
''Inuit'' (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular ''Inuk'' or ''Inuq'' / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples of the Arctic who descended from the Thule (people). The Inuit Circumpolar Conference defines its constituency to include Canada's Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland's Kalaallit people, Alaska's Inupiaq and Yupik people, and Russia's Yupik. However, the Yupik are not Inuit in the sense of being descended from the Thule and prefer to be called ''Yupik'' or ''Eskimo''. Canadian Inuit live primarily in Nunavut, Nunavik (a region in the northern part of the province of Quebec defined by the James Bay Agreement) and in Nunatsiavut (a region in Labrador whose borders are yet to be fixed.) The Inuvialuit live primarily in the Mackenzie River delta, on Banks Island and part of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. There have been Inuit settlements in Yukon, especially at Herschel Island, but there are none at present. Alaskan Inupiaq live on the North Slope of Alaska, while the Yupik live in western Alaska and a part of Chukotka Autonomous Area in Russia. The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is a national organization in Canada which represents over 40,000 Canadian Inuit. == Occupation == The Inuit are traditionally hunters who fish and hunt whale, walrus, and seal (mammal) by kayak or by boat or by waiting at airholes the seals make in the ice. They use igloos as hunting or emergency shelters. They make use of animal skins in their clothing (e.g. anorak). Dog sleds, known as ''qamutiit'', are used for travel pulled by Inuit Sled Dogs in a fan hitch, though snowmobiles have largely replaced this mode of travel. == Eskimo == ''See main article for more information on the term: Eskimo'' In Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people, "Inuit" means "the people". The English language word "Eskimo" comes from the French "Esquimaux" but the origins of this French word are unclear. Many Inuit consider the word ''Eskimo'' offensive, but is still in general usage to refer to all Eskimo peoples, though it has fallen into disuse throughout Canada, where Canadians use the term ''Inuit''. The men are traditionally hunters of seals, whales, walrus, and caribou, using harpoons, canoes (or kayaks), dogs, and sleds. Fishing is also important. The women take care of the children, clean huts and cook. == Classification == The Inuit living in North America were formerly classified together with other Native Americans, but they are now considered to be an entirely separate ethnic group who arrived in North America a few millennia after the latter did, probably around 6th century as the Thule (people), replacing the Dorset (culture). Accordingly, in Canada the Inuit are not considered First Nations. However, they, the Indians, and the Métis people (Canada) are collectively recognized by the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 as Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Other synonyms include "First Peoples" and "Native Peoples". Inuit are members of the Mongoloid race, which also includes various Siberia tribes such as the Yakut, as well as the Chinese people and Japanese people. == Losing the traditions == The European arrival caused a great deal of damage to the Inuit way of life, causing mass death and other suffering. Circa 1970, Inuit leaders came forward and pushed for respect for the Inuit and their territories. One of the resulting land-claims agreements created the Canada Territories of Canada of Nunavut, the largest land-claims agreement in Canadian history. In recent years, circumpolar cultural and political groups have come together to promote the Inuit people and to fight against ecology problems, such as the greenhouse effect and resulting global warming, which heavily affects the Inuit population due to the melting and thinning of ice in Antarctica and the arctic. Global warming will also cause arctic mammal populations to decline. Nunavut premier Paul Okalik took the lead in this regard in a First Ministers' meeting discussing the Kyoto Accord. == Culture == One of the most famous Inuit artists is Pitseolak Ashoona. Susan Aglukark is a popular Canadian singer. In 2002 the feature film ''Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner'' directed by Zacharias Kunuk (with all dialogue in the Inuktitut language and written, filmed, produced, directed, and acted almost entirely by Inuit of Igloolik) was released world wide to great critical and popular acclaim. Jordin Tootoo became the first Inuk to play in the National Hockey League in the 2003-04 season, playing for the Nashville Predators. Well-known Inuit politicians include Premier Paul Okalik of Nunavut and Nancy Karetak-Lindell, MP for the Nunavut (electoral district). Also, Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk is helping to preserve the Inuit language, Inuktitut. She wrote the first Inuit novel. ''(to do list: culture past and present, spirituality, customs, etc)'' ==Further reading== * ''The Eskimos'' - Ernest S. Burch Jr. * ''Top of the World'' - Hans Ruesch (''País de las Sombras Largas'' in Spanish, ISBN 950-637-164-4) * ''Never in Anger'' - Jean Briggs ISBN 0674608283 ==External links== * [http://www.tapirisat.ca/ Inuit Tapirisat of Canada], the representative body of Inuit in Canada * [http://yomee.com/Religions/Other/Inuit.htm Religion and demography of the Inuit] * [http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/inuvial/indexe.html The Inuvialuit] simple:Inuit Inuit Aboriginal peoples in Quebec Aboriginal peoples in Atlantic Canada Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian Arctic Indigenous peoples
== Are we going to act? == I agree with Diderot and 142.103.243.155. Greenlanders and Eastern Canadian Eskimos can be referred to as Inuit without any second thoughts. Western Canadian Eskimos can generally be referred to the same way, but it's not entirely true. When one gets into Yupik and Iñupiaq territory, however, the term is no longer applicable under any standard. Having Eskimo redirect to Inuit is a fallacy, as is the usage of Inuit-Aleut languages instead of Eskimo-Aleut languages. We should reorganize this article and move some information so that Eskimo refers to all the circumpolar peoples that traditionally speak Eskimo-Aleut languages, while Inuit refers only to those Eskimos whose traditional homeland lies in Eastern Canada and Greenland. A thorough explanation of the controversy surrounding the issue, as well as the continued academic use of Eskimo as a more general term and Inuit as a specific term, should be on *both* pages. Political correctness is good, but there is such a thing as being too politically correct: with the best intentions, people found most occurances of "eskimo" in Wikipedia articles and replaced them with "Inuit". No doubt an Eastern Canadian Eskimo would probably have found their usage offensive, but the usage of the term "Inuit" for both possible meanings is ambiguous and thus should not be common practice; in addition many non-Inuit Eskimos are offended by the usage of the term "Inuit" to describe them, as they are most certainly *not* Inuit. In addition, Inuktitut is not the language of the Eskimos, it is the language of the Inuit. Each group of Eskimos has their own language (Yupik, Inupiaq, Aleut, Siberian Yupik, Western Canadian Inuktitut [aka Inuvialuktun], Yuit, Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, sometimes Greenlandic Inuit), each distinct from the others. The time has come to reach a mutual decision on this point rather than continued procrastination! -- User:Ifoolyou 00:47, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Thanks very much to the contributors who refactored this article properly, and who resolved my ignorance as expressed in the old comments below. - User:Montrealais 06:20, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Comment == The convention is generally to exclude the Aleuts and Yupik from the label "Inuit." The word means "people" or "human" in Inuktitut, and the Aleuts and Yupiks don't speak Inuktitut anymore than Spanyards speak Romanian. Inuit does cover the people who live north of the tree line from the east coast of Greenland to where the Yupik communities start in Alaska. "Eskimo" is a discouraged word - although not for very good reasons IMHO - and sometimes does include Aleuts and Yupiks. -- Diderot == "Inuit" vs. "Eskimo" == The Eskimos of Alaska are also called "Inuit," or so I thought, and I thought the natives of Greenland are too. I don't know how these people are related to the natives of northern Siberia. --:LMS, who is from :Alaska but who is not Inuit :As far as I can gather, they are called Inuit, and belong to the subgroup Yupik. Inuit is the broadest term. - montréalais :: Inuit is not the broadest term. It is the term which refers to one particular people, and most of the Yupik strongly object to being called Inuit, though they don't mind Eskimo. Inuit explicitly does not include the Yupik-- it's like using Chinese to describe all East Asians because the collective term "Oriental" is found offensive by some. Linguists continue to use Eskimo to cover both groups, cf. http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/yupik_inuit.html . Eskimo is the only broadest term to describe both. However, since the Inuit themselves object to the term, it's problematic. -- User:142.103.243.155 I have moved the material from Eskimo here and redirected it. I also added some material that was in the Esperanto ("Inuko") article. - montréalais ----- == "Native Peoples", "First Peoples", or "Aboriginal Peoples" == I have seen "Native" used most often in the phrase "Native-newcomer relation" in Canadian history books (where "newcomer" refers to Europeans). And I've seen some Inuit-F.N.-Métis joined publications where they self-refer as "Aboriginal". But I have never heard of "First Peoples" (only "First Nations"), but apparently there are over 2,000 [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&q=%22First+Peoples%22+inuit+nations Googles]] for it. Many are government webpages, so it must be solidly used. --User:Menchi 03:54, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC) == Geronticide? == The Inuit practice geronticide, according to many cultural anthropology textbooks. I would love to see this incorporated in the article, because it is a fascinating and perverse idea to many in contemporary industrialized societies. The handling of this, specifically the view that it is normal or expected, reveals a lot about the harshness of their environment. Google reveals much information on this topic, but not being well-versed in anthropology, I'd be afraid to add it. :The Inuit practiced geronticide. The past tense is important here. The ease and speed with which they abandonned it attests to how much it was a matter of necessity when they did practice it, not deeply ingrained cultural values. It was also not a universal practice - there were groups that found the notion profoundly immoral well before the missionaries showed up. Necessity was a key factor wherever it took place. Even among the Inuit who did use this practice, killing an elderly family member without the justification of severe necessity - not merely the existence of a burden - constituted murder. This point needs to be emphasized. :They cared about their old people too, but they didn't always have the means to support community members who would never be able to contribute to the real economy. The practice ended more or less with the arrival of the missionaries and, not too much later, the government. Even before that, it was something practiced largely under conditions of severe resource shortages - usually bad hunting years - and more often than not with the consent of the elderly victims. Those who knew they were a severe burden on their families often chose suicide in some form rather than remaining a burden. Infanticide was also practiced under severe conditions, as it has been in every human society. Infanticide was also more commonplace than geronticide - which has also generally been true of all human societes. :In general, the Inuit had respected elders as ''de facto'' commmunity leaders. Theirs was not a Logan's Run sort of society. :I have no objection to saying something like this in the article, but don't do the "they abandonned their elderly on ice floes" thing. That's a myth. The practice was a lot less cruel than that as I understand it. Most of the time, it was a form of assisted suicide rather than an imposed death sentence. Abandonment was far more often used for infanticide than geronticide. And, geronticide was far from expected. People did not go through their lives knowing that they would end up abandoned on the ice. :--User:Diderot 11:05, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The Inuit that inhabit what is now Canada are one of three groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The other two are the First Nations of Canada and the Métis people (Canada) [http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/index_e.html]. Aboriginal peoples in Canada Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian Arctic Aboriginal peoples in Quebec Aboriginal peoples in Atlantic Canada Ethnic groups of Canada
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Words begining with Inuit:
Inuit
Inuit
Inuit
Inuit-Aleut
Inuit-Aleut
Inuit_Ataqatigiit
Inuit_Circumpolar_Conference
Inuit_culture
Inuit_deities
Inuit_goddesses
Inuit_gods
Inuit_group
Inuit_language
Inuit_language
Inuit_music
Inuit_music
Inuit_music
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_people
Inuit_Tapiriit_Kanatami
Inuit_Tapirisat_of_Canada
Inuit_throat_singing
Inuit_Tools
Inuit
''Inuit'' (Inuktitut syllabics: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, singular ''Inuk'' or ''Inuq'' / ᐃᓄᒃ) is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples of the Arctic who descended from the Thule (people). The Inuit Circumpolar Conference defines its constituency to include Canada's Inuit and Inuvialuit, Greenland's Kalaallit people, Alaska's Inupiaq and Yupik people, and Russia's Yupik. However, the Yupik are not Inuit in the sense of being descended from the Thule and prefer to be called ''Yupik'' or ''Eskimo''. Canadian Inuit live primarily in Nunavut, Nunavik (a region in the northern part of the province of Quebec defined by the James Bay Agreement) and in Nunatsiavut (a region in Labrador whose borders are yet to be fixed.) The Inuvialuit live primarily in the Mackenzie River delta, on Banks Island and part of Victoria Island in the Northwest Territories. There have been Inuit settlements in Yukon, especially at Herschel Island, but there are none at present. Alaskan Inupiaq live on the North Slope of Alaska, while the Yupik live in western Alaska and a part of Chukotka Autonomous Area in Russia. The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is a national organization in Canada which represents over 40,000 Canadian Inuit. == Occupation == The Inuit are traditionally hunters who fish and hunt whale, walrus, and seal (mammal) by kayak or by boat or by waiting at airholes the seals make in the ice. They use igloos as hunting or emergency shelters. They make use of animal skins in their clothing (e.g. anorak). Dog sleds, known as ''qamutiit'', are used for travel pulled by Inuit Sled Dogs in a fan hitch, though snowmobiles have largely replaced this mode of travel. == Eskimo == ''See main article for more information on the term: Eskimo'' In Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people, "Inuit" means "the people". The English language word "Eskimo" comes from the French "Esquimaux" but the origins of this French word are unclear. Many Inuit consider the word ''Eskimo'' offensive, but is still in general usage to refer to all Eskimo peoples, though it has fallen into disuse throughout Canada, where Canadians use the term ''Inuit''. The men are traditionally hunters of seals, whales, walrus, and caribou, using harpoons, canoes (or kayaks), dogs, and sleds. Fishing is also important. The women take care of the children, clean huts and cook. == Classification == The Inuit living in North America were formerly classified together with other Native Americans, but they are now considered to be an entirely separate ethnic group who arrived in North America a few millennia after the latter did, probably around 6th century as the Thule (people), replacing the Dorset (culture). Accordingly, in Canada the Inuit are not considered First Nations. However, they, the Indians, and the Métis people (Canada) are collectively recognized by the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 as Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Other synonyms include "First Peoples" and "Native Peoples". Inuit are members of the Mongoloid race, which also includes various Siberia tribes such as the Yakut, as well as the Chinese people and Japanese people. == Losing the traditions == The European arrival caused a great deal of damage to the Inuit way of life, causing mass death and other suffering. Circa 1970, Inuit leaders came forward and pushed for respect for the Inuit and their territories. One of the resulting land-claims agreements created the Canada Territories of Canada of Nunavut, the largest land-claims agreement in Canadian history. In recent years, circumpolar cultural and political groups have come together to promote the Inuit people and to fight against ecology problems, such as the greenhouse effect and resulting global warming, which heavily affects the Inuit population due to the melting and thinning of ice in Antarctica and the arctic. Global warming will also cause arctic mammal populations to decline. Nunavut premier Paul Okalik took the lead in this regard in a First Ministers' meeting discussing the Kyoto Accord. == Culture == One of the most famous Inuit artists is Pitseolak Ashoona. Susan Aglukark is a popular Canadian singer. In 2002 the feature film ''Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner'' directed by Zacharias Kunuk (with all dialogue in the Inuktitut language and written, filmed, produced, directed, and acted almost entirely by Inuit of Igloolik) was released world wide to great critical and popular acclaim. Jordin Tootoo became the first Inuk to play in the National Hockey League in the 2003-04 season, playing for the Nashville Predators. Well-known Inuit politicians include Premier Paul Okalik of Nunavut and Nancy Karetak-Lindell, MP for the Nunavut (electoral district). Also, Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk is helping to preserve the Inuit language, Inuktitut. She wrote the first Inuit novel. ''(to do list: culture past and present, spirituality, customs, etc)'' ==Further reading== * ''The Eskimos'' - Ernest S. Burch Jr. * ''Top of the World'' - Hans Ruesch (''País de las Sombras Largas'' in Spanish, ISBN 950-637-164-4) * ''Never in Anger'' - Jean Briggs ISBN 0674608283 ==External links== * [http://www.tapirisat.ca/ Inuit Tapirisat of Canada], the representative body of Inuit in Canada * [http://yomee.com/Religions/Other/Inuit.htm Religion and demography of the Inuit] * [http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/inuvial/indexe.html The Inuvialuit] simple:Inuit Inuit Aboriginal peoples in Quebec Aboriginal peoples in Atlantic Canada Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian Arctic Indigenous peoples
Inuit
== Are we going to act? == I agree with Diderot and 142.103.243.155. Greenlanders and Eastern Canadian Eskimos can be referred to as Inuit without any second thoughts. Western Canadian Eskimos can generally be referred to the same way, but it's not entirely true. When one gets into Yupik and Iñupiaq territory, however, the term is no longer applicable under any standard. Having Eskimo redirect to Inuit is a fallacy, as is the usage of Inuit-Aleut languages instead of Eskimo-Aleut languages. We should reorganize this article and move some information so that Eskimo refers to all the circumpolar peoples that traditionally speak Eskimo-Aleut languages, while Inuit refers only to those Eskimos whose traditional homeland lies in Eastern Canada and Greenland. A thorough explanation of the controversy surrounding the issue, as well as the continued academic use of Eskimo as a more general term and Inuit as a specific term, should be on *both* pages. Political correctness is good, but there is such a thing as being too politically correct: with the best intentions, people found most occurances of "eskimo" in Wikipedia articles and replaced them with "Inuit". No doubt an Eastern Canadian Eskimo would probably have found their usage offensive, but the usage of the term "Inuit" for both possible meanings is ambiguous and thus should not be common practice; in addition many non-Inuit Eskimos are offended by the usage of the term "Inuit" to describe them, as they are most certainly *not* Inuit. In addition, Inuktitut is not the language of the Eskimos, it is the language of the Inuit. Each group of Eskimos has their own language (Yupik, Inupiaq, Aleut, Siberian Yupik, Western Canadian Inuktitut [aka Inuvialuktun], Yuit, Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, sometimes Greenlandic Inuit), each distinct from the others. The time has come to reach a mutual decision on this point rather than continued procrastination! -- User:Ifoolyou 00:47, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Thanks very much to the contributors who refactored this article properly, and who resolved my ignorance as expressed in the old comments below. - User:Montrealais 06:20, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Comment == The convention is generally to exclude the Aleuts and Yupik from the label "Inuit." The word means "people" or "human" in Inuktitut, and the Aleuts and Yupiks don't speak Inuktitut anymore than Spanyards speak Romanian. Inuit does cover the people who live north of the tree line from the east coast of Greenland to where the Yupik communities start in Alaska. "Eskimo" is a discouraged word - although not for very good reasons IMHO - and sometimes does include Aleuts and Yupiks. -- Diderot == "Inuit" vs. "Eskimo" == The Eskimos of Alaska are also called "Inuit," or so I thought, and I thought the natives of Greenland are too. I don't know how these people are related to the natives of northern Siberia. --:LMS, who is from :Alaska but who is not Inuit :As far as I can gather, they are called Inuit, and belong to the subgroup Yupik. Inuit is the broadest term. - montréalais :: Inuit is not the broadest term. It is the term which refers to one particular people, and most of the Yupik strongly object to being called Inuit, though they don't mind Eskimo. Inuit explicitly does not include the Yupik-- it's like using Chinese to describe all East Asians because the collective term "Oriental" is found offensive by some. Linguists continue to use Eskimo to cover both groups, cf. http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/yupik_inuit.html . Eskimo is the only broadest term to describe both. However, since the Inuit themselves object to the term, it's problematic. -- User:142.103.243.155 I have moved the material from Eskimo here and redirected it. I also added some material that was in the Esperanto ("Inuko") article. - montréalais ----- == "Native Peoples", "First Peoples", or "Aboriginal Peoples" == I have seen "Native" used most often in the phrase "Native-newcomer relation" in Canadian history books (where "newcomer" refers to Europeans). And I've seen some Inuit-F.N.-Métis joined publications where they self-refer as "Aboriginal". But I have never heard of "First Peoples" (only "First Nations"), but apparently there are over 2,000 [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&q=%22First+Peoples%22+inuit+nations Googles]] for it. Many are government webpages, so it must be solidly used. --User:Menchi 03:54, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC) == Geronticide? == The Inuit practice geronticide, according to many cultural anthropology textbooks. I would love to see this incorporated in the article, because it is a fascinating and perverse idea to many in contemporary industrialized societies. The handling of this, specifically the view that it is normal or expected, reveals a lot about the harshness of their environment. Google reveals much information on this topic, but not being well-versed in anthropology, I'd be afraid to add it. :The Inuit practiced geronticide. The past tense is important here. The ease and speed with which they abandonned it attests to how much it was a matter of necessity when they did practice it, not deeply ingrained cultural values. It was also not a universal practice - there were groups that found the notion profoundly immoral well before the missionaries showed up. Necessity was a key factor wherever it took place. Even among the Inuit who did use this practice, killing an elderly family member without the justification of severe necessity - not merely the existence of a burden - constituted murder. This point needs to be emphasized. :They cared about their old people too, but they didn't always have the means to support community members who would never be able to contribute to the real economy. The practice ended more or less with the arrival of the missionaries and, not too much later, the government. Even before that, it was something practiced largely under conditions of severe resource shortages - usually bad hunting years - and more often than not with the consent of the elderly victims. Those who knew they were a severe burden on their families often chose suicide in some form rather than remaining a burden. Infanticide was also practiced under severe conditions, as it has been in every human society. Infanticide was also more commonplace than geronticide - which has also generally been true of all human societes. :In general, the Inuit had respected elders as ''de facto'' commmunity leaders. Theirs was not a Logan's Run sort of society. :I have no objection to saying something like this in the article, but don't do the "they abandonned their elderly on ice floes" thing. That's a myth. The practice was a lot less cruel than that as I understand it. Most of the time, it was a form of assisted suicide rather than an imposed death sentence. Abandonment was far more often used for infanticide than geronticide. And, geronticide was far from expected. People did not go through their lives knowing that they would end up abandoned on the ice. :--User:Diderot 11:05, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Inuit
The Inuit that inhabit what is now Canada are one of three groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The other two are the First Nations of Canada and the Métis people (Canada) [http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/index_e.html]. Aboriginal peoples in Canada Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian Arctic Aboriginal peoples in Quebec Aboriginal peoples in Atlantic Canada Ethnic groups of Canada
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
I
IA | IB | IC | ID | IE | IF | IG | IH | IJ | IK | IL | IM | IN | IO | IP | IR | IS | IT | IU | IW | IX | IY | IZ |Words begining with Inuit:
Inuit
Inuit
Inuit
Inuit-Aleut
Inuit-Aleut
Inuit_Ataqatigiit
Inuit_Circumpolar_Conference
Inuit_culture
Inuit_deities
Inuit_goddesses
Inuit_gods
Inuit_group
Inuit_language
Inuit_language
Inuit_music
Inuit_music
Inuit_music
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_mythology
Inuit_people
Inuit_Tapiriit_Kanatami
Inuit_Tapirisat_of_Canada
Inuit_throat_singing
Inuit_Tools
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