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Inuit mythology has many similarities to the religions of other peoples of the North Polar region. Inuit traditional religious practices may be very briefly summarised as a form of shamanism based on animist principles.〔(Texts of mythology ) Sacred text.com. Retrieved 26 January 2013.〕 In some respects, Inuit mythology stretches the common conception of what the term "mythology" means. Unlike Greek mythology, for example, at least a few people have believed in it, without interruption, from the distant past up to and including the present time.〔(Inuit Culture, Traditions, and History )〕〔(Inuit - Eskimo Religion )〕 While the dominant religious system of the Inuit today is Christianity, many Inuit do still hold to at least some element of their traditional religious beliefs. Some see the Inuit as having adapted traditional beliefs to a greater or lesser degree to Christianity. Others would argue that the reverse is true, the Inuit having adapted Christianity to their worldview. Inuit traditional cosmology is not religion in the usual theological sense, and is similar to what most people think of as mythology only in that it is a narrative about the world and the place of people in it. In the words of Inuit writer Rachel Attituq Qitsualik: Indeed, the traditional stories, rituals and taboos of the Inuit are so tied into the fearful and precautionary culture required by their harsh environment that it raises the question as to whether they qualify as ''beliefs'' at all, much less religion. Knud Rasmussen asked his guide and friend Aua, an angakkuq (shaman), about Inuit religious beliefs among the ''Iglulingmiut'' (people of Igloolik) and was told: ''"We don't believe. We fear."'' Living in a varied and irregular world, the Inuit traditionally did not worship anything, but they feared much. Some authors debate the conclusions we might deduce from Aua's words, because the angakkuq was under the influence of missionaries, and later he even converted to Christianity — converted people often see the ideas in polarisation and contrasts, the authors say. Their study also analyses beliefs of several Inuit groups, concluding (among others) that fear was not diffuse.〔Kleivan & Sonne 1985:32〕 ==Anirniit== The Inuit believed that all things have a form of spirit or soul (in Inuktitut: anirniq meaning ''breath''; plural anirniit), just like humans. These spirits are held to persist after death — a common belief present in practically all human societies. However, the belief in the pervasiveness of spirits — the root of Inuit myth structure — has consequences. According to a customary Inuit saying "The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls." By believing that all things have souls like those of humans, killing an animal is little different from killing a person. Once the ''anirniq'' of the dead animal or human is liberated, it is free to take revenge. The spirit of the dead can only be placated by obedience to custom, avoiding taboos, and performing the right rituals. The harshness and randomness of life in the Arctic ensured that Inuit lived constantly in fear of unseen forces. A run of bad luck could end an entire community and begging potentially angry and vengeful but unseen powers for the necessities of day-to-day survival is a common consequence of a precarious existence. For the Inuit, to offend an ''anirniq'' was to risk extinction. The principal role of the angakkuq in Inuit society was to advise and remind people of the rituals and taboos they needed to obey to placate the spirits, since he was held to be able to see and contact them. The ''anirniit'' are seen to be a part of the ''sila'' — the sky or air around them — and are merely borrowed from it. Although each person's ''anirniq'' is individual, shaped by the life and body it inhabits, at the same time it is part of a larger whole. This enabled Inuit to borrow the powers or characteristics of an ''anirniq'' by taking its name. Furthermore, the spirits of a single class of thing — be it sea mammals, polar bears, or plants — are in some sense held to be the same and can be invoked through a keeper or master who is connected with that class of thing. In some cases, it is the ''anirniq'' of a human or animal who becomes a figure of respect or influence over animals things through some action, recounted in a traditional tale. In other cases, it is a ''tuurngaq'', as described below. Since the arrival of Christianity among the Inuit, ''anirniq'' has become the accepted word for a soul in the Christian sense. This is the root word for other Christian terms: ''anirnisiaq'' means ''angel'' and ''God'' is rendered as ''anirnialuk'', the great spirit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inuit mythology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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