Mike Hunt Essays - Eskimos, Indigenous Peoples Of North America

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