Inupiat Ioitqusiat (The Things That Make Us Who We Are)
Guiding Question: How does an environment affect its people and culture? Key words: sense of place cultural identity natural resources environment
Background:
The notion of culture can be complicated and all-encompassing. The objects in our lives, the songs we sing, the clothing we wear, the stories we tell, the games we play—all of these and more add up to our culture.
One lens through which to view any culture is the environment. Any cultural object—whether a pair of blue jeans or a traditional Inupiaq pullover made from animal hide, or atigi—has a unique environmental history that is culturally meaningful.
In the case of the blue jeans, this history includes the cotton farm; the pesticides applied there; the working conditions of the laborers who harvested and processed the crop into cloth and sewed it in a factory; the subtle class distinctions determined by the brand label; the work that allowed a consumer to afford the purchase price; and the cultural environment in which the jeans were worn. At each juncture of this history, the physical environment plays an important role.
In the case of the Inupiaq atigi, the history is quite different. Like all traditional Arctic Inuit societies, the Inupiaq survive by hunting and harvesting marine life along the frozen shores of the land. Atigi
ACTIVITIES
2-4. Inupiaq (Real People) ..........................................22 Research Question: What is culture and how is our place expressed in our culture?
2-5. Qiksiksrautiqagniq Iñuuniagvigmun (Respect for Nature) ............................................24
Research Question: How is cultural identity developed as an expression of the local environment?
2-6. Games People Play ..............................................27
Research Question: How are cultural identities communicated and what is the value to society of preserving ethnodiversity?