Editing Inuit religion (section)

=== 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>