The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo :: THE INVITING-IN FESTIVAL

THE INVITING-IN FESTIVAL

The Inviting-In Festival (AithÚkaguk) is a great inter-tribal feast, second in importance to the Great Feast to the Dead. It is a celebration on invitation from one tribe to her neighbors when sufficient provisions have been collected. It takes place late in the season, after the other festivals are over. Neighboring tribes act as hosts in rotation, each striving to outdo the other in the quality and quantity of entertainment offered. During this festival the dramatic pantomime dances for which the Alaskan Eskimo are justly famous, are performed by especially trained actors. For several days the dances continue, each side paying the forfeit as they lose in the dancing contests. In this respect the representations are somewhat similar to the nith contests of the Greenlanders. As I have noticed the dances at length elsewhere,[26] I shall only give a brief survey here, sufficient to show their place in the Eskimo festival dances.

The main dances of the Inviting-In Festival are totemic in character, performed by trained actors to appease the totems of the hunters, and insure success for the coming season. These are danced in pantomime and depict the life of arctic animals, the walrus, raven, bear, ptarmigan, and others. Then there are group dances which illustrate hunting scenes, like the Reindeer and Wolf Pack dance already described, also dances of a purely comic character, designed for the entertainment of the guests. During the latter performances the side which laughs has to pay a forfeit. Elaborate masks are worn in all of the dances. The full paraphernalia, masks, handmasks, fillets, and armlets, are worn by the chief actors. They are supported by richly garbed assistants. An old shaman acts as master of ceremonies. There is an interchange of presents between the tribes during the intervals but not between individuals, as in the Asking Festival. At the close of the festival the masks are burned.

KEY TO PLATE XI

A—Outer Vestibule. (La´torak.)
B—Summer Entrance. (Amek´.)
C—Front Platform. (?aklim.) Seat of Orphans and Worthless.
D—Plank Floor. (Na´tuk.)
E—Rear Platform. (Ka´an.) Seat of Honored Guests.
F—Smoke Hole. (?a´lok.) Entrance for Gift-lines.
G—Entrance Hole. (Pug´yarak.)
H—Fireplace. (Kene´thluk.) Seat of Spirit-Guests.
I—Underground Tunnel. (Ag´veak.)
J—Side Platforms. (Kaaklim.) Seats for Spectators.
K—Chorus of Drummers.
L—Feast Givers. (NÄ´skut.)
M—Namesakes of Dead.

Arrangement of Kasgi during the Great Feast to the Dead

KEY TO PLATE XII

A—First Movement. The Chief’s Son, OkvaÍok is dancing.
B—Second Movement.

ANTHR. PUB. UNIV. MUSEUM VOL. VI PLATE XII

image A

image B

MEN’S DANCE

KEY TO PLATE XIII

C—Third Movement.
D—Fourth Movement.

ANTHR. PUB. UNIV. MUSEUM VOL. VI PLATE XIII

image C

image D

MEN’S DANCE

KEY TO PLATE XIV

Children’s Dance.
The Chorus. Leader in Center Beating Time With an Ermine Stick.

ANTHR. PUB. UNIV. MUSEUM VOL. VI PLATE XIV

image CHILDREN’S DANCE

image THE CHORUS

KEY TO PLATE XV

Women’s Dance.

ANTHR. PUB. UNIV. MUSEUM VOL. VI PLATE XV

image WOMEN’S DANCE

[1] This characterization applies to the Alaskan Eskimo only; so far as is now known the other Eskimo branches do not have totemic dances.

[2] While the northern and southern tribes have the same general movements for their ordinary dances, they give a very different presentation of the festival dance-songs. The northerners leap and stamp about the kÁsgi until overcome with exhaustion; while in the south the performers sit or kneel on the floor, adorned with an abundance of streaming furs and feathers, sweep their hands through the air in graceful unison. It is a difference between rude vigor and dramatic art.

[3] This custom appears to be widespread. Low writes of the Hudson Bay Eskimo: “During the absence of the men on hunting expeditions, the women sometimes amuse themselves by a sort of female “angekoking.” This amusement is accompanied by a number of very obscene rites....” Low, The Cruise of the Neptune, p. 177.

[4] Literally “Heads” or directors of the feasts.

[5] The order of the seating on the inglak of invited guests is a matter of great concern to the Eskimo, as it is an indication of worth.

Children purchase their right to a seat in the kÁsgi by making presents, through their parents, to all the inmates, kÁsgimiut.

Until they do so they have no right to enter. For the same reason strangers on entering the kÁsgi offer a small present to the headman, who divides it among the people.

[6] TcÁuyak, Yukon dialect.

[7] LÓftak, Yukon dialect.

[8] MÚmra, Yukon dialect.

[9] TungrÁlik, Yukon dialect.

[10] TungrÁniyak, Yukon dialect.

[11] These are the northern names. In the southern or Yukon dialect black is TÚnguli; white KatughÚli; red, KauigÚli; green, TcunungÚli.

The endings and pronunciation of similar Eskimo words are somewhat different in Arctic Alaska and on the Yukon River; sufficiently so as to produce two distinct dialects. For this reason I have given the forms from both sections.

[12] Red is obtained from red ochre; white from white clay; black from soot or ashes; green from oxide of copper.

[13] The Asking Stick is also used in the Inviting-In Feast (AithÚkaguk).

[14] This is a liquor distilled from flour and molasses. In the operation an old cask and a gun barrel are used. The liquid is fermented with sour dough and allowed to distill through the barrel. The Eskimo had no liquor prior to the advent of the whalers, who supplied them with the materials and probably taught them the art of distilling. The U. S. Revenue Cutter “Bear” has been active in breaking up the practice. In 1909, six illicit stills were seized on the Diomede Islands.

[15] The first night of the feast the men and older boys meet in the kÁsgi, and two boys named the Raven (TulukaÚguk) and the Hawk (TeibÚriak) mix the paint and assist the men in ornamenting themselves.

[16] See Hans Egede, Det Gamle GrÖnlands Nye Perlustration, p. 78.

[17] The mothers also preserve with greatest care the bladders of the mice, ground squirrels, and other small animals killed by the children. These are purified at the same time.

[18] The number four appears to have a sacred significance among the Alaskan Eskimo. The Raven Father (TulukaÚguk) waves his wings four times over the objects of his creation; the heroes of ancient legends take four steps and are transported great distances; and important events occur on the fourth night. I understand that the four men who gather the wild parsnips represent the four clans of the tribe.

[19] The shapes of animals are thought by the Alaskan Eskimo to be like those of men, and in ancient times animals possessed the power of changing their forms at will. This was effected by pulling the muzzle up over the head to become people or of pulling it down again to regain their original form.

[20] The first child born in the village after his death becomes the deceased’s namesake. However, if born in camp, its mother gives it the name of the first natural object to catch her eye.

[21] Childless people provide for this contingency by adoption.

[22] One who has made himself odious to his fellow villagers is purposely neglected in the feasts to the dead.

[23] During the inter-tribal festivals, guests are given seats of honor next to the headman of the village according to the distance from which they have come. The back of the room (kÁan), the place of honor, is reserved for this purpose.

[24] The same arrangement characterizes the finger masks of the Inviting-In Dance. (KiggilÚnok), meaning wand, in southern dialect.

[25] Southern dialect. AkkizhzhÍgik, Ptarmigan. TeibÚviak, hawk; TulukaÚguk, meaning raven.

[26] Canadian Geological Survey. Memoir 45. The “Inviting-In” Feast of the Alaskan Eskimo.

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