Inupiaq
Inupiaq Culture Reasarch
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Inupiaq People
By Dakota Johnson
Social Structure
- There were four main groups among the Inupiaq: Bering Strait Inupiaq, Kotzebue Sound Inupiaq, North Alaska Coast Inupiaq, and Interior North Inupiaq.
- Inupiaq families had a very specific family system in which the parents would work or hunt while the grandparents would take care of the kids.
The groups were organized by region.
Social Structure
- Although each family lived together, they had a networking system. These families would not live together, but they would help each other by providing for each other’s needs.
- Inupiaq families believed in a bilateral decent that is neither patrilineal or matrilineal.
Housing
- The Inupiaq usually made semi-underground houses that allowed them to use less building materials and use the ground as insulation
- These houses were made with sod blocks and had whalebone frames
- Their houses were stationary and used in the wintertime. In the summer they went to their summer camps.
Housing
- These houses protected them from the cold because with underground tunnel entrances that trap the cold air.
Diet
- The North Alaskan Inupiaq caught fish such as salmon in the summer, as well as seas mammals like whales.
- Kotzebue Sound Inupiaq caught small sea mammals as well as fish and birds.
- When the ice formed, Herring, Crab and Halibut were caught.
Diet
- They would keep their food in underground cellars that would keep their food cold.
Tools and Technology
- The Inupiaq had tools for skinning, butchering, carving, inscribing, and fire starting.
- They also had spears, harpoons, bows, and snares.
- These tools and weapons were made with wood, bone, and ivory
Tools and Technology
- For transportation, they used their Umiaq boats to hunt whale and walrus as well as to travel for trading in the summer.
- In the winter, they used basket sleds to carry their boats across the ice. Snowshoes were used in the interior regions where boat travel was less common.
Clothing
- Traditional clothing among the Inupiaq were Parkas and Kuspuks as well as caribou skin clothes and pants.
- Sea-mammal intestines were used to make waterproof clothing that was worn when riding a boat or hunting in the elements.
- Children wore very similar clothes to the adults.
Customs and Religion
- A common belief of the Inupiaq was reincarnation of spirits that traveled from one form to another in both humans and animals.
- They also believed that the animal spirits had to be released if they were to travel to another form.
Customs and Religion
- In many families, the husband would hunt for the food and the wife would preserve and distribute the food.
- Both girls and boys would learn how to skin and butcher animals at a young age.
- Birds were a popular symbol in Inupiaq culture because they were believed to have a part in the earth's creation.
