![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Notes on various Inuit items/creatures
Dec. 17th, 2017 04:02 pmUlu: ᐅᓗ
The ulu is a multi-purpose knife used by Inuit women. It is used to skin and clean animals, to prepare food, to cut hair, and, when necessary, as a weapon or to trim blocks of snow and ice for igloos.
The ulu is traditionally made from caribou antler, walrus ivory, or muskox horn.
![[Ulu]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f3/33/26/f33326c661e7b9e0196bb809cec458b3.jpg "[Ulu]")
Aasivaq: ᐋᓯᕙᖅ
An aasivaq is a spider. Spiders and other bugs indigenous to the far north are symbols of the capacity for survival because they freeze in the winter and return to life in the following summer.
Qamutik ᖃᒧᑎᒃ
A qamutik is a sled designed to travel across snow and ice. It is lashed together with sinew, giving it resilience against the pounding of ocean ice. Nails are not used as the pounding of sea ice will make the nails fall out and disintegrate the sled. When there is no wood available for sled runners, runners can be made of fish wrapped in skins, with moss or ice used to reduce drag.
A qamutik can be pulled by dogs or humans.
![[qamutik]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/32/d2/a4/32d2a49181646756a99a44b123375370.jpg "[qamutik]")
Harpoon ᐅᓈᖅ
A harpoon is a spear-like weapon used for hunting whales, seals, and large fish. The head of the harpoon is attached to the shaft with a string. When the animal has been impaled by the quarry, the top half of the point detaches and lodges itself beneath skin and fat, holding itself firm in the animals’s flesh. The string is used to haul the animal back to the hunter.
Natsiq: ᓇᑦᓯᖅ
Seal
Seals are integral to the Inuit way of life. The entire animal is used. The meat is eaten by the people and the dogs, the rendered fat is used for lamp light and heat, the skin and fur used for clothing, the bladders make floats for harpoon lines, and tools are made from the bones.
Qajaq (Kayak) ᖃᔭᖅ
A hunter’s boat, it moves silently upon the water. It is made of a light framework of driftwood and covered with skins.
Houses of the Inuit
Tupiq ᑐᐱᖅ
A tupiq is a portable summer dwelling. It is a tent made from caribou or seal skins erected over a driftwood/bone frame.
Qammaq ᖃᒪᖅ
When the weather turns cooler, they move into sod houses. The tupiq becomes the roof for the qammaq.
Iglu ᐃᒡᓗ
An iglu (igloo) is a house made of snow and ice, typically built once snow can be compacted.
Uqsuq ᐅᖅᓱᖅ
Uqsuq is blubber, the primary fat storage for many marine mammals. It is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D. When chewed raw, it becomes oily. Rendered down, it is used as lamp oil. Blubber and whale skin together are called muktuk.
![[Anatomy of whale skin/blubber]](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d2/5e/8a/d25e8a8ee12a2bc3e12a018484869ca5.jpg "[Anatomy of whale skin/blubber]")
The ulu is a multi-purpose knife used by Inuit women. It is used to skin and clean animals, to prepare food, to cut hair, and, when necessary, as a weapon or to trim blocks of snow and ice for igloos.
The ulu is traditionally made from caribou antler, walrus ivory, or muskox horn.
Aasivaq: ᐋᓯᕙᖅ
An aasivaq is a spider. Spiders and other bugs indigenous to the far north are symbols of the capacity for survival because they freeze in the winter and return to life in the following summer.
Qamutik ᖃᒧᑎᒃ
A qamutik is a sled designed to travel across snow and ice. It is lashed together with sinew, giving it resilience against the pounding of ocean ice. Nails are not used as the pounding of sea ice will make the nails fall out and disintegrate the sled. When there is no wood available for sled runners, runners can be made of fish wrapped in skins, with moss or ice used to reduce drag.
A qamutik can be pulled by dogs or humans.
Harpoon ᐅᓈᖅ
A harpoon is a spear-like weapon used for hunting whales, seals, and large fish. The head of the harpoon is attached to the shaft with a string. When the animal has been impaled by the quarry, the top half of the point detaches and lodges itself beneath skin and fat, holding itself firm in the animals’s flesh. The string is used to haul the animal back to the hunter.
Natsiq: ᓇᑦᓯᖅ
Seal
Seals are integral to the Inuit way of life. The entire animal is used. The meat is eaten by the people and the dogs, the rendered fat is used for lamp light and heat, the skin and fur used for clothing, the bladders make floats for harpoon lines, and tools are made from the bones.
Qajaq (Kayak) ᖃᔭᖅ
A hunter’s boat, it moves silently upon the water. It is made of a light framework of driftwood and covered with skins.
Houses of the Inuit
Tupiq ᑐᐱᖅ
A tupiq is a portable summer dwelling. It is a tent made from caribou or seal skins erected over a driftwood/bone frame.
Qammaq ᖃᒪᖅ
When the weather turns cooler, they move into sod houses. The tupiq becomes the roof for the qammaq.
Iglu ᐃᒡᓗ
An iglu (igloo) is a house made of snow and ice, typically built once snow can be compacted.
Uqsuq ᐅᖅᓱᖅ
Uqsuq is blubber, the primary fat storage for many marine mammals. It is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D. When chewed raw, it becomes oily. Rendered down, it is used as lamp oil. Blubber and whale skin together are called muktuk.
