I.

Introduction

Inuit, also referred to as Eskimo, several Arctic peoples inhabiting Nunavut and small enclaves in the coastal areas of Greenland, Alaska, and extreme north-eastern Siberia. Their name for themselves is Inuit (in Siberian and some Alaskan speech, Yuit), meaning “the people”. Inuit is a plural word, the singular of which is Inuk and means “person”. The name Eskimo, considered derogatory, comes from the descriptive term for “eaters of raw flesh”, inaccurately applied to them by an Algonquian people.

II.

Physical Characteristics and Regional Groupings

The Inuit people display metabolic, circulatory, and other adaptations to the Arctic climate (see Human Ecology). Inhabiting an area spanning almost 5,150 km (3,200 mi), Inuit have a wider geographical range than any other indigenous people and are the most sparsely distributed people on Earth. They fall generally into the following geographical (and cultural) divisions, moving from east to west: (1) Greenland Inuit, living on the eastern and western coasts of southern Greenland, who have adopted many European ways and are known as Greenlanders or Kalaallitt (Kalâtdlit); (2) Labrador Inuit, occupying the coast from the southern Labrador Peninsula to Hudson Bay, with a few settlements on southern Baffin Island; (3) Central Inuit, including those of far northern Greenland and, in Canada, Baffin Island and western Hudson Bay; (4) Banks-Island Inuit, on Banks Island, Victoria Island, and other large islands off the central Arctic coast; (5) Western-Arctic Inuit or Inuvialuit, along the western Arctic coast of Canada; (6) Alaskan Inuit; (7) Alaskan Yuit; and (8) Siberian Yuit.

III.

History

From archaeological, linguistic, and physiological evidence, most archaeologists and anthropologists have concluded that the Inuit migrated across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Arctic North America. A later arrival to the New World than most Native Americans, 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, in south-west Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, 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 1000-1300. The Dorset people were overrun by the Thule Inuit, who by ad 1000 to 1200 had reached Greenland. There, Inuit culture was influenced by medieval Norse colonists and, after 1700, by Danish settlers.

IV.

Language and Literature

The languages of the Inuit peoples constitute a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. A major linguistic division occurs in Alaska, according to whether the speakers call themselves Inuit (singular, Inuk) or Yuit (singular, Yuk). The Inuit branch of the family stretches from eastern Alaska across Canada and through northern into southern Greenland. It includes the Inupiaq (this term is also used to refer to the people who speak it [plural: Inupiat]) and Inuktitut languages and dialects, and Greenlandic (or Kalaallisut). These various languages are used as part of bilingual education (with English) in schools under Inuit jurisdiction in Alaska, and in schools and communications media in Nunavut, Canada, and Greenland.

Few explorers or traders ever learned these languages; instead, they relied on a jargon composed of Danish, Spanish, Hawaiian, and Inupiaq and Yupik (the other branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family) words. The Inupiaq and Yupik languages themselves have a rich oral literature, and a number of Greenland authors have written in Greenland Inupiaq. In August 2002, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference established a language commission to preserve and promote the use of Inuit languages, and to make recommendations for a common writing system for the languages.

V.

Social Organization

The manners and customs of the Inuit, like their language, are remarkably uniform despite the widespread diffusion of the people. The family—including the nuclear family, nearby relatives, and relations by marriage—is the most significant social unit. In traditional culture, marriages, although sometimes arranged, are generally open to individual choice. Monogamy is the usual pattern, but both polygyny and polyandry also occur. Marriage, a virtual necessity for physical survival, is based on a strict division of labour. Husband and wife retain their own tools, household goods, and other personal possessions. Men build houses, hunt, and fish, while women cook, dress animal skins, and make clothing. Food sources such as game and fish are considered community property. The underlying social law is the obligation to help one's kin. Community ridicule is the most common means of social control; in extreme cases, after lengthy deliberation, an offender may be socially ostracized or even put to death. With the absence of any communal legal structure, harming someone from another group jeopardizes one's own kinship group (which is held responsible for the offence) and raises the possibility of a blood feud. Provocative displays of emotion are strongly disapproved of. Some groups control conflict by means of wrestling matches or song duels, in which the angry parties extemporize insulting songs; the loser might then be driven from the community.

Alliances between non-relatives are formed and maintained through gift giving and the showing of respect. The highest such form of gift giving occurs when a head of household offers the opportunity of a temporary sexual liaison with the most valued adult woman of his household. The woman retains the power to refuse the liaison, however, in which case respect will be symbolized through the presentation of something else.

VI.

Provision of Food

The traditional Inuit diet consists mainly of fish, seals, whales, and related sea mammals, the flesh of which is eaten cooked, dried, or frozen. The seal is their staple winter food and most valuable resource. It provides them with dog food, clothing, and materials for making boats, tents, and harpoon lines, as well as fuel for both light and heat. In the interior of Alaska and Canada, caribou are hunted in the summer. To a lesser extent the polar bear, fox, hare, and Arctic birds, chiefly sea birds, also furnish important supplies. Large game such as whale, walrus, and caribou require bigger hunting expeditions than are possible for any one kinship group. Many families follow a seasonal hunting and fishing cycle that takes them from one end to the other of their customary territory; trade with other groups often occurs along the way. Nowadays, many Inuit work for wages and buy commercially prepared food.

VII.

Housing, Transport, and Clothing

Igloos (Inuit iglu, “house”) are of two kinds: walrus or sealskin tents for summer, and huts or houses for winter. Winter houses are usually made of stone, with a driftwood or whalebone frame, chinked and covered with moss or turf. The entrance is a long, narrow passage, just high enough to admit a person crawling on hands and knees. During long journeys some Canadian Inuit build winter houses of snow blocks piled up into a dome shape. Such snow houses, rare in Greenland and unknown in Alaska, were once permanent winter houses of the Inuit of central and eastern Canada. Nowadays, however, many Inuit have moved into towns to live in government-built, modern Western-style housing.

The principal traditional means of conveyance are the kayak, the oomiak, and the dogsled. The light, seaworthy kayak is a canoelike hunting boat made of a wood frame completely covered with sealskin except for a round central opening, where the single occupant sits. In Greenland and Alaska the skin around the hole can be laced tightly around the occupant, making the kayak virtually watertight. The oomiak, a larger, open boat, about 9 m (approximately 30 ft) long and 2.4 m (8 ft) wide, and made of a wooden frame covered with walrus skins, is used for whaling expeditions and, sometimes, to transport families and goods. The sled, drawn by a team of so-called Eskimo dogs admirably adapted for the purpose, is common among all Inuit except those in southern Greenland. After iron was obtained through trade, iron runners largely supplanted those made of ivory or whalebone. In the last half-century motorboats and snowmobiles have also become important modes of travel.

Traditional Inuit dress for both men and women consists of watertight boots, double-layered trousers, and the parka, a tight-fitting double-layered pullover jacket with a hood, all made of skins and furs. An enlarged hood forms a convenient cradle for nursing infants.

VIII.

Religious Beliefs

Traditional Inuit beliefs are a form of animism, according to which all objects and living beings have a spirit. All phenomena occur through the agency of some spirit. Intrinsically neither good nor bad, spirits can affect people's lives and, although not influenced by prayers, can be controlled by magical charms and talismans. The person best equipped to control spirits is the shaman, but anyone with the appropriate charms or amulets can exercise such control. Shamans are usually consulted to heal illnesses and resolve serious problems. Communal and individual taboos are observed to avoid offending animal spirits, and animals killed for food must be handled with prescribed rituals.

Inuit rituals and myths not surprisingly reflect a preoccupation with survival in a hostile environment. Vague beliefs of an afterlife or reincarnation exist, but these receive little emphasis. Most communal rites centre on preparation for the hunt, and myths tend to deal with the relations that exist between human beings, animals, and the environment. In Nunavut, Greenland, Labrador, and southern Alaska, large numbers of Inuit have converted to Christianity.

IX.

Arts and Crafts

From prehistoric times Inuit tools have been noted for their careful construction and the artistry of their carved ornamentation. Ivory from walruses and whales, the most accessible material for carving, is fashioned into figurines representing animals and people, and into decorated knobs, handles, and other tool parts. Driftwood and whalebone are carved into ceremonial masks, some small enough to be worn on women's fingers during a ritual dance. After contact with European, Canadian, and American traders began in the 18th century, the Inuit also made, as trade items, scrimshaw—carved ivory and whalebone objects, such as canes and cribbage boards. After about 1950, the Canadian government, concerned with pressures that increasingly pushed the Inuit into a cash economy, encouraged the carving and sale of highly sophisticated soapstone sculptures. Sculpture and printmaking, marketed through cooperatives, have become mainstays of the Canadian Inuit economy and the best-known aspect of Inuit culture.

Inuit performing arts centre on ceremonial songs and dances. Some magical songs are considered personal property and can be sold or traded. The principal musical instrument is the shallow, tambourine-like shaman's drum.

X.

Adjusting to Change

Since the late 20th century the Inuit have begun to form particular organizations to represent their interests. Such organizations have been instrumental in, for example, resolving land claims. The international Inuit Circumpolar Conference, founded in 1977, meets every three years. It provides a forum for Greenland and North American Inuit to discuss common problems, lobby for an Inuit voice in the planning of economic development, and promote the preservation of the environment. A further significant advance came in 1999 when the Inuit region of Nunavut became a separate Canadian territory, giving the Inuit people an opportunity to elect representatives and gain political control over their own affairs.