Editing Pinga (goddess)

{{short description|Inuit goddess of the hunt and medicine}}

In the [[Inuit religion]], '''Pinga''' ("the one who is [up on] high"{{sfn|Merkur|1983|p=28}}) is a goddess of the hunt{{sfn|Oosten|Laugrand|2009|p=486}} and medicine.{{sfn|Auger|2005|p=50}} She is heavily associated with the sky.

==Caribou Inuit tradition==
In [[Caribou Inuit]] communities, Pinga had some authority over [[reindeer|caribou]] herds.{{sfn|Auger|2005|p=50}}{{sfn|Bastmeijer|Rasing|2014|p=766}} She would become angry if people killed more caribou than they could eat, so Caribou communities were careful not to over-hunt.{{sfn|Kleivan|1985|p=31}} Pinga is also a [[psychopomp]], receiving the souls of the newly deceased and preparing them for reincarnation.{{sfn|Auger|2005|p=44}} ''[[Angakkuq|Angakkuit]]'' (shamans) might see or communicate with Pinga or sometimes she'd send a spirit to speak with them.{{sfn|Merkur|1983|p=31}}

Some Caribou Inuit viewed [[Silap Inua|Sila]] and Pinga as the same or similar while other communities differentiated between the two.{{sfn|Kleivan|1985|p=31}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite journal |last1=Merkur |first1=Daniel |title=Breath-Soul and Wind Owner: The Many and the One in Inuit Religion |journal=American Indian Quarterly |date=Summer 1983 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=23–39 |doi=10.2307/1184255 |jstor=1184255 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1184255}}
*{{cite journal |first1=Jarich |last1=Oosten |first2=Frédéric |last2=Laugrand |title=Representing the "Sea Woman" |journal=Religion and the Arts |date=2009 |volume=13 |quote=The mistress of the animals of the hunt, Pinga, lives somewhere up in  the air or in the sky}}
*{{cite book |first1=Emily Elisabeth|last1=Auger |title=The Way of Inuit Art: Aesthetics and History in and Beyond the Arctic |date=2005 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786418886 |page=50}}
*{{cite journal |first1=Kees |last1=Bastmeijer |first2=Willem |last2=Rasing |title=Voedsel en recht in de jagers- verzamelaarssamenleving van de Inuit |journal=Rode Draad |date=October 2014 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266967102 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821174231/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kees-Bastmeijer/publication/266967102_Voedsel_en_recht_in_de_jagersverzamelaarssamenleving_van_de_Inuit/links/543fc9960cf2fd72f99daa8a/Voedsel-en-recht-in-de-jagersverzamelaarssamenleving-van-de-Inuit.pdf |archive-date=2021-08-21 |url-status=live |trans-title=Food and Law in Inuit Hunter-Gatherer Society |language=Dutch}}
*{{cite book |last1=Kleivan |first1=Inge |title=Iconography of Religions: Arctic Peoples |date=1985 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004071605}}

{{Inuit religion}}

[[Category:Animal goddesses]]
[[Category:Death goddesses]]
[[Category:Hunting goddesses]]
[[Category:Inuit goddesses]]
[[Category:Health goddesses]]
[[Category:Psychopomps]]

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{{NorthAm-myth-stub}}