Stereotypes Of Inuit People

The Canadian Arctic is frigid, barren, and unforgiving. These intense frostbitten seasons that bear little to no sunlight in most of the winter means that people living in these areas have to adapt much of their life to help them survive in these lands. Living in this type of rural area requires much of daily life to have to be changed in order for people to survive. For the Inuit People of Canada who have thrived in this environment all the while they have occupied these normally unlivable lands; this cold and frozen life is like a wonderland that preserves their rich culture and livelihood. The Inuit People of Canada, or more generally Inuit people, were once referred to and still are called Eskimos by the general population (which comes
The same could be said for other smaller nomadic and secular societies that exist separately from people of white European descent. Widespread knowledge about these people include building igloos, catching and eating narwhals and seals, and covering themselves in animal hides to keep warm. Many of these things are still true, but the Inuit people today is also largely urbanized, while at the same time still keeping many of the same religious and cultural practices alive in their
Some believe that they are being absorbed into western society and into our cultural norms, while other anthropologists argue that their society is rich but is instead talked about very little which leads us to believe it is in decline. These ideas are best shown through the religious practices of Shamanism. Inuit shamanism, or angakkuit (shamans) have been believed to be in serious endangerment, “shamanism is the one topic Inuit traditionally do not talk about. The tendency of Inuit to avoid the subject has been a source of frustration to ethnologists since the 1920s” (Qitsualik). This lenience to discuss shamanistic practices with anthropologists and other outsiders to the Inuit community have to do with how it would be received. In fifteenth century Europe witch trials and hunts were common to the point mass hysteria overtook the continent, this phenomenon soon traveled to Africa, America, and virtually the entire world. Even today the concept of witchcraft has such a big cloud of stigma surrounding it, such as witches still being thought of negatively. These ideas translate commonly into magical ideas that aren’t associated directly with fictitious things; like Harry Potter for instance. Purely fiction forms of magic are viewed as fantasy and fantastic, whereas any real form of magic practiced in small, secular religions are seen as negative. This explains why Inuits would rather have their