Inuit
Inuit are people of the Arctic. Divided into small communities, they live in
Eastern Siberia (Russia), in Alaska (the United States), in Canada and
Greenland (Denmark). They are approximately 145 000.
They speak in great majority a language
called inuktitut, which has an alphabet only since 1880. But they speak
also most of the time another language, that of the country where they remain
(English, Danish, Russian or French).
In inuktitut, the word inuit (plural of the word inuk)
means "the men". Formerly, Inuit were called Esquimaux,
a pejorative word meaning "raw meat eaters".
PEOPLE LINKED IN THE DEFENSE OF ITS
INTERESTS
There are 8 000 to 10 000 years, the
ancestors of Inuit, from Siberia, crosses the Bering Strait and settles along
the coasts and on the islands of Alaska and Canada, to Greenland. The meetings
with the European explorers take place to
the xvi E century,
but 1850 should be waited until, and the arrival of the first whalers, so that
the contacts with the white population multiply. Inuit are colonized
thereafter.The political powers of the States where they live push them to give
up their habits, and in particular with sédentariser.
But, as from the years 1960, Inuit create
associations to defend their culture and their territory. Every three years, the
Circumpolar Conference Inuit joins together Inuit of the whole world so that
they can better protect their economic, political and ecological interests.
A TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE CENTERED ON
HUNTING AND FISHING
Inuit, which practised formerly a seasonal
nomadism, are sedentary today and adopted a Western way of life. A minority
preserved a traditional way of life however, even if the motoneiges replaced
the sledges with dogs. This way of life is centered around hunting
and of fishing.
The traditional habitat constitutes igloos, tents in skin of seal or of stone
constructions and lumps of earth furnished with skins.
Inuit live hunting for the birds and the
marine or terrestrial mammals (seal, narval, béluga, whale, polar bear,
caribou, musk ox), fishing (cod, salmon, halibut) and gathering (algae,
shellfish, plants and bays). For that, they use the kayak or a larger boat,
called umiaq, the harpoon and the
sledge with dogs. Fishing and hunting provide them what to be nourished, be
dressed (boots, trousers, jackets), to be heated and light (by using the grease
of the animals). The mutual aid is essential and the game and fishing are
shared.
A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION BASED ON THE
FAMILY
In the traditional culture inuit, the
family plays a great role. The woman takes care of the children, prepares food,
manufactures clothing and the tents, fishes and makes the gathering. The man
drives out, deals of the dogs, the weapons, the tools, the sledges, the boats
and the dwellings. The marriages are sometimes arranged. The children enjoy a
great freedom. If a member of the community enfreint a rule, the old ones meet
to discuss it. The payment of a conflict between two men can pass by a duel
of songs, each one having to compose a humorous song making fun the other.
BELIEFS ANIMISTS
If Inuit
were gradually converted with
Christianity, they were formerly animists. According to these
traditional beliefs, all the alive objects and beings have a heart. The animals
and the men are close and can metamorphose themselves. The world is populated
spirits, dwarves, giants. The Shaman, left wizard, is supposed
capacity to enter in communication with the spirits or supernatural forces. It
is consulted to cure the diseases and to solve the serious problems.
INVENTIVE PLAYS AND ELABORATE WORKS OF
ART
In the past, Inuit practised a kind of
football on ice with a balloon in skin of seal (the ajuttaq), the fight, iron the arm, the throw of harpoon, the
high jump… Their songs of throat are very
known. The women practised these duets face-to-face discussion by clutching the
arms: one of both carried out and the other was to imitate it instantaneously.
Art inuit is rich in objects used in the
religious ceremonies. It is about figurines in bone, out of ivory of Morse or
whale, out of wooden of stag or stone, representative of the characters or the
animals, the buttons, the elements of tools or the masks of ceremony. Since the
years 1950, the artists and craftsmen inuit make the trade of sculptures on
steatite, a known tender rock under the name of "stone with soap".
They are also devoted to engraving, with basket making (baskets), decorative
arts and the music.
