their own personal gain, or to attack other people and their tuurngait.
Though once ''Tuurngaq'' simply meant "killing spirit", it has, with Christianisation
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
, taken on the meaning of a demon
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
in the Christian belief system.
Inuit shamanism
Shamans (''anatquq'' or '' angakkuq'' in the Inuit languages
The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and adjacent subarctic, reaching farthest south in Labrador. The related Yupik languages (spoken in western ...
of northern parts of Alaska and Canada) played an important role in the religion of Inuit acting as religious leaders, tradesmen, healers, and characters in cultural stories holding mysterious, powerful, and sometimes superhuman abilities. The idea of calling shamans "medicine men
A medicine man is a traditional healer and spiritual leader among the indigenous people of the Americas.
Medicine Man or The Medicine Man may also refer to:
Films
* ''The Medicine Man'' (1917 film), an American silent film directed by Clifford S ...
" is an outdated concept born from the accounts of early explorers and trappers who grouped all shamans together into this bubble. The term "medicine man" does not give the shamans justice and causes misconceptions about their dealings and actions. Despite the fact they are almost always considered healers, this is not the complete extent of their duties and abilities and detaches them from their role as a mediator between normal humans and the world of spirits, animals, and souls for the traditional Inuit.
There is no strict definition of shaman and there is no strict role they have in society. Despite this, their ability to heal is nearly universal in their description. It has been described as "breathing or blowing away" the sickness but there is not set method any one shaman or groups of shamans perform their deeds. Even though their methods are varied, a few key elements remain in virtually all accounts and stories. In order to cure or remove an ailment from someone, the shaman must be skilled in their own right but must have the faith of those being helped.
In stories of shamans there is a time of crisis and they are expected to resolve, alleviate, or otherwise give resolution or meaning to the crisis. These crisis often involve survival against the natural elements or disputes between people that could end in death. In one such story, a hunter kidnapped a man's daughter and a shaman described in terms of belonging to the man. The shaman pulled the daughter back with a magic string. The shaman is also able to bestow gifts and extraordinary abilities to people and to items such as tools.
Some stories recount shamans as unpredictable, easily angered, and pleased in unusual ways. This could be shown as illustrating that despite their abilities and tune with nature and spirits, they are fickle and not without fault. There are stories of people attempting to impersonate shamans for their own gain by pretending to have fantastical abilities such as being able to fly only to be discovered and punished.
A handful of accounts imply shamans may be feared in some cases for their abilities as they specify that someone did not fear being approached and talked to by a shaman. This leads to further ideas that the shaman's power was to be greatly respected and the idea that the shaman was not necessarily always a fair and good force for the people around them.
The Christianization of the Inuit by both willing conversion and being forcefully pressured into converting to Christianity has largely destroyed the tradition of the shaman. Priests, pastors, and other Christian religious authorities replaced the shamans as the connection between the human world and the other world.
Deities
Below is an incomplete list of Inuit deities believed to hold power over some specific part of the Inuit world:
* Agloolik: evil god of the sea who can flip boats over; spirit which lives under the ice and helps wanderers in hunting and fishing
* Akna
AKNA is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''AKNA'' gene. The protein is an AT-hook transcription factor which contains an AT-hook binding motif. The protein is expressed as different isoforms. AKNA is known to upregulate expression of the ...
: mother goddess of fertility
* Amaguq
According to Inuit mythology Amaguq is a trickster and wolf god. See also: Amarok (wolf), Amarok, the spirit of the wolf.
Animal gods
Inuit gods
Mythological canines
Mythological dogs
Trickster gods
Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology ...
/ Amarok: wolf god who takes those foolish enough to hunt alone at night
* Anguta
Anguta is the father of the sea goddess Sedna in the Inuit religion. In certain myths of the Greenlandic Inuit, Anguta (also called "His Father," Anigut, or Aguta) is considered the creator god and is the supreme being among Inuit. In other myth ...
: gatherer of the dead; he carries them into the underworld, where they must sleep for a year.
* Nanook
In Inuit religion, Nanook (; iu, ᓇᓄᖅ , lit. "polar bear") was the master of bears, meaning he decided if hunters deserved success in finding and hunting bears and punished violations of taboos. The word was popularized by '' Nanook of th ...
: (''Nanuq'' or ''Nanuk'' in the modern spelling) the master of polar bear
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
s
* Pinga
In Inuit religion, Pinga ("the one who is p onhigh") is a goddess of the hunt and medicine. She is heavily associated with the sky.
Caribou Inuit tradition
In Caribou Inuit communities, Pinga had some authority over caribou herds. She became a ...
: the goddess of the hunt, fertility and medicine
* Qailertetang: weather spirit, guardian of animals, and matron of fishers
Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral.
Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to:
Places
Australia
*Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland
*Elect ...
and hunters
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
. Qailertetang is the companion of Sedna.
* Sedna: the mistress of sea animals. Sedna (''Sanna'' in modern Inuktitut spelling) is known under many names, including Nerrivik, Arnapkapfaaluk
Arnapkapfaaluk ("big bad woman") was the sea goddess of the Inuit of Canada's Coronation Gulf area. Although occupying the equivalent position to Sedna (mythology), Sedna within Inuit religion, in that she had control of the animals of the seas, sh ...
, Arnakuagsak
In Inuit mythology, Arnakuagsak ("old woman from the sea". Alternative: Arnarquagsag, Arnakua'gsak) was an Inuit goddess, one of the primary deities of the religion, who was responsible for ensuring the hunters were able to catch enough food and th ...
, and Nuliajuk.
* Silap Inua
In Inuit religion, Silap Inua ('possessor of spirit', ᓯᓚᑉ ᐃᓄᐊ) or Silla ('breath, spirit', ᓯᓪᓚ) is similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life and the method of locomo ...
or Sila: personification of the air
* Tekkeitsertok
In Inuit mythology, Tekkeitsertok is a god of hunting and the master of caribou, one of the most important hunting gods in the pantheon. Tekkeitsertok is also the protector of any creatures that enter any parts of the northern sky. He has the powe ...
: the master of caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
.
* Pukkeenegak: Goddess of domestic life, including sewing and cooking.
Creatures and spirits
* Qallupilluit or Qalupalik is a myth/legend told by Inuit parents and elders to prevent children from wandering to the shore. Qalupalik are human-like creatures with long hair, green skin, and long finger nails that live in the sea. They wear amauti
The amauti (also ''amaut'' or ''amautik'', plural ''amautiit'') is the parka worn by Inuit women of the eastern area of Northern Canada. Up until about two years of age, the child nestles against the mother's back in the amaut, the built-in baby ...
it, in which they carry away babies and children who disobey their parents or wander off alone. They take the children underwater, where they adopt them as their own. Qalupaliks have a distinctive humming sound, and the elders have said you can hear the Qalupaliks humming when they are near. The Qalupalik story is still being told in schools and books, and by parents who don't want their children to wander off to the dangerous shore. The myth was adapted as a 2010 stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
animation short, ''Qalupalik,'' by Ame Papatsie. They are said to be "troll-like" creatures that come after misbehaving children.
* Ahkiyyini is a skeleton spirit.
* Saumen Kar also called Tornit or Tuniit are the Inuit version of the Sasquatch
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims of ...
or Yeti
The Yeti ()["Yeti"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...
myth. They may be the people of the Dorset culture
The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in ...
who were said to be giants.
* Tizheruk are snake-like monsters.
''Unipkaaqtuat'', traditional stories
* Sun and moon (Inuit myth): a brother and sister who became the sun and moon
References
Notes
*
*
*
*
*
* Hungarian translation of Rasmussen 1926.
*
*
* Translation of Gabus 1944.
*
*
Fiction
*'' Tornrak'', the 1990 opera by John Metcalf features several spirits in the Arctic scenes.
*''The Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
'', Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...
, Horror novel, 2007.
*Video game '' Penumbra: Black Plague'' by Frictional Games
Frictional Games AB is a Swedish independent video game developer based in Malmö, founded in January 2007 by Thomas Grip and Jens Nilsson. The company specialises in the development of survival horror games with very little or no combat gamepl ...
. The Infected are the main enemies serving the hive mind Tuurngait.
Further reading
* Asatchaq, and Tom Lowenstein.
The Things That Were Said of Them Shaman Stories and Oral Histories of the Tikiġaq People
'. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
*
* Blake, Dale. ''Inuit Life Writings and Oral Traditions Inuit Myths''. St. John's, Nfld: Educational Resource Development Co-operative, 2001.
* Christopher, Neil, Louise Flaherty, and Larry MacDougall. ''Stories of the Amautalik Fantastic Beings from Inuit Myths and Legends''. Iqaluit, Nunavut: Inhabit Media, 2007.
* Fienup-Riordan, Ann. ''Boundaries and Passages Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition''. The Civilization of the American Indian series, v. 212. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
* Hall, Edwin S. ''The Eskimo Storyteller: Folktales from Noatak, Alaska''. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975.
* Himmelheber, Hans, and Ann Fienup-Riordan. ''Where the Echo Began And Other Oral Traditions from Southwestern Alaska''. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2000.
Houston, James A
James Houston's Treasury of Inuit Legends
'. Orlando, Fla: Harcourt, 2006.
* MacDonald, John. ''The Arctic Sky Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and Legend''. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...
/Nunavut Research Institute, 1998.
* Millman, Lawrence, and Timothy White. ''A Kayak Full of Ghosts Eskimo Tales''. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1987.
* Norman, Howard A., Leo Dillon, and Diane Dillon.
The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese, and Other Tales of the Far North
'. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997.
* Spalding, Alex. ''Eight Inuit Myths = Inuit Unipkaaqtuat Pingasuniarvinilit''. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1979.
* Wolfson, Evelyn. ''Inuit Mythology''. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Pub, 2001.
{{Inuit religion
*
Circumpolar mythology
Canadian mythology