Interactions with Eastern culture

The first contact the Inuits had with eastern civilizations was with the Norse culture of Greenland. Once they had disappeared it would be hundreds of years, until the mid 1500's when people started hunting whales up and down the Labrador coast. The Inuits didn't have much contact or trade with these people except that the natives would sometimes conduct raids of the whaling stations and steal the metal tools used by the whalers for their own uses. Once Eastern cultures started inhabiting Alaska, the government started having missionaries sent out to supply the Inuits with the tools they were once stealing, so that the relationships between the groups could be more "peaceful." The explorers and whalers coming to the country often transferred deadly diseases to the native groups, but the Inuits living in higher latitudes would remain relatively untouched by outside civilizations until around the 1920's. At this time, the royal mounted police of Canada began to oppress the Inuits and would arrest them for breaking laws which they had no idea they were breaking, and by converting them to Christianity. It wasn't until the 1960's that the Inuits began coming back by standing up to the government that basically stole their country, however they still hadn't been fully compensated until around 2005.

"Countries and Their Cultures." Inuit. N.p., n.d. Web. Apr. 2013.

Sports and Games

The Inuits are a wonderful indigenous people who love tradition and culture. This tribe’s culture is far from boring or ordinary. When it comes to entertainment in the Artic, the Inuit tribe has several sports and games to entertain their people. Many of these sports are multi-purposed and play a role to further develop many areas of life. The Inuit sports and games are based off the necessity to improve characteristics such as strength, coordination, endurance, agility, and fitness. These characteristics improve hunting abilities and survival skills. Sports are meant to be fun, entertaining, and challenging. Some sports played include wrestling, jumping contest, weightlifting and even ball games. The stronger and more fit you are the better you able to fight illness, traverse distances, maintain mental discipline etc. The other need for many of the games entertained those during long hours out on the land, especially during long periods of darkness. Here is a list of other sports, games, and challenges such as the kneel jump, knuckle hop, Alaskan, high kick one, foot high kick, two foot high kick, back push, musox push or mushox fight, leg wrestle.

Bibliography: Unknown Author, "Inuit Sports and Games," Inuit Online cultural Resources,  http://icor.ottawainuitchildrens.com/node/39  (accessed April 7, 2013).

Diet

Throughout history the Inuit have been known as hunters, gathers, and fishers. This indigenous tribe hunted, and still hunt, whales, walruses, caribou, seals, polar bears, muskoxen, birds. In rare cases, they will hunt smaller animals such as small foxes. Growing crops and traditional foods like vegetables and fruits are not likely due to the extreme temperatures in the Arctic. The Inuit mostly rely on gathering naturally available materials and resources. These resources include roots, tubers, grasses, stems, seaweed, and berries. These plants are essential in adding a variety in the Inuit’s diets. Also, food items that weren't eaten immediately were preserved and stored carefully depending on the conditions and seasons that were present. The typical Inuit diet is meat based and very high in protein from animals and fats. Noted by anthropologist, 75 percent of the Inuit’s daily energy came from a diet of fats.

There was an anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson who lived with a group of Inuits. He observed many things about their daily lives including the nutritional value of their diet. He discovered that the Inuit's extremely low-carbohydrate diet had no adverse effects on his health or that of the Inuit. Stefansson also observed that the Inuit were able to obtain essential vitamins from their traditional winter diet that did not contain much plant matter. In another instance, he found that “enough vitamin C could be obtained from raw meat such as Ringed Seal liver and whale skin.”  While there was a lot of concern when he reported these findings, there have been similar findings in other reports.

Bibliography: New World Encyclopedia contributors, "Inuit," New World Encyclopedia, , http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Inuit&oldid=954781 (accessed April 7, 2013).

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Inuit Religion

Every culture differs when it comes to religion. In the case of the Alaskian Inuits this is no different. The traditional or main religion of these people is animistic. Animistic meaning that everything is infused or saturated with spirit. It was their goal to stay in harmony with the spirit world. They did this with the use of amulets which they wore, the observance of taboos, and participation in a number of ceremonies which main focus was the success of the hunt, food, birth, death, the life cycle, and the seasonal round.There are also two forms of traditional medicine used by the inuits. One involved intercession and divination with the spirits while the other involved massage and manipulation of various body parts, mainly the internal organs. They also had different views on death than those of christianity. In the Inuit relgion when a person died, his or her personal belongings were placed on the grave so that the dead can use them in the afterlife, however, the soul of everyone who died would be reanimated in the form of a newborn infant. The traditional beliefs about death and the afterworld have been replaced by an array of Christian beliefs.

Bibliography: Unknown Author, "The Arctic People - Religion / Ceremonies / Art / Clothing." Inuit Online cultural Resources. http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_inuit5.html (accessed April 9, 2013).

Marriage and Family

Many of the family and marriage traditions of the Inuit people are similar to those practiced today. The men had one main goal: bring food home to their families. They were the hunters and fishermen. Meanwhile, the women cooked, took care of their children, and cleaned while the husbands were out in the wilderness searching for food. This is what happened in a typical Inuit household, but there are some exceptions. In some cases, women would do the hunting if the husband was away from home, or if they just enjoyed hunting as a hobby. Likewise, some men took on the responsibility of learning how to cook and sew. Further, Inuit marriage had a different structure than that of present day America. Their marriage customs were not strictly monogamous marriages. Many relationships were sexually open marriages. Also, divorce is common among the Inuit people, and some divorces could only take place if approved by the community. Also, some marriages were arranged, in as early as infancy. Marriage is commonly forced on a couple by the community, so it is not a surprise that divorce is common among their culture. Every household has it's head, who is an elder or a particularly respected man.

Reference: Diana Forero, "Inuit Tribe," Intermediate Huron (blog), November 6, 2008, http://intermediatehuron.blogspot.com/2008/06/family-gender-roles-mariage-and.html.

Background Information of the Alaskan Inuits

This indigenous group are called "Eskimos"(meaning eaters of raw flesh) by their neighbors the Abnaki Indians, but they call themselves "Inuit" (meaning the people). They contain around 60,000 people spread out throughout Alaska. Being one of the last groups to come to North America, the Inuit came between 6,000 and 2,000 B.C. There are several cultural eras discovered by anthropologists, the Denbigh (small tool culture) began 5,000 years ago and spread westward to Alaska and Canada. Being close to the sea and living in snow, it is a high probability that the Denbigh created the first snow houses. By about 1000 B.C. the Denbigh had moved further East into the Dorset Tradition. Both cultures have been found at a site near Point Hope called Ipiutak (around 125 miles North from the Artic Circle). Point Hope has been continuously inhabited for 2,000 years, making it the oldest known Inuit settlement. Houses at the Iputak, population of around 2,000 people (around the size of a modern village at Point Hope), were around 12 feet by 15 feet with sod-covered walls and roof. Other Inuit peoples settled in part-time villages, continually developing and called Old Bering Sea Cultures. This was because they traveled by kayak in the summer and sled in the winter. The Inuit people were classified as central-based wanderers because they spent part of the year searching for food and the rest of the time at a central camp. The hunting groups contained 12 to 50 people and there were three hunting seasons (seal season, caribou season, and whale season). This continuous cycle was broken up with occasional feasts where groups from miles around came together. This all being, the Inuit culture.

Bibliography:

Jones, Sydney, "Inuit", Countries and their Cultures,
            http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Inuit.html#b (accessed April 7, 2013).