Eskimos, which translated into Russian means "those who eat raw meat", prefer to call themselves Inuit, because this is how the phrase "real people" sounds in their dialect.
Having chosen the most extreme point of the Chukotka Peninsula, the island of Greenland and the coldest regions of the USA and Canada as their habitat, this small indigenous people of the north have a number of distinctive traditions that surprise and sometimes shocking representatives of the civilized world.
Greetings - cuff
Before starting a conversation with a stranger, the Eskimos, according to local etiquette, greet the newcomer. To do this, all the men of the community line up and, in turn, approaching the guest, give him a slap on the head, expecting the same answer from him.
Spanking each other continues until someone from the "delegation" falls to the ground. Considered a very peaceful and friendly people, the Eskimos do not want to offend the guest with this sacred ritual, but, on the contrary, try to expel evil spirits from his soul that can harm both the person himself and the home, where a warm northern welcome awaits him.
Kiss noses
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Much more tenderly, Inuit greet familiar people, for which they traditionally rub the tips of their noses while inhaling the familiar smell of the interlocutor. The world famous "Eskimo kiss" is called "kunik" in the local language and is carried out between loved ones, regardless of gender.
Trying to find an explanation for this strange custom, inhabitants from the mainland assumed that smacking their lips in the bitter frost was fraught with freezing. However, the solution turned out to be simpler, but also associated with extreme weather conditions: due to constant gusts of wind and low temperatures, the Eskimos' outerwear is cut in such a way that it covers all parts of the body, except for a small area of the face, limited by the nose and eyes.
Ear competition
Another important senses of the "frost children" are the ears, which compete in the thread-pulling competitions held as part of the annual World Eskimo-Indian Olympic Games.
The essence of this bloody competition is as follows: a loop made of a special waxed thread is put on the ears of two participants sitting opposite each other, and at the signal of the referee, the athletes begin to forcefully deflect their head and torso back.
Since such a load delivers hellish torment to the ear, the struggle, in which both men and women participate, usually lasts only a few seconds. The loser in the bout is the athlete whose ear has fallen off the loop, or the one who surrendered, unable to bear the pain. But there were times when the surrender took place not because of torment, but simply because of a torn off ear.
On several occasions, the organizers of the games tried to ban this shocking competition, but the Eskimos were adamant, as they considered it a test of pain tolerance in the harsh polar conditions of life.
For the same reason, such an Eskimo sport as lifting weights with the ears is popular. According to the rules, the winner of this competition is the one who will overcome the 600 meter distance the fastest with a 5-kilogram weight earring attached to each ear.
Home clothes
The extreme climate forces the Eskimos to spend the whole day in warm but very heavy clothes, which they take off only in the evening, going for the night in a snowy dwelling - an igloo. Moreover, both men and women take off almost all things, remaining in tiny leather-fur panties "naatsit", which are the prototype of modern thongs.
When it comes time to sleep, members of the Eskimo family cover themselves with animal skins and get rid of even this simple underwear, since by snuggling naked bodies together, they improve heat circulation.
Wives for rent
In the Eskimo society, a woman is the keeper of the hearth, without whose help it is very difficult for men to cope with household chores and road burdens. But sometimes it happens that the "legitimate" spouse, due to illness or caring for an infant, cannot move with her husband across the vast expanses, and then his named brother or best friend comes to the rescue of a man, who simply lends him his healthy wife.
The rental spouse is next to the new husband until he returns to the parking lot, while on the way she not only looks after him, but also shares a matrimonial bed with him.
The Eskimos treat adultery easily, in their society there are no concepts of jealousy and an illegitimate child, since it does not matter who is the father of the child, the main thing is that the offspring reproduce.
Eskimo cuisine
The basis of the Eskimo diet is meat obtained in the course of sea fishing and hunting, as well as bird eggs. The carcasses of whales and walruses, seals and deer, musk oxen and polar bears are used both fresh and after processing, for example, drying, drying, freezing, fermentation and boiling.
An indispensable component of the Eskimo cuisine is seal blood, which, according to local beliefs, nourishes human blood, making it stronger and healthier. In their opinion, rotten seal fat used with cloudberries, as well as raw whale fat, has a similar effect on the body.
A special delicacy is the kiwiak dish - a seal carcass stuffed with seagulls. Usually, about 400 birds are required to prepare this delicacy, which are placed in the belly of a mammal without cleaning, that is, together with feathers and beaks. At the next stage, all the air is squeezed out of the seal, coated with a thick layer of fat and the resulting semi-finished product is placed under stones for a period of 3 to 18 months.
During this time, a fermentation process will take place inside the carcass, during which the birds will acquire a unique taste.
Having adapted to the meager plant conditions of the environment, the Eskimos replenish their reserves of vitamins A and D from fish and animal liver, and vitamin C is obtained from algae, seal brain, and whale skin.
Addicted to tobacco
In Eskimo society, tobacco is considered an integral attribute of existence, necessary not only for imaginary pleasure, but also for treatment.
Men are usually poisoned with nicotine through smoking, and women and even children - by chewing tobacco. Moreover, Eskimos use tobacco gum to calm crying babies.
Stone graves
Since the Eskimos live in the permafrost zone, their cemeteries are stone mounds, under which the bodies of the deceased, wrapped in skins, lie. Next to each such mound, there are things belonging to the deceased that he may need in the afterlife.
Ashkhen Avanesova