"Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo' ". Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. ^ "Eskimo | Definition, History, Culture, & Facts".^ Lawrence Kaplan: Comparative Yupik and Inuit Archived at the Wayback Machine (found on the site of Alaska Native Language Center Archived at the Wayback Machine).Others represented animal people, (yuit), and insects, berries, plants, ice and objects of everyday life. Many of these masks were used almost as stage props, some of which imbued the dancer with the spirit that they represented - and most were often destroyed after use.
Yup'ik masks differ in size from forehead and finger 'maskettes', to enormous constructions that dancers need external supports to perform with. The Yup'ik are Eskimos of western Alaska whose masks vary enormously but are characterised by great invention. Ritual ceremonies could enable the community to enact these stories with the help of masks, sometimes with the masked person representing the animal. Traditional transformation masks reflected this unity. Besides synchronous beliefs, there were also notions of unity between human and animal, and myths about an ancient time when the animal could take on human form at will. Ĭeremonial ivory masks produced by Yupik in AlaskaĪlthough beliefs about unity between human and animal did not extend to that of absolute interchangeability, several Eskimo peoples had sophisticated soul concepts (including variants of soul dualism) that linked living humans, their ancestors, and their prey. However, Eskimo is still considered acceptable among Alaska Natives of Yupik and Iñupiat (Inuit) heritage, as well as Siberian Yupik peoples, and is preferred over Inuit as a collective reference. The term Eskimo has fallen out of favor in Canada and Greenland, where it is considered pejorative and the term Inuit has become more common. The sustenance, Inuit religion, soul concepts, even the language of the different communities were often very different.Įskimo groups comprise a huge area stretching from Siberia through Alaska and Northern Canada (including Nunatsiavut in Labrador and Nunavik in Quebec) to Greenland. ĭespite some similarities in the cultures of the Eskimo peoples, their cultural diversity makes it hard to generalize how different groups, like the Inuit and Yupik used masks. There are archeological miniature maskettes made of walrus ivory, dating from early Paleo-Eskimo and from early Dorset culture period. They were often painted using bright colors. Masks were made out of driftwood, animal skins, bones and feathers.
Masks among Eskimo peoples served a variety of functions. Yup'ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy, c.1890.
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