Editing Inuit religion (section)

==Inuit cultural beliefs==
=== ''Angakkuq'' ===
Among Canadian Inuit, a spiritual healer is known as an ''[[angakkuq]]'' (plural: ''angakkuit'', [[Inuktitut syllabics]] ''ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ'' or ''ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://glosbe.com/ike/en/%E1%90%8A%E1%96%93%E1%91%A6%E1%91%AF%E1%96%85 |title=Eastern Canadian Inuktitut-English Dictionary ᐊᖓᑦᑯᖅ|website=Glosbe|access-date=September 30, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://glosbe.com/iu/en/%E1%90%8A%E1%96%93%E1%92%83%E1%91%AF%E1%96%85 |title=Eastern Canadian Inuktitut-English Dictionary ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ|website=Glosbe|access-date=September 30, 2020}}</ref>) in [[Inuktitut]]<ref name=orale>{{Cite web | title = Dreams and Angakkunngurniq: Becoming an Angakkuq | publisher = Francophone Association of Nunavut | url = http://www.tradition-orale.ca/english/dreams-and-angakkunngurniq-becoming-angakkuq-81.html | access-date = September 30, 2020 | archive-date = April 17, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210417163011/http://www.tradition-orale.ca/english/dreams-and-angakkunngurniq-becoming-angakkuq-81.html }}</ref> or ''angatkuq'' in [[Inuvialuktun]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.copian.ca/library/learning/nac/nac_dictionary/nac_dictionary.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://en.copian.ca/library/learning/nac/nac_dictionary/nac_dictionary.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Inuinnaqtun to English|website=Copian|access-date=September 30, 2020}}</ref> The duties of an ''angakkuq'' include helping the community when marine animals, kept by Takanaluk-arnaluk or Sea Woman in a pit in her house, become scarce, according to [[Aua (angakkuq)|Aua]], an informant and friend of the anthropologist [[Knud Rasmussen]]. Aua described the ability of an apprentice ''angakkuq'' to see himself as a skeleton,<ref name=skeleton>[[#Mer85|Merkur 1985]]:122</ref> naming each part using the specific shaman language.<ref name="knud65">[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:170</ref><ref name=skeleton/>

=== Inuit at Amitsoq Lake ===
The Inuit at Amitsoq Lake (a rich fishing ground) on [[King William Island]] had seasonal and other prohibitions for sewing certain items. Boot soles, for example, could only be sewn far away from settlements in designated places.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:244</ref> Children at Amitsoq once had a game called ''tunangusartut'' in which they imitated the adults' behaviour towards the spirits, even reciting the same verbal formulae as ''angakkuit''. According to Rasmussen, this game was not considered offensive because a "spirit can understand the joke."<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:245</ref>

=== Netsilik Inuit ===
The homelands of the [[Netsilik Inuit]] (''Netsilingmiut'' meaning "People of the Seal") have extremely long winters and stormy springs. Starvation was a common danger.<ref name=thatmany>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:262</ref>

While other Inuit cultures feature protective guardian powers, the Netsilik have traditional beliefs that life's hardships stemmed from the extensive use of such measures. Unlike the Iglulik Inuit, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. Even dogs could have amulets.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:268</ref> In one recorded instance, a young boy had 80 amulets, so many that he could hardly play.<ref name="thatmany"/><ref name="K&S43">Kleivan & Sonne:43</ref> One particular man had 17 names taken from his ancestors and intended to protect him.<ref name=thatmany/><ref>[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:15</ref>

[[Tattoo]]ing among Netsilik women provided power and could affect which world they went to after their deaths.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:256,279</ref>

[[Nuliajuk]], the Sea Woman, was described as "the lubricous one".<ref>[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:27</ref> If the people breached certain taboos, she held marine animals in the basin of her ''[[qulliq]]'' (an [[oil lamp]] that burns seal fat). When this happened, the ''angakkuq'' had to visit her to beg for game. In Netsilik [[oral tradition|oral history]], she was originally an orphan girl mistreated by her community.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:278</ref>

Moon Man, another cosmic being, is benevolent towards humans and their souls as they arrived in celestial places.<ref name=moons>[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:30</ref><ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:279</ref> This belief differs from that of the [[Greenlandic Inuit]], in which the Moon's wrath could be invoked by breaking taboos.<ref name=moons/>

Sila or [[Silap Inua]], often associated with weather, is conceived of as a power contained within people.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:106</ref> Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as a male. The Netsilik (and [[Copper Inuit]]) believed Sila was originally a giant baby whose parents died fighting giants.<ref>[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:31</ref>

=== Caribou Inuit ===
[[Caribou Inuit]] is a collective name for several groups of inland Inuit (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut, and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the [[tree line]] and the west shore of [[Hudson Bay]]. They do not form a political unit and maintain only loose contact, but they share an inland lifestyle and some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiut took part in seal hunts in the ocean.<ref>[[#Gab70|Gabus 1970]]:145</ref>

The Caribou have a [[soul dualism|dualistic concept of the soul]]. The soul associated with respiration is called ''umaffia'' (place of life)<ref name="K&S8518">[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:18</ref> and the personal soul of a child is called ''tarneq'' (corresponding to the ''nappan'' of the Copper Inuit). The tarneq is considered so weak that it needs 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.<ref>[[#Gab70|Gabus 1970]]:111</ref> This belief amounted to a form of [[reincarnation]].<ref name="K&S8518"/><ref>[[#Gab70|Gabus 1970]]:212</ref>

Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou have no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, named Sila or Pinga, control the [[Reindeer|caribou]], as opposed to marine animals. Some groups have made a distinction between the two figures, while others have considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.<ref>[[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:31, 36</ref>

Caribou angakkuit performed [[fortune-telling]] through ''qilaneq'', a technique of asking questions to a ''qila'' (spirit). The angakkuq 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 Alaskan Native groups and provided "yes" or "no" answers to questions.<ref>[[#Ras65|Rasmussen 1965]]:108, [[#KlSo85|Kleivan & Sonne 1985]]:26</ref><ref>[[#Gab70|Gabus 1970]]:227–228</ref>

=== Copper Inuit ===

Spiritual beliefs and practices among Inuit are diverse, just like the cultures themselves. Similar remarks apply for other beliefs: term ''[[Silap Inua|silap inua]]'' / ''sila'', ''hillap inua'' / ''hilla'' (among [[Inuit]]), ''ellam yua'' / ''ella'' (among [[Yup'ik]]) has been used with some diversity among the groups.<ref name=diversity>Kleivan & Sonne 1986: 31</ref> In many instances it refers to "outer space", "intellect", "weather", "sky", "universe":<ref name=diversity/><ref name=logos>{{cite book |last=Mousalimas |first=S. A. |chapter=Editor's Introduction |pages=23–26 |title=Arctic Ecology and Identity |series=ISTOR Books 8 |publisher=Akadémiai Kiadó • International Society for Trans-Oceanic Research |location=Budapest • Los Angeles |year=1997 |isbn=978-963-05-6629-2}}</ref><ref name=connect>Nuttall 1997: 75</ref><ref name=shaman>[[#Mer85|Merkur 1985]]: 235–240</ref><ref name=caribou>[[#Gab70|Gabus 1970]]: 230–234</ref>  there may be some correspondence with the [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|presocratic]] concept of [[logos]].<ref name=logos/><ref name=ang-log>[http://www.fss.ulaval.ca/etudes-inuit-studies/v14te04.HTML Saladin d'Anglure 1990] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060517162505/http://www.fss.ulaval.ca/etudes-inuit-studies/v14te04.HTML |date=2006-05-17 }}</ref> In some other groups, this concept was more personified ({{IPA|ess|sɬam juɣwa|}} among [[Siberian Yupik]]).<ref name=man>[[#Men68|Menovščikov 1968]]: 447</ref>

Among [[Copper Inuit]], this "Wind Indweller" concept is related to spiritual practice: ''angakkuit'' were believed to obtain their power from this indweller, moreover, even their helping spirits were termed as ''silap inue''.<ref name=helping>[[#Mer85|Merkur 1985]]: 230</ref>

=== Greenland Inuit ===
[[Greenlandic Inuit]] believed that spirits inhabited every human [[joint]], even [[knuckle]]bones.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Subin |first=Anna Della |title=The enchanted worlds of Marshall Sahlins |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/marshall-sahlins-new-science-enchanted-universe/}}</ref>