Inuit religion Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional ...

, Nanook (; , lit. "polar bear") was the master of bears, meaning he decided if hunters deserved success in finding and hunting bears and punished violations of

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

s. The word was popularized by ''

Nanook of the North ''Nanook of the North'' is a 1922 American silent film that combines elements of documentary and docudrama/docufiction, at a time when the concept of separating films into documentary and drama did not yet exist. In the tradition of what would ...

'', the first feature-length documentary. The

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

believed that Nanook, the

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...

, was powerful and mighty, and they thought that he was "almost man." The Inuit hunters would worship this great bear because they believed that he decided if the hunters would be successful. “In the past, the Inuit ate polar bear meat and used the fur to make warm trousers for men and kamiks (soft boots) for women”."The Inuit and Polar Bears."
Polar Bears International. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Respect was given to Nanook by the hunter hanging the bear's hide in a special section of his

igloo An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the ...

, where it would stay for several days. They would also offer the bear's spirit weapons and other hunting tools if it was a male, and needle cases, scrapers (used to scrape the fat off hides) and knives if it was female. “Native people believed that polar bears allowed themselves to be killed in order to obtain the souls of the tools (tatkoit), which they would take with them into the hereafter.” “Legend says that if a dead polar bear was treated properly by the hunter, it would share the good news with other bears so they would be eager to be killed by him. Bears would stay away from hunters who failed to pay respect.”

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References

"NANOOK: The Deity from Native American Mythology."
Godchecker.com Web. 23 Feb. 2010. *Paisley, Susanna, and Nicholas J. Saunders. Taylor & Francis Online. N.p., 23 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. {{Inuit religion Animal worship Bears in religion Polar bears

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