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The Inuit, the indigenous people of the Great North, are scattered over the largest expanse on the planet: from the coasts of Siberia through Alaska and the great Canadian North to Greenland, a distance of over 10,000 km. Although widely scattered, Inuit culture is unified by related languages and a subsistence lifestyle adapted to the Arctic regions.
The polar landscape changes ceaselessly. The Inuit believe that the spirits of the winds and storms remodel nature as they please, sweeping away all familiar landmarks. The spirits are necessarily involved in all their activities and relationships with the wilds. To ensure satisfactory living conditions, such as mammals being where they were expected to be, the Inuit invoked many of these spirits by ritual chants. They frequently made small amulets from wood, bone or ivory as souvenirs of these supernatural encounters. These magical objects were kept on their bodies, in their houses and on their means of transport.
© 2021 Musée d'ethnographie, Genève
