HRT3M

UNIT II: ABORIGINAL SPIRITUALITY

An Education on the Inuit of the Arctic

Region

The Inuit People

● Aboriginal inhabitants of the North American Arctic, from Bering Strait to East Greenland, a distance of over 6000 kilometers.

● As well as Arctic Canada, Inuit also live in northern Alaska and Greenland, and have close relatives in Russia.

● They are united by a common cultural heritage and a common language.

● Until recently, outsiders called the Inuit "Eskimo." Now they prefer their own term, "Inuit," meaning simply "people." There are about 40,000 Inuit in Canada.

Location

Climate● Very cold climate.● Snow and ice cover

the land for up to 9 months out of the year.

● Climate Change: Melting sea ice changing hunting patterns

Current Conditions

●First Nations and Inuit in Canada find themselves living in "Fourth World" conditions.

●Canada = wealthy, industrialized, First World nation

●Native Communities: Third World socioeconomic conditions

●First Nations and Inuit families and communities find themselves with decreased levels of self-sufficiency.

Residential schools = generations of First Nations and Inuit unable to develop traditional knowledge and skills, including basic parenting skills.

The Role of Women

●Family ties of great importance to the Inuit, as is a large family.

●Traditionally, women have often assumed a secondary role in Inuit society.

●At mealtime, an Inuit woman required to serve her husband and any visitors before she herself was permitted to eat.

●But:"A hunter is what his wife makes him." ●The women gathered firewood, butchered the animals, and erected tents in summer and igloos in winter.

Religious Practices

●Christianity and Shamanism●The Inuit religion was very complex nature worship.

●Everything had a soul and was spiritually connected (this is called animism).

●The universe was at harmony with its elements and the powers of nature possessed a neutral position towards man. i.e. humanity does not hold dominion over other forms of life (in contrast with tenets of Christianity)

The Role of the Physical: Traditionally

The Role of the Physical: Modern

●The Inuit didn’t have sacred buildings.

“The nature was sacred, and the Inuit was a child of nature; but life was not a paradise; man’s capability of doing evil represented a constant threat to harmony.”

Religious Practices

Shelter

Winter Home

● Igloo means any type of house, not just a snow house.

● The snow-block house not used by all Inuits. 

● To make an igloo, hard-packed snow was cut into blocks . A man could build an  igloo in an hour.

● Inuit slept on low snow platform covered with twigs and caribou furs.

● Each igloo had a skylight made of freshwater ice.

● Summer = igloo melted, and the family had to move into tents made of animal skins.

Summer HomeInuit built tents out of driftwood or poles covered with animal skins, mostly caribou or sealskin. 

A ring of boulders around the base held down the tent skin covering.

Food/Hunting● Mainly hunters, and

relied heavily on the animals of the Arctic as their main source of food.

● Since very few plants could survive in the Arctic climate, the Inuit could not depend solely on plants for food.

Food/HuntingThe Inuit fished fromkayaks and holes in theground for sea

animals. 

The Inuit people hunted land and sea mammals.

ClothingMen and women generally wore similar clothing to one another.

Winter = layers of boots, trousers, parkas with hoods, and mittens. Caribou was main material in Winter, while sealskin was the choice in Summer.

An atiqik is a Inuit parka made with goose down

Boots are known as Kamiks. They are made from sealskin because it lasts long, is warm,  and isn't hurt when it gets wet.

The Clash of Cultures

So what happens to a people’s educational needs when traditional knowledge confronts modern needs of government?