Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992metic..27q.254m&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 27, no. 3, volume 27, page 254
Physics
Scientific paper
Inuit religious mythology and the importance of meteorites as "messages" from the Creator of all things is only now being recognized. Field investigations near Resolute, Cornwallis Island in the high Canadian Arctic in 1988 are the bases for this paper. Through interpreters, several elders of the local Inuit described in detail the Inuit belief, recognition, and wonder at the falling meteors & meteorites during the long Polar Night and Polar Day. Such events are passed on in the oral tradition from generation to generation by the elders and especially those elders who fulfill the shamanistic roles. The Inuit have come across rocks that they immediately recognize as not being "natural" and in the cases of a fall that was observed and the rock recovered the meteorite is kept either on the person or in some hidden niche known only to that person. In one story recounted a meteorite fell and was recovered at the birth of one very old elder and the belief was that if the rock was somehow damaged or taken from his possession he would die. Some indirect indication also was conveyed that the discovery and possession of meteorites allow shaman to have "supernatural" power. This belief in the supernatural power of meteorites can be seen historically in many societies, including Islam and the "black rock" (Kaaba) of Mecca. It should also be noted, however, that metallic meteorites were clearly once the major source of iron for Eskimo society as is indicated from the recovery of meteoritical iron arrow heads and harpoon heads from excavated pre-Viking contact sites. The one evident thing that became clear to the author is that the Inuit distinctly believe that these meteorites are religious objects of the highest order and it brings into question the current academic practice of sending meteorites south to research institutes. Any seeming conflict with the traditional use of meteoric iron is more apparent than real--the animals, the hunt, and the act of survival--all being bound up in the mystic patterns of animistic belief. "Nature red in tooth and claw," with Inuit man's sharpest claw being mystically derived meteoritc iron.
Mardon Austin
Mardon E. G.
Williams Jeffress S.
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