Inuit Culture

The Inuit are considered by many to be a separate group from other Native Americans. They have very different physical characteristics, such as broader shoulders, shorter stature with rounder faces, and lighter skin. They look much more of Asia descent than any other Native American group. Based on archeological evidence, the prevailing theory is that the ancestors of the Inuit arrived well after the ancestors of most other Native Americans by foot over the Bering Strait land bridge. Keep on reading to learn more about the Inuit Culture, Traditions, and more.

Fig. 1 Inuit woman

Inuit Territory and Locations

The homeland of all Inuit in the Arctic and the Arctic region's surrounding cultural and geographic influences. The Arctic is a tundra so far north that trees cannot grow there. The only dominant plant life is moss, lichens, bushes, and a few varieties of flowering plants. Winter is long with very little daylight during those winter months, and the summers are very short. The ground never completely thaws, making the cultivation of crops near impossible. Most Inuit peoples live near the Arctic Ocean or other large bodies of water within the Arctic region, such as the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay, or Bering Strait.

Fig. 2 Inuit interior ice-cap

Inuit Diet

For such a harsh environment, the Inuit have adapted remarkably well. With so little vegetation, the Inuit are excellent hunters and fishermen, often moving in search of whatever game is available. Sea mammals provide good food and materials for clothing, textiles, weapons, and other commodities.

The seal is the most important to the Inuit society of all the sea mammals. In the summer, they hunt seals by kayak and harpoon. When the oceans and waterways freeze over in the winter, hunters use their hunting dogs, Huskies, to find the seals breathing holes in the ice. The hunter would then place a feather on the hole as a lure and alarm; when the feather moved, the hunter would strike out with a harpoon.

Fig. 3 Inuit Hunting

In addition to sea mammals, the Inuit also rely on land mammals to sustain their diet, especially caribou and elk, for meat and materials. Some tribes of Inuit, whose territory was more inland, had a diet that mainly consisted of land mammals and would migrate with the herds of the animals to maintain a consistent diet. On occasion, the Inuit hunt polar bears, oxen, sheep, wolves, foxes, hares, marmots, squirrels, and wildfowl.

To hunt these animals, the Inuit employ several techniques. They use bows and arrows, spears, weighted ropes for entanglement, and snares and traps for smaller games. They used similarly innovative techniques for fishing. Fishing from kayaks, holes in the ice, and shorelines, the Inuit would build stone enclosures to capture fish, hooks and lines, lures, harpoons, and leisters.

Inuit Shelter and Transportation

In addition to the kayak, the Inuit would use a larger boat called an umiak. It was similar to a kayak but larger - approximately 40 feet, and open. Additionally, Inuit craftsmen made a komatik sled out of strips of wood, rawhide, and bone. Teams of huskies pull the sleds across the ice and tundra. Hunters traveling on ice flows would pull their sleds with kayaks on top, and when they would reach a section of open water, flip the entire contraption over to use the kayak without detaching the sled. Inuit utilize snowshoes, crampons, and walking sticks used to gauge snow and ice thickness to move around the snow.

The Inuit live in all kinds of shelters such as igloos, hide tents, and huts. The igloo is the most recognizable, but this type of shelter was only used in the winter and only by the tribe of Central Inuit. Its uniqueness has made it a stereotype of the Inuit shelter. Made of ice and snow blocks, the blocks would be stacked interlocked, with a cap block on the top made with a hole to allow ventilation. The men would complete the blocks and frame, while women would cover the structure in loose snow for insulation. Inside there would be furs for beds, oil for cooking, and lamps.

Fig. 4 Inuit Igloos

Inuit Clothing

As with other aspects of Inuit life, their clothing was also necessarily ingenious. They often had to survive the harsh arctic climate and meet their active lifestyle needs. The basic clothes were parkas, pants, mittens, stockings, and boots made of various materials - usually hides and furs of the animals they have hunted. The favored clothing material is seal and caribou skin. Sealskin is waterproof, ideal for hunting on the shoreline, coast, or in the summer months when it rained. Caribou skin is perfect for the winter months as it retains heat more efficiently and is lighter in weight.

Fig. 5 Inuit Boy

The Inuit decorated their clothing with designs and borders of different colors, leather fringes, ivory buttons, and embroidered designs. Some Inuit women wear bone, shell, wood, or sandstone jewelry, such as pendants and nose rings. Tattoos are also common in Inuit culture.

Inuit Culture and Traditions

As mentioned before, the Inuit are viewed as separate from other North American Natives due to their physical and genealogical ancestry. Their culture, traditions, and language also differ significantly from the other native societies over the continent.

Inuit Language

The Inuit language is called Eskimaleut, with many varying dialects and bands of speech that are closely related. The similarities with the Aleut peoples indicate an ancestral link between the two cultures. The Inuit are subdivided, usually distinguished by either lingual dialect or geographic location; Alaskan Inuit, Saint Lawrence Inuit, Siberian Inuit, Central Inuit, and Greenland Inuit, with many subdivisions within each group.

Inuit Religion

In the Inuit religion, there is a common belief in a supernatural being that presides in the spirit of all living and non-living things. In addition, many Inuit believe in some version of creation mythology about how the earth and life were created. However, these mythologies and beliefs vary significantly between the subdivisions of tribes within Inuit culture.

The Inuit carved objects for their religious rituals out of various materials such as wood, bone, and ivory. At ceremonial dances, men wore face masks while women wore little finger masks. The covers represent the spirits of animals. The ceremonies themselves are directed by a shaman called an Angagok.

Inuit Throat Singing

Some Inuit tribes practice a vocal art, throat singing, accompanying these dances. Possibly having ancestral connections to people of central Asia, such as the Mongolians, this form of singing is recreationally and ceremonially.

Inuit Society

The extended family is the most fundamental Inuit social and cultural organization. Villages are loosely connected without a chief or headman, and the village will only last as long as the food supply. To allow for friendships and alliances to develop between tribes, the Inuit have particular partnerships with non-family members. Men have “sharing partners” with whom they may hunt or share a catch. Some also have “song partners” with whom they would perform religious rituals. The Inuit are a peaceful people, but they will fight if attacked, usually by other Native American tribes, as there are few documented violent conflicts between Inuit tribes.