Inuit Eskimos Essay Example For Students

Inuit Eskimos Essay Inuit: The People of the ArcticThe native people that live in the Northern-Polar Regions of the world refer to themselves as Inuit, or as Americans like to call them Eskimos. The Inuit are nomadic tribes who live their lifes very different from the rest of the world. They base their life on beliefs, customs, habits, traditions, and culture that are very different from the American culture. The culture of the Inuit is a very miss-understood culture and it is proven in this essay that the Inuit are more than just savage, seal, killing Indians, that sleep in ice houses, live in below freezing weather and only kiss with their noses. Inuit is a word that means the people, which is how they refer to themselves. Until recently outsiders called the Inuit, Eskimos which means eaters of meat. Scientists have placed the Inuit in a separate anthropological category, while the Inuit are closely related to the native of Northern Asia, which is were they originally came from. Language provides an important insight into the lives of the Inuit. For example they must spend hours on end tracking caribou for many km or sitting by a hole in the ice waiting for a seal to show itself. The Inuit have no need to describe the past or future in great detail so they have no word for history. Another extreme is snow. There are many different words for many different types of snow. For example, aput is the the general word for snow. Snow that has recently drifted is akeolrak, but drifted snow is perksertok. The Inuit language is made up of words for the things that are important to the Inuit way of life (Halderson 2-7). Beginning about a thousand years ago, the early Inuit began to spread into the Arctic of Canada, across the great land bridge known as the Bering Straight, which no longer exists. The Inuit eventually spread over 6000 km, from the Soviet Union to East Greenland. Within a few hundred years, they had replaced the earlier inhabitants of the region. The migration across the land bridge was not a single mass event, but it was probably dozens of parties of perhaps twenty to thirty people moving east in search for a better life. A particular goal for making the great migration seemed to be richer whaling waters along the Baffin and Somerset Islands, and the always necessity for more space, soon after that whaling villages and small camps sprouted along the coast, while in-coast camps relied on seal and caribou (Halderson 2-7). The Inuit gradually spread across the arctic regions settling in four countries: The Soviet Union, The United States (Alaska), Canada and Greenland. According to Archaeological research, the first Inuit settled on the frozen tundra and the chilly sea coast. The Inuit have very distinct characteristics. Their height and weight varies, just, like in any culture. Their skin is tanned from the sun as dark as leather. The hair on their head is dark black and straight and the face grows hardly any facial hair. Their eyes are dark and almond shaped, a small almost bridge-less nose with large flared nostrils, a very strong jaw, that came about from generation and generation of eating almost nothing but meat, and they have a distinctively high and round zygoma bone. It is often stated the physical characteristics of the Inuit came about, due to their adaptation of the cold weather. For instant: A flat face and small extremities are easier to keep warm. The fold in their eyes keeps the eyes fr om freezing and in the spring in blocks of some of the glare on the bright sun that reflects of the snow. The lack of facial hair keeps ice and condensation from building up from the breathing. And the very tough jaw comes from the very tough diet, which regularly includes raw, frozen meat or walrus hide (Morrison and Germain 12-13). The cold water of the Arctic provides the Inuit with all types of food. The single most important part of the Inuit diet is the seal. There are six type of seal that the Inuit hunt for food: the Ringed Seal, the Harbour Seal, the Harp Seal, the Grey seal, the Bearded Seal and the Hooded seal. The fish hunted for food are mainly cod and salmon. Whales that were killed for food include the Bowhead whale, the Narwhal and the Beluga, and another important part of their diet is the almighty walrus. The land animals that provide the Inuit with food are the Polar bear, Caribou, Musk-Ox and the smaller game includes Arctic wolves, foxes and hares, also ground squirrels and brown lemmings. The birds that pose for prey are the ducks, geese, swans, loons and even the eggs of the birds in the early summer months. The Inuit favorite food was usually seal, caribou, walrus liver and the skin of whales. The hunts in the winter months included polar bears, arctic foxes and arctic hares, and the hunts in the summer months usually included caribou, geese, and walrus. The animals are not wasted once stripped of all their meat. Almost everything on the animal is put to some sort of use. The pelts of the bigger and smaller animals are used for clothing and shelter from protection of the cold weather. The antlers of the caribou, the ivory of the walrus tusk and the bone of the whale and musk-ox can be used for knifes and harpoons(Morrison 64-137). Frankenstein and the Romantic Era EssayUntil recently their had been no Inuit artists because they didnt have time in their life for art. The only form of art in the past had been idly carving seabirds or seals in soft stone. Inuit did decorate things that were very important like spears, harpoons or pipes. Toys for children would be carved out of bone or soft stone. Inuit clothing was often decorated with tiny dots. Masks were also important objects in their ceremonies. The Inuit believed in a special godlike power that was contained in all of nature. They followed their priests and shamans in approaching this power in the proper way by living in harmony with nature. The shaman would lead dances performed to honor nature. At other times individuals would go alone into nature to better understand their relationship with it. They emphasized lifes important occasions such as the naming of a baby at 8 days of age. They were usually named after a relative who died. If they did not live to 8days they were not mourned as they had never lived (Dorothy and Blaker 159). Eskimo life is much different now. Most of the people live in towns or small settlements. They wear modern clothing, live in modern houses, and eat food purchased from stores. Instead of kayaks and dog sleds, they use motorboats and snowmobiles. Many have renounced the native religion for Christianity. Many Eskimos now work for wages, but a substantial number are unemployed and require government help to live. In the Soviet Union at present there are approximately 1,500 Eskimos living on the northeast tip of Siberia. In the 1920s the Communist government took control of all Eskimo communities. They provided health care and helped with housing and education. The Eskimos were encouraged to produce goods for sale throughout the country. Some examples of successes in this area were reindeer hides, walrus tusks, and bone and soapstone carvings. In Alaska the Eskimo population is approximately 42,000. By the early 1900s, rifle hunting and trapping greatly reduced the number of game animals. They began to hunt reindeer which had been brought in from Siberia by the U. S. government. They became U. S. citizens in 1924. During World War II (1941-1945) they worked at U. S. military bases; afterward, part-time jobs were the only employment available. Many now depend on the government to improve living conditions. Eskimos benefited, to a small degree, from the 1968 oil strike. Most of the Eskimo children do not finish high school. Canadas Eskimo population is about 25,000. Their lives didnt change a lot until the 1950s. The fur trade declined, and the number of caribou decreased after rifle use increased. More and more of the Eskimos moved to communities developed around trading posts, government administrative offices, military radar sites, and mission churches. Construction jobs were plentiful for a period of time. The Canadian government assistedthrough the development of commercial fishing cooperatives and handicrafts. Soapstonesculptures are sold to people in Canada and the United States. The government provides assistance with financial aid and health care. Greenland is presently a province of Denmark, after being a Danish colony for 573 years. There are approximately 50,000 Eskimos living there. In the early 1900s they began to engage in commercial fishing. A change in climate warmed coastal waters; this drove seals north and attracted cod, salmon, and other fish. Shortly afterward, the Danish government established programs to aid the Eskimos. They improved education, housing, and health care besides providing training for jobs in manufacturing and service industries. The Eskimos who live in northern Greenland still follow the traditional life (Coklin Web-site). Although many changes have occurred since their ancestors first arrived in North America, there are almost 120,000 Eskimos still living in the Far North. To survive they have been forced to battle weather and then the influence of white men; in many ways the latter has been much more challenging to their endurance. WORKS CITEDMorrison, David and Germain, Georges-Herbert. Inuit: Glimpses of an Arctic Past. Canadian Museum of Civilization: Blanchette, 1995Morrison, David. Arctic Hunters: The Inuit and the Diamond Jenness. Canadian Museum of Civilization: Hull, 1992Halderson, Karen, MPH, RD. Alaska Native: Food Practices, Customs, and Holidays. United States of America: ADA and ADA. Inc, 1993Ray, Dorothy and Blaken, Alfred A. Eskimo: Mask and Ceremony. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1967Coklin, Martin. Comparison of the First Nations Peoples of Canada. British Columbia: Camosun College, 15 Oct, 2002http://ccins.camosun.bc.ca/coklin/pages/martin/index.htm.