Shamanism among Eskimo peoples - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Shamanism among Eskimo peoples refers to those aspects of the various Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

cultures that are related to the shamans’

Shamanism

Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...

role as a mediator between people and spirits, souls, and mythological beings

Inuit mythology

Inuit mythology has many similarities to the religions of other polar regions. Inuit traditional religious practices could be very briefly summarised as a form of shamanism based on animist principles....

. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Eskimo groups, but today are rarely practiced, and it was already in the decline among many groups even in the times when the first major ethnological research was done. For example, at the end of 19th century, Sagdloq died, the last shaman among Polar Eskimos who was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea, and many other shamanic capabilities such as ventriloquism

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...

and sleight-of-hand were lost then too.

The term "Eskimo" has fallen out of favour in Canada and Greenland, where it is considered pejorative

Pejorative

Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...

and "Inuit" is used instead. However, "Eskimo" is still considered acceptable among Alaska Natives

Alaska Natives

Alaska Natives are the indigenous peoples of Alaska. They include: Aleut, Inuit, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.-History:In 1912 the Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded...

of Yupik and Inupiaq (Inuit) heritage, and is preferred over "Inuit" as a collective reference

Umbrella term

An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...

. To date, no replacement term for "Eskimo" inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people has achieved acceptance across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples. The Inuit

Inuit language

The Inuit language is traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The related Yupik languages are spoken in western and southern Alaska and Russian Far East, particularly the Diomede Islands, but is severely endangered in Russia today and...

and Yupik language

Yupik language

The Yupik languages are the several distinct languages of the several Yupik peoples of western and southcentral Alaska and northeastern Siberia. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that speakers of different ones cannot understand each other, although they may understand the general...

s constitute one branch within the Eskimo–Aleut language family and the Aleut language

Aleut language

Aleut is a language of the Eskimo–Aleut language family. It is the heritage language of the Aleut people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands. As of 2007 there were about 150 speakers of Aleut .- Dialects :Aleut is alone with the Eskimo languages in the...

is another. (The Sireniki Eskimo language is sometimes seen as a third branch, but sometimes as one of the Yupik languages.)

Connection to shamanism

The term "shamanism" has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, some indigenous cultures of Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

were described as having shamans, but the term is now commonly used for other cultures as well. In general, the shamanistic belief systems accept that certain people (shamans) can act as mediators with the spirit world, contacting the various entities (spirits, souls, and mythological beings) that populate the universe in those systems.

The word "shaman" comes from a Tungusic language

Tungusic languages

The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain...

and its etymology is debated, one explanation analyzes it meaning "he/she who knows". Shamans use various means, including music, recitation of epic

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...

, dance, and ritual objects to interact with the spirit world - either for the benefit of the community or for doing harm. They may have spirits that assist them and may also travel to other worlds (or other aspects of this world). Most Eskimo groups had such a mediator function, and the person fulfilling the role was believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (e.g. Nuliayuk among the Netsilik Inuit

Netsilik Inuit

The Netsilik Inuit live predominantly in the communities of Kugaaruk and Gjoa Haven of the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut and to a smaller extent in Taloyoak and the north Qikiqtaaluk Region...

and Takanaluk-arnaluk in Aua

Aua (Inuit)

Aua was an Inuit angakkuq known for his anthropological input to Greenland anthropologist Knud Rasmussen. As a shaman practicing into the 1920s, Aua provided perspective on Inuit religion at a time when it was being subsumed by introduced Christianity.-Sources:*Penny Petrone. Northern Voices:...

's narration) to "release" the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their "stolen" souls. Shaman is used in an Eskimo context in a number of English-language publications, both academic and popular, generally in reference to the angakkuq

Angakkuq

The Angakkuq , Angatkuq , Angakok or Ilisitsok is the intellectual and spiritual figure among the Inuit and corresponds to a shaman. Not only the Inuit, but also other Eskimo cultures know similar mediator persons...

among the Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

. The alignalghi (aˈliɣnalʁi) of the Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik , a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.They were also...

s is also translated as "shaman" in both Russian and English literature.

Shamanism among the Eskimo peoples exhibits some characteristic features not universal in shamanism, such as soul dualism

Soul dualism

Soul dualism or a dualistic soul concept is a range of beliefs that a person has two kinds of souls. In many cases, one of the souls is associated with body functions and the other one can leave the body . Sometimes the plethora of soul types can be even more complex...

(a dualistic or pluralistic concept of the soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

) in certain groups, and specific links between the living, the souls of hunted animals and dead people. The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls. In Greenland, the transgression of this death taboo could turn the soul of the dead into a tupilaq
Tupilaq
In Greenlandic Inuit traditions, a tupilaq was an avenging monster fabricated by a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism by using various objects such as animal parts and even parts taken from the corpses of children. The creature was given life by ritualistic chants...

, a restless ghost which scared game away. Animals were thought to flee hunters who violated taboos.

Shamanic initiation

Unlike many Siberian traditions, in which spirits force individuals to become shamans, most Eskimo shamans choose this path. Even when someone receives a "calling", that individual may refuse it. The process of becoming an Eskimo shaman usually involves difficult learning and initiation

Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...

rites, sometimes including a vision quest

Vision quest

A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures.In many Native American groups, the vision quest is a turning point in life taken before puberty to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. When an older child is ready, he or she will go on a personal,...

. Like the shamans of other cultures, some Eskimo shamans are believed to have special qualifications: they may have been an animal during a previous period, and thus be able to use their valuable experience for the benefit of the community.

The initiation process varies from culture to culture. It may include:

a specific kind of vision quest, such as among the Chugach
Chugach
Chugach is the name of an Alaska Native culture and group of people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language....

.
various kinds of out-of-body experiences, such as seeing oneself as a skeleton, exemplified in Aua's (Iglulik) narration and a Baker Lake artwork

Special language

In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly archaic

Archaism

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...

version of the normal language interlaced with special metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

s and speech styles, for example "the shadow is ripening" (the shaman is returning from his spiritual journey during a seance). Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech. Also the shamans among Asiatic Eskimos had a special language, using periphrastic

Circumlocution

Circumlocution is an ambiguous or roundabout figure of speech...

substitutions for names of objects and phenomena; they used it for conversation with the tuʁnɨʁaq (spirits). These spirits were believed to have a special language with certain substitutes for ordinary words (“the one with a drum”: shaman, “that with tusks”: walrus). The Ungazighmiit (belonging to Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

s) had a special allegoric

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

usage of some expressions.

Observing Sorqaq shaman's seance in a community at Thule

Qaanaaq

Qaanaaq is the main town in the northern part of the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland. It is one of the northernmost towns in the world. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the West Greenlandic language and many also speak Inuktun. The town has a population of 626 as of 2010...

, Peter Freuchen

Peter Freuchen

Peter Freuchen, born Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist.-Biography:...

explains the motivation in that case: In this case, the special language was understood by the whole community, not restricted to the shaman or a few “experts”.

In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialised babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with "alien" beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little "alien" - just like spirits or animal souls). The motif of a distinction between spirit and "real" human is also present in a tale of Ungazighmiit (subgroup of Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

)
Another interesting example of the special shamanic usage, and its contribution to relexicalization:

Techniques

Techniques and séances varied among cultures. Sleight-of-hand, ventriloquism

Ventriloquism

Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...

might be used to impress the audience. In some cultures the shaman was pinioned before the séance. or, the shaman might hide behind a curtain. Holding the séance in the dark with lamps extinguished was not universally obligatory, but the setting was familiar and widespread.

Some authors suggest that a shaman could be honest in his tricks, believing in the phenomena he himself mimicked, moreover, he could consciously cheat and honestly believe at the same time. Knud Rasmussen mentioned about Arnaqaoq, a young Netsilik living in King William Island

King William Island

King William Island is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and forms part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the 61st largest island in the world and Canada's 15th largest island...

, that he smeared himself with the blood of a seal or reindeer, telling people that he had a battle with spirits. Rasmussen conjectured that he could honestly believe in this spirit battle experience which he himself mimicked with smearing blood. The personal impression of Rasmussen about this man was that he honestly believed in the forces and spirits. As Rasmussen asked him to draw some pictures about his experiences, even his visions about spirits, Arnaqaoq was first unwilling to do so (having fear of the spirits). Later he accepted the task, and he spent hours to re-experience his visions, sometimes so lucidly that he had to stop drawing when his whole body began to quiver.

Social position

The boundary between shaman and lay person was not always clearly demarcated. Non-shamans could also experience hallucination

Hallucination

A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...

s, and almost every Eskimo can report memories of ghosts, animals in human form, or little people living in remote places. Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readily as everyday hunting adventures. Neither were ecstatic experiences the monopoly of shamans (reverie, daydreaming, even trance were not unknown by non-shamans), and laypeople (non-shamans) experiencing such were welcome as well to report their experiences and interpretations. The ability to have and command helping spirits was characteristic of shamans, but laypeople could also profit from spirit powers through the use of amulets. In one extreme instance a Netsilingmiut child had 80 amulets for protection. Some laypeople had a greater capacity than others for close relationships with special beings of the belief system; these people were often apprentice shamans who failed to complete their learning process.

Soul concepts

In generally, some of the various cultures termed "shamanistic" can be understood better if we understand also the soul concept and the beliefs about spirits in the researched culture.

This applies also for some Eskimo groups. Eskimo cultures are not alike, neither are their soul concepts.

Shamanism

In some of them, shamans may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing infertile

Infertility

Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...

women, and securing the success of hunts. These seemingly unrelated functions can be grasped better by understanding the soul concept which, with some variation, underlies them.

Healing

It is held that the cause of sickness is soul theft, in which someone (perhaps an enemy shaman or a spirit) has stolen the soul of the sick person. It takes a shaman to retrieve the stolen soul. The person remains alive because people have multiple souls, so stealing the appropriate soul causes illness or a moribund state rather than immediate death. According to another variant among Ammassalik

Tasiilaq

Tasiilaq is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,930 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Greenland...

Eskimos in East Greenland, the joints of the body have their own small souls, the loss of which causes pain.

Fertility

The shaman provides assistance to the soul of an unborn child to allow its future mother to become pregnant.

Success of hunts

When game is scarce the shaman can visit (in a soul travel) a mythological being who protects all sea creatures (usually the Sea Woman

Sedna (mythology)

In Inuit mythology, Sedna is the goddess of the sea and marine animals such as seals. A creation myth, the story of Sedna shows how she came to rule over Adlivun, the Inuit underworld...

), who keeps the souls of sea animals in her house or in a pot. If the shaman pleases her, she releases the animal souls thus ending the scarcity of game.

Soul dualism is held in several cultures (including Eskimo, Uralic, Turkic peoples). There are traces of beliefs that human have more than one soul. Of course the details have variations according to the culture under discussion. In several cases, a free soul and a body soul are distinguished: the free soul may depart body (during life), the body soul manages body functions. In several Eskimo cultures, it is the shaman's free soul that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive. According to an explanation, this temporal absence of the shaman's free soul is tackled by a substitution: the shaman's body is guarded by one of his/her helping spirits during the spirit journey, also a tale contains this motif

Motif (narrative)

In narrative, a motif is any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, a motif can help produce other narrative aspects such as theme or mood....

while describing a spirit journey undertaken by the shaman's free soul and his helping spirits.

When a new shaman is first initiated, the initiator extracts the shaman's free soul and introduces it to the helping spirits so that they will listen when the new shaman invokes them; or according to another explanation (that of the Iglulik shaman Aua) the souls of the vital organs of the apprentice must move into the helping spirits: the new shaman should not feel fear of the sight of his new helping spirits.

Animals

Although beliefs about unity between human and animal did not reach the amount of absolute interchangeability, but several Eskimo peoples had sophisticated soul concepts (including variants of soul dualism

Soul dualism

) that created links among (living) human, game, dead ancestors. Besides such synchronical beliefs, there were also diachronical notions of unity between human and animal: imaginations about an ancient time when the animal could take on human form at will: it simply raised its forearm or wing to its face and lifted it aside at the muzzle or beak, like a mask. Rituals could preserve this ancient unity: the masked person represents the animal, and as he/she lifts the mask, the human existence of that animal appears. Masks among Eskimo peoples

Masks among Eskimo peoples

Masks among Eskimo peoples served a variety of functions. Masks were made out of driftwood, animal skins, bones and feathers. They were often painted using bright colors...

could serve several functions, there were also transformation masks reflecting the mentioned unity between human and animal.

In some Inuit groups, animals may be believed to have souls that are shared across their species.

Naming

In some groups, babies were named after deceased relatives. This might be supported by the belief that the child's developing, weak soul must be "supported" by a name-soul: invoking the departed name-soul which will then accompany and guide the child until adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls amounts to a sort of reincarnation

Reincarnation

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

among some groups, such as the Caribou Eskimos.

In a tale of the Ungazighmiit

Siberian Yupik

, an old woman expresses her desire to become ill, die and then "come" as a boy, a hunter. After specific preparations following her death, a newborn baby will be named after her. Similarly to several other Eskimo cultures, the name-giving of a newborn baby among Siberian Yupik meant that a deceased person was affected, a certain rebirth was believed. Even before the birth of the baby, careful investigations took place: dreams, events were analyzed. After the birth, the baby's physical traits were compared to those of the deceased person. The name was important: if the baby died, it was thought that he/she has not given the "right" name. In case of sickness, it was hoped that giving additional names could result in healing.

Some kinds of magic requiring secrecy (or novelty), and the neutralizing effect of publicity

It was believed in several contexts that secrecy

Secrecy

Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals...

or privacy

Privacy

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...

may be needed for an act or an object (either beneficial or harmful, intended or incidental) to be effective, and that publicity

Publicity

Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people , goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.From a marketing perspective, publicity is one component of promotion which is one...

may neutralize its effects.

Magic formulae usually required secrecy and could lose their power if they became known by other people than their owners. For example a Chugach
Chugach
Chugach is the name of an Alaska Native culture and group of people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language....

man experienced a sea otter
Sea Otter
The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...

swimming around, singing a song, a magic formula. He knew it is a help in hunting, whose efficiency will be lost for him if anybody else learns it.
Deliberately harmful magical acts (ilisiinneq) had to be done in secrecy.
If the victim of another detrimental magical act (tupilaq
Tupilaq
In Greenlandic Inuit traditions, a tupilaq was an avenging monster fabricated by a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism by using various objects such as animal parts and even parts taken from the corpses of children. The creature was given life by ritualistic chants...

-making) had enough magical power (for example through amulets) to notice the act and "rebound" it back to the perpetrator, the endangered person could escape retribution only by public confession of his planned (and failed) sorcery.
a rite of passage
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....

celebrating the first major hunting success of a boy often contained a "partaking" element: the whole community cut the dead animal or took part in its consumption. The function of this rite was to establish a positive relationship between the young man and the game animal; because the killed animal could bring danger to the hunter, this ritual lessened the danger by sharing the responsibility.

Some of the shaman's functions can be understood in the light of this notion of secrecy versus publicity. The cause of illness was usually believed to be soul theft or a breach of some taboo (such as miscarriage). Public confession (led by the shaman during a public seance) could bring relief to the patient. Similar public rituals were used in the cases of taboo breaches that endangered the whole community (bringing the wrath of mythical beings causing calamities).

In some instances, the efficiency of magical formulae could depend on their novelty. A creation myth attributes such power to newly created words, that they became instantly true by their mere utterance. Also in shamanic practice, too much use of the same formulae could result in losing their power. According to a record, a man was forced to use all his magic formulae in an extremely dangerous situation, and this resulted in losing all his conjurer capabilities. As reported from the Little Diomede Island

Little Diomede Island

Little Diomede Island is an island of Alaska, United States. It is the smaller of the two Diomede Islands located in the middle of the Bering Strait between the Alaska mainland and Siberia...

, new songs were needed regularly for the ceremonial held to please the soul of the whale, because "the spirits were to be summoned with fresh words, worn-out songs could never be used...".

Inuit

Among the Canadian Inuit, the shaman was known as an Angakkuq

Angakkuq

(Inuktitut

Inuktitut

Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...

) or Angatkuq (Inuvialuktun

Inuvialuktun

Inuvialuktun, or Western Canadian Inuit language, Western Canadian Inuktitut, Western Canadian Inuktun comprises three Inuit dialects spoken in the northern Northwest Territories by those Canadian Inuit who call themselves Inuvialuk .Inuvialuktun is spoken by the Inuit of the Mackenzie River delta...

) (Inuktitut syllabics

Inuktitut syllabics

Inuktitut syllabics is a writing system used by the Inuit in Nunavut and in Nunavik, Quebec...

ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ).

Iglulik

According to Aua (an informant and friend of the anthropologist Rasmussen), one of the shaman's tasks among the Iglulik Inuit

Igloolik, Nunavut

Igloolik , is an Inuit hamlet, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because it is on the small island, one of Canada's national historic sites, of the same name, in Foxe Basin that is very close to the Melville Peninsula , it is often thought to be on the peninsula...

is to help the community in times when marine animals, which are kept by the Sea Woman (Takanaluk-arnaluk) in a pit in her house, are scarce. If taboo breaches that displease her lead to the failure of sea hunts, the shaman must visit her. Several barriers must be surmounted (such as a wall or a dog) and in some instances even the Sea Woman herself must be fought. If the shaman succeeds in appeasing her the animals will be released as normal.

The Iglulik variant of a myth explaining the Sea Woman’s origins involves a girl and her father. The girl did not want to marry. However, a bird managed to trick her into marriage and took her to an island. The girl's father managed to rescue his daughter, but the bird created a storm which threatened to sink their boat. Out of fear the father threw his daughter into the ocean, and cut her fingers as she tried to climb back into the boat. The cut joints became various sea mammals and the girl became a ruler of marine animals, living under the sea. Later on her remorseful father joined her.

This local variant differs from several others, like that of the Netsiliks, which is about an orphan girl mistreated by her community.

Aua also passed on information about the ability of an apprentice shaman to see themself as a skeleton, naming each part using the specific shaman language.

Inuit at Amitsoq Lake

For the Inuit at Amitsoq Lake (a rich fishing ground) sewing of many items was seasonally prohibited. Boot soles, for example could only be sewn far away from settlements in designated places. Children at Amitsoq had a game called tunangusartut in which they imitated the adults behavior towards the spirits, including shamanizing, even reciting the same verbal formulae as shamans. This game was not considered offensive because a "spirit can understand the joke."

Netsilik Inuit

The Netsilik Inuit

Netsilik Inuit

The Netsilik Inuit live predominantly in the communities of Kugaaruk and Gjoa Haven of the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut and to a smaller extent in Taloyoak and the north Qikiqtaaluk Region...

(Netsilingmiut - People of the Seal) live in a region with an extremely long winter and stormy conditions in the spring, where starvation was a common danger.

The cosmos of many other Eskimo cultures include protective guardian powers, but for the Netsilik the general hardship of life resulted in the extensive use of such measures, and even dogs could have amulets. Unlike the Igluliks, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had eighty amulets, so many that he could hardly play. In addition one man had seventeen names taken from his ancestors that were intended to protect him.

Among the Netsilik, tattooing provided power that could affect which world a woman goes to after her death.

The Sea Woman was known as Nuliayuk "the lubricous one". If the people breached certain taboos, she would hold the marine animals in the tank of her lamp. When this happened the shaman had to visit her to beg for game. The Netsilik myth concerning her origin stated that she was an orphan girl who had been mistreated by her community.

Another cosmic being known as Moon Man was thought to be friendly towards people and their souls as they arrive in celestial places. This belief differs from that of the Greenland Eskimos, where the Moon’s anger was feared as a consequence of some taboo breaches.

Sila

Silap Inua

In Inuit mythology, Silap Inua or Silla was, similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life and the method of locomotion for any movement or change. Silla is believed to control everything that goes on in one's life.Silla is a deity of the...

was a sophisticated concept among Eskimo cultures (where its manifestation varied). Often associated with weather, it was conceived of as a power contained in people. Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region and the Northwest Territories's Inuvik Region. Most historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.Their western boundary was Wise Point,...

) held that Sila originated as a giant baby whose parents were killed in combat between giants.

Caribou Eskimos

"Caribou Eskimos" (Caribou Inuit

Caribou Inuit

Caribou Inuit, Barren-ground Caribou hunters, are bands of inland Inuit who lived west of Hudson Bay in northern Canada's Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, now the Kivalliq Region of present-day Nunavut between 61° and 65° N and 90° and 102° W...

) is a collective name for several groups of inland Eskimos (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the tree line and the west shore of Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay

Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...

. They do not form a political unit and contacts between the groups are loose, but they share an inland lifestyle and exhibit some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiuts did have contact with the sea where they took part in seal hunts.

The Caribou had a dualistic concept of the soul

Soul dualism

. The soul associated with respiration was called umaffia (place of life) and the personal soul of a child was called tarneq (corresponding to the nappan of the Copper Eskimos). The tarneq was considered so weak that it needed the guardianship of a name-soul of a dead relative. The presence of the ancestor in the body of the child was felt to contribute to a more gentle behavior, especially among boys. This belief amounted to a form of reincarnation

Reincarnation

.

Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou had no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, variously named Sila or Pinga, take her place, controlling caribou instead of marine animals. Some groups made a distinction between the two figures, while others considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.

Caribou shamans performed fortune-telling

Fortune-telling

Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...

through qilaneq, a technique of asking a qila (spirit). The shaman placed his glove on the ground, and raised his staff and belt over it. The qila then entered the glove and drew the staff to itself. Qilaneq was practiced among several other Eskimo groups, where it was used to receive "yes" or "no" answers to questions.

Copper Inuit

As mentioned, shamanhood among Eskimo peoples was a diverse phenomenon, just like the various Eskimo cultures themselves. Similar remarks apply for other beliefs: term silap inua
Silap Inua
In Inuit mythology, Silap Inua or Silla was, similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life and the method of locomotion for any movement or change. Silla is believed to control everything that goes on in one's life.Silla is a deity of the...

/ sila, hillap inua / hilla (among Inuit

Inuit

), ellam yua / ella (among Yup'ik) was used with some diversity among the groups. In many instances it refers “outer space”, “intellect”, “weather”, “sky”, “universe”: there may be some correspondence with the presocratic concept of logos

Logos

' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...

. In some other groups, this concept was more personified (sl̥am juɣwa among Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

).

Among Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit

, this “Wind Indweller” concept has some relatedness to their shamanhood: shamans were believed to obtain their power from this indweller, moreover, even their helping spirits were termed as silap inue.

Yupik

Like the Netsiliks, the Yupik also practised tattooing. Another feature of them that is observable among several other Eskimo groups: also they used a special shamanic language (for talking to spirits, called [tuʁnɨʁaq]). These spirits were believed to have a special language with certain substitutes for ordinary words (“the one with a drum”: shaman, “that with tusks”: walrus).

Ungazighmiit

The Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

s had shamans. Compared to the variants found among Eskimo groups of America, shamanism among Siberian Yupiks stressed more the importance of maintaining good relationship with sea animals. The Ungazighmiit (in Cyrillic transliteration: “уңазиӷмӣт”, uŋaʑiʁmiːt), speaking the largest of the Siberian Yupik language

Siberian Yupik language

Siberian Yupik is one of the four Yupik languages:* Central Siberian Yupik,...

variants, called a shaman alignalghi (in Cyrillic transliteration: “алигналӷи”, aˈliɣnalʁi).

The alignalghi received presents for the shamanizing. It can be noted that there were many words for "presents" in the language spoken by Ungazighmiit, depending on the nature and occasion (such as a marriage). These included such fine distinctions as "thing, given to someone who has none", "thing, given, not begged for", "thing, given to someone as to anybody else" and "thing, given for exchange". Among these many kinds of presents, the one given to the shaman was called aˈkiliːɕaq.

As for a special shamanic language known in several Eskimo groups, the Ungazighmiit also had a special allegoric

Allegory

usage of some expressions.

Chugach

The Chugach

Chugach

Chugach is the name of an Alaska Native culture and group of people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language....

people live on the southern-most coasts of Alaska. Birket-Smith conducted fieldwork among them in the 1950s, by which time shamanism was already extinct. As among other Eskimo groups, Chugach apprentice shamans were not forced to become shamans by the spirits, but instead deliberately visited lonely places and walked for many days as part of a vision quest

Vision quest

that resulted in the visitation of a spirit. The apprentice passed out, and the spirit took him or her to another place (like the mountains or the depths of the sea). Whilst there, the spirit instructed the apprentice in their calling, such as teaching them the shaman’s song.

Sireniki Eskimos

Sirenik or Sireniki Eskimos are former speakers of a very peculiar Eskimo language in Siberia, before they underwent a language shift rendering it extinct. The peculiarities of this language among Eskimo languages amount to the extent that it is proposed by some to classify it as a standalone third...

formerly spoke with a very peculiar Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....

language in Siberia

Siberia

, before they underwent a language shift

Language shift

Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...

rendering it extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

. The peculiarities of this Sireniki idiom among Eskimo languages amount to the extent that it is proposed by some to classify it as a standalone third branch of Eskimo languages (along with Inuit and Yupik). The total language death

Language death

In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...

of this peculiar remnant means that now the cultural identity

Cultural identity

Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....

of Sireniki Eskimos is maintained through other aspects: slight dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

ical difference in the adopted Siberian Yupik

Siberian Yupik

language; sense of place, including appreciation of the ancient age of their settlement Sireniki.

At one time, shamanism was prohibited by authorities, still, some knowledge about shamanistic practices survived. The last shaman in Sireniki died a decade before 2000, since then there has been no shaman in the village. Earlier in the 20th century, shamanistic practices could be observed by scholars in Sireniki, and also a folklore (tale) text mentions a feast that could possibly include shamanistic features.

Connection to shamanism

Shamanic initiation

Special language

Techniques

Social position

Soul concepts

Shamanism

Animals

Naming

Some kinds of magic requiring secrecy (or novelty), and the neutralizing effect of publicity

Inuit

Iglulik

Inuit at Amitsoq Lake

Netsilik Inuit

Caribou Eskimos

Copper Inuit

Yupik

Ungazighmiit

Chugach

Sireniki Eskimos

See also

Latin

Cyrillic

Books and articles

Old photos

Interviews