Inuit Mythology
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Inuit Mythology
Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional Inuit religious practices include animism and shamanism, in which spiritual healers mediate with spirits. Today many Inuit follow Christianity (with 71 percent of Canadian Inuit identifying as Christian ); however, 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 provides a narrative about the world and the place of people within it. Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley writes: Traditional stories, rituals, and taboos of the Inuit are often precautions against dangers posed by their harsh Arctic environment. Knud Rasmussen asked his guide and friend ...
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Ritual
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally associated with gestures, words, or revered objects, rituals also occur in non-human species, such as elephant mourning or corvid object-leaving. They may be prescribed by tradition, including religious practices, and are often characterized by formalism, traditionalism, rule-governance, and performance. Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and ritual purification, purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages, funerals and more. Even common actions like handshake, hand-shaking and saying "hello" may be termed as ''rituals''. Th ...
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Inuvialuktun
Inuvialuktun (part of ''Western Canadian Inuit'' / ''Inuktitut'' / '' Inuktut'' / '' Inuktun'') comprises several Inuit language varieties spoken in the northern Northwest Territories by Canadian Inuit who call themselves ''Inuvialuit''. Some dialects and sub-dialects are also spoken in Nunavut. and Distribution and varieties Inuvialuktun is spoken by the Inuit of the Mackenzie River delta, Banks Island, part of Victoria Island and the Arctic Ocean coast of the Northwest Territories – the lands of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. It was traditionally subsumed under a broader ''Inuktitut''. Rather than a coherent language, Inuvialuktun is a politically motivated grouping of three quite distinct and separate varieties. It consists of '' Sallirmiutun'' (formerly Siglitun; Inuvialuktun proper), the '' Kangiryuarmiutun'' dialect of Inuinnaqtun on Victoria Island in the East and the '' Uummarmiutun'' dialect of Iñupiaq around Inuvik and Aklavik in the West. Inuvialuktun ...
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Inuktitut
Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. It is recognized as an official language in Nunavut alongside Inuinnaqtun and both languages are known collectively as ''Inuktut''. Further, it is recognized as one of eight official native tongues in the Northwest Territories. It also has legal recognition in Nunavik—a part of Quebec—thanks in part to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and is recognized in the Charter of the French Language as the official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in NunatuKavut and Nunatsiavu ...
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Inuktitut Syllabics
Inuktitut syllabics (, or , ) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Quebec. In 1976, the Language Commission of the Inuit Cultural Institute made it the co-official script for the Inuit languages, along with the Latin script. The name derives from the root , meaning "mouth". The alternative, Latin-based writing system is named Inuit languages#Writing, (), and it derives from , a word describing the markings or the grain in rocks. meaning "new writing system" is to be seen in contrast to (), the "old syllabics" used before the reforms of 1976. Inuktitut is one variation on Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, and can be digitally encoded using the Unicode standard. The Unicode block for Inuktitut characters is called Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (Unicode block), Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. History The first efforts to write In ...
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Inuit Dance Near Nome 1900
Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally), Alaska, and the Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Inuit languages are part of the Eskaleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskimo–Aleut. Canadian Inuit live throughout most of Northern Canada in the territory of Nunavut, Nunavik in the northern third of Quebec, the Nunatsiavut in Labrador, and in various parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon (traditionally), particularly around the Arctic Ocean, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. These areas are known, by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Government of Canada, as Inuit Nunangat. In Canada, sections 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 classify Inuit as a distinctive group of Aboriginal Can ...
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Missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Missionary' 2003, William Carey Library Pub, . In the Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible, Jesus, Jesus Christ says the word when he sends the disciples into areas and commands them to preach the gospel in his name. The term is most commonly used in reference to Christian missions, but it can also be used in reference to any creed or ideology. The word ''mission'' originated in 1598 when Jesuits, the members of the Society of Jesus sent members abroad, derived from the Latin (nominative case, nom. ), meaning 'act of sending' or , meaning 'to send'. By religion Buddhist missions The first Buddhist missionaries were called "Dharma Bhanaks", and some see a missionary charge in the symbolism ...
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Igloolik
Igloolik ( Inuktitut syllabics: , ''Iglulik'', ) is an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because its location on Igloolik Island is close to Melville Peninsula, it is often mistakenly thought to be on the peninsula. The name "Igloolik" means "there is a house here". It derives from meaning house or building, and refers to the sod houses that were originally in the area, not to snow igloos. In Inuktitut the residents are called Iglulingmiut (the suffix ''miut'' means "people of"). History Information about the area's earliest inhabitants comes mainly from numerous archaeological sites on the island; some dating back more than 4,000 years. First contact with Europeans came when the British Royal Navy ships HMS ''Fury'' and HMS ''Hecla'', under the command of Captain William Edward Parry, wintered in Igloolik in 1822. The island was visited in 1867 and 1868 by the American explorer Charles Francis Hall in his search for survivor ...
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Angakkuq
The Inuit angakkuq (plural: ''angakkuit'', Inuktitut syllabics ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ or ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ; Inuvialuktun: '; , pl. ''angakkut''; Iñupiaq: ''aŋatkuq'') is an intellectual and spiritual figure in Inuit culture who corresponds to a medicine man. Other cultures, including Alaska Natives, have traditionally had similar spiritual mediators, although the Alaska Native religion has many forms and variants. Role in Inuit society Both women, such as Uvavnuk, and men could become an angakkuq, although it was rarer for women to do so. The process for becoming an angakkuq varied widely. The son of a current angakkuq might be trained by his father to become one as well. A shaman might make a prophecy that a particular infant would become a prophet in adulthood. Alternatively, a young man or woman who exhibited a predilection or power that made them stand out might be trained by an experienced mentor. There are also instances of angakkuit claiming to have been called to the role ...
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Aua (angakkuq)
Aua (also transcribed Awa and Ava) (circa 1870, Igloolik area - after 1922) was an Inuit, Inuk ''angakkuq'' (medicine man) known for his anthropological input to Greenland anthropologist Knud Rasmussen. As a spiritual healer practicing into the 1920s, Aua provided perspective on Inuit mythology at a time when it was being subsumed by the introduction of Christianity. Aua told the story of his cousin's mother Uvavnuk, whose song "The Great Earth" is still popular. Aua was married to Orulo and they had four children. His encounters with the Danish explorer were fictionalised in the 2006 film ''The Journals of Knud Rasmussen'', by the Inuit team who had produced ''Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner''. Sources

* Penny Petrone. ''Northern Voices: Inuit Writing in English''. University of Toronto Press, 1992. . Pg 21. 20th-century Inuit people Inuit spiritual healers Inuit from the Northwest Territories Canadian animists Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America Peop ...
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