( SOLD ) Inuit 3 Headed Shape Shifter Demon Carving
Vintage very rare hand carved 3 Headed ''Shape Shifter Demon'' Inuit Walrus Tusk Carving
NOS Beautiful, original 5' inches High by 2' inch wide Walrus Tusk carving in the depiction of 3 headed ' Shape Shifter Demon'' in the style of the Inuit peoples of N.W.T Northern Canada .
This beautiful carving was brought from Yellowknife NWT Canada in the early 1950's and the carving dates to sometime in the 1940's or earlier.
Supernatural beings accompany many Inuit myths, including: Mahaha, a demon that terrorizes the Arctic and tickles its victims to death; Ijiraat, shapeshifters that may change into any arctic animal but may not disguise their red eyes; Taqriaqsuit, shadow people who are rarely seen but often heard; Qallupilluk (or Qalupalik, see below), scaly, human-like creatures that snatch children into the sea; Inupasugjuk, giants who capture humans; and Tuniit, who are seen as simple-minded but extremely strong ancestors of the Inuit.
The Inuit People
Inuit who make their homes across the vastness of Canada's Arctic belong to a much larger family that extends from the Bering Sea through Alaska and northern Canada to Greenland. These imaginative, hardy and resourceful peoples are linked not only linguistically, but by a distinctly similar culture and way of life, as seen through Inuit art, song, dance, myth and legend. Their songs and story forms of myths and legends, linguistically as well as stylistically, relate most closely to Siberian — and possibly Finno-Ugric and early Hungarian (Magyar) traditions. Thus, language and legend may give clues to ancient routes of migration.
Ancient Inuit oral traditions were employed as the most important method of conveying and preserving ideas, augmented sometimes by small carvings that may have served as illustrations for events. Songs and dances also enhanced the meanings of myths and legends, which upheld the existing system, bolstered the traditional customs of Inuit society, and verbalized a sense of right and wrong. These early tales were intrinsically linked to Inuit shamanism.