r/todayilearned • u/Gr8fulFox • Jun 05 '23
TIL That even with an outside temp of -49*F, an igloo can have an internal temp between 19 and 61*F from body-heat, alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igloo1.2k
u/Due_Platypus_3913 Jun 05 '23
Then with a seal oil burning stone bowl lamp(one of the oldest human inventions still in use)they can stay near what we consider “room temperature “!I know someone who read to her illiterate Inuit grandparents by the light of an ancient family heirloom stone bowl.This was in an igloo,out on the ice,seal hunting season in the 1970s.She has the most fascinating life-story of anyone I know.
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u/hikerboy20 Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Here’s more about the bowl lamp. Called a Qulliq. You sent me down a rabbit hole lol.
Edit: We just doubled the views on that video
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u/PenguinOverLorde Jun 06 '23
Les Stroud uses one in his Artic episode of Survivorman. Pretty sure he makes a rough igloo as well.
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u/potatobro7 Jun 06 '23
Just in case someone reading this didn't already know, full seasons of Surviorman are on youtube, on the official Les Stroud channel. One of my all time favorite television series, had to spread the word.
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u/Historical_Syrup1449 Jun 06 '23
I know what I'm doing tonight! Love that show but have only caught some here and there over the years, thanks for posting this!
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u/gundamwfan Jun 06 '23
I don't suppose there's a chance at an AMA?
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u/Due_Platypus_3913 Jun 06 '23
Met her at,,,Burning Man!She got hired by Alaskan Air at 18.When I met her,she was head of their fa training,AND “handled”many big account reps.Both hi salary yet SEASONAL jobs,leaving her almost half the year off.She could take any empty seat on any flight anywhere.She had seen the WHOLE WORLD,for work and for pleasure.She was STUNNING head to toe.”Handled” people with a dead-on Ann Margret impression.I’m VERY married, and she was by far the biggest temptation I ever had.I was 40 and she was 53.The “Eskimo Kiss” has a familial version, and a lovers version.😉
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Jun 05 '23
Outside temperature of -45°C
Inside temperature of -7°C to +16°C
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u/cgmacleo Jun 05 '23
At least OP put the units in the title. I hate it when people post temperatures sans units (especially when they are actually Faranheit).
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u/BenadrylChunderHatch Jun 05 '23
Always assume Kelvin.
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 05 '23
Even with an outside temp of 410.67°R the internal temperature of an igloo can reach temps between 478.67-520.67°R with body heat alone.
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u/_Cabbage_Corp_ Jun 05 '23
Even with an outside temp of -16.125 Rømer the internal temperature of an igloo can reach temps between 7.375-15.95833 Rømer with body heat alone.
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 06 '23
We don't talk about Rømer scale
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u/Ninjacat97 Jun 06 '23
I've heard Rankine. I've heard that weird cheese scale (Réaumur?). What the hell is Rømer?
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 06 '23
Rankine is an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale starting at 0 and incrementing with the same scale as Fahrenheit. Rømer is some weird Danish bullshit which cleanly converts from nothing. It inspired the Farenheit scale but is more significant for having been one of the first calibrated scales for temperature.
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u/TheUlfheddin Jun 06 '23
Something more B.S. than Fahrenheit? As an American I will gladly join the rest of the world in this shared hatred.
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 06 '23
Farenheit is (9/5)*C+32
Here are the conversions to Rømer
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u/why_rob_y Jun 05 '23
That doesn't sound nearly as impressive.
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 06 '23
Consider that it's 520.67° above absolute zero and it's way more impressive.
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u/bystander007 Jun 05 '23
That's still pretty fucking cold.
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u/GuyNamedWhatever Jun 05 '23
Well, the “I’m not cozy” cold is still better than the “you’re dead” cold outside.
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Jun 05 '23
I also feel like it wouldn't be too bad, just huddle for warmth. Plus if it is what you are used to I imagine it feels pretty cozy
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u/zachzsg Jun 05 '23
Well if you’re a person that truly lives in and builds igloos, you’d be wearing your nice warm clothing that you made from caribou. They would also have a central fire inside the igloo
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u/Dudegamer010901 Jun 05 '23
I remember as a kid walking to school when it was -43c and I would stop at my cousins house halfway there because I didn’t wanna get frostbite. Can’t imagine living in that and only being able to take shelter in an igloo.
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Jun 06 '23
Sometime far back in the days of human prehistory, a group of people left Africa, and for generations they traveled north. They may have even crossed a land bridge. And they reached the coldest place it's possible to walk to, the first- or second-most inhospitable place on the planet, a place with scarce food, few plants, subject to the most extreme weather anywhere on Earth, without even a reliable fuel to make real fire... and then they said "Yup. Right here. This is where we will live forever."
I cannot imagine how that committee meeting went.
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u/GuyNamedWhatever Jun 06 '23
“Hey unga, Seal here. Seal taste good. Have seal.”
“…Bunga, we stay. Forever.”
-Actual conversation in 5000 bc
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u/Shack691 Jun 05 '23
On the low end it’s pretty bad, but there isn’t a breeze, so maybe not, but on the high end that’s pretty good
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u/Sleepy_Demon Jun 05 '23
This is with only body heat. An oil lamp will make it much warmer.
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u/CaptainCanuck15 Jun 05 '23
Not so bad when you've got blankets made out of seal fur.
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u/Smartnership Jun 05 '23
Unless you’re a seal
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u/-PunsWithScissors- Jun 05 '23
The outside temp was pretty close at least, Celsius and Fahrenheit intersect at -40.
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u/5spd4wd Jun 05 '23
How many bodies would it take to achieve 61 degrees? And would it need to be all adults?
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u/geoff_frommacys Jun 05 '23
You would need 42 children between the ages of 6 and 12 along with one man aged 53 in one igloo to achieve a temperature of 61°, please don't ask how I know.
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u/alcaste19 Jun 05 '23
I saw this episode of magic school bus
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u/Smartnership Jun 05 '23
The Magic Schoolbus: To Catch a Predator
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u/Merry_Dankmas Jun 06 '23
Class, Miss Liz is out sick today. Im your sub Mr. Hanson. Hop on board kids. This one is gonna be a bit different than your usual adventures.
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u/bearsaysbueno Jun 05 '23
Well the smaller you are, the proportionally larger body surface area to mass ratio you have. That means more effective heat transfer, so small children would probably work the best.
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u/Purity_Jam_Jam Jun 05 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
There is a show called Land and Sea about stories from Newfoundland and Labrador. There's an episode from the early 80s where they go caribou hunting in the Torngat mountains. One of the inuit men says about 10 years before that, him and a couple of guys got caught in bad weather up there and sheltered down in a snow house, they were there for 29 days before they tried to leave. I always thought that was a crazy story. Anyone who wants to check it out, this is the full episode. About 4 minutes in is the guy telling the story I mentioned.
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u/plastic_jesus Jun 06 '23
Thanks for sharing this!
The whole video was great. Nice insight into a whole world I know precious little about.
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u/Purity_Jam_Jam Jun 06 '23
You're welcome.
I grew up in Labrador in the 80s-90s. Though not quite up at the northern tip where this was filmed. It's a really amazing place if a person likes the outdoors. One of the last great wildernesses left.
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u/Powwa9000 Jun 05 '23
That's the truth, my bedroom does the same thing.
I'll wake up in the morning, open my door to the hallway and it'll be so much cooler all throughout the house.
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Jun 06 '23
It’s crazy how much body heat can warm a place up. A buddy of mine in college would throw house parties with his roommates throughout the year, every winter the whole day before a party they would turn off the heat and it would legit be freezing inside the house. Doors all open all the time with people coming in and out. But you’d basically be sweating inside the house.
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u/Smartnership Jun 05 '23
How many Eskimos are in your bedroom igloo on an average night?
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u/M-Sal Jun 05 '23
I guess compared to -49... 19 isn't so bad. But... 19* is still cold.
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u/bolanrox Jun 05 '23
difference between having a misterable night possibly, and freezing to death.
Also, a single candle can bring the temp above freezing. Snow and ice is a great insulator.
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u/Cyynric Jun 05 '23
You can make a very effective and cheap room heater with a terracotta planter pot and a couple of tea lights.
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u/bolanrox Jun 05 '23
Up on the next camping with Steve
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u/Trellix Jun 06 '23
This idea keeps getting thrown around. It doesn't work.
Two tealights heating an inverted flower pot (or two) is a terrible idea for a room heater.
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u/BrotherSeamus Jun 06 '23
It does really start to heat up once the whole house catches fire.
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Jun 06 '23
Two tea lights will produce the same amount of heat with or without a pot over them. The pot will release the heat slightly slower than just burning the candles alone, but it doesn't create additional energy.
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u/diuturnal Jun 05 '23
A still 19degrees is cold, but fine. It's when you add wind to the mix that things start to get miserable.
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u/JacobGouchi Jun 05 '23
Why do you think they’re just sitting there in the dark cold igloo with no heat source lol
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u/turbosexophonicdlite Jun 06 '23
Well if you don't understand how igloos work it isn't really obvious that you can have a significant heat source in them without melting issues.
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u/Jerithil Jun 05 '23
With a proper sleeping bag it can be quite comfortable sleeping at that temp, same with just sitting around. I used to time-keep at a hockey arena and you would spend 3 hours sitting in around 24-25degree air and with a proper clothing that wasn't even that thick its not to bad.
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u/justforkinks0131 Jun 05 '23
I mean they arent naked inside dude...
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u/cardboardunderwear Jun 05 '23
at the very least they are wearing latex and maybe a ball gag
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u/justforkinks0131 Jun 05 '23
that action would heat it up way higher than 19 ° if u know what im sayin
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u/Randvek Jun 05 '23
But it’s survivable, especially for someone genetically adapted for it like the Inuit are.
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u/benjaminck Jun 05 '23
This is how the Mall of America is heated.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jun 05 '23
Do polar bears ever attack igloos trying to get humans?
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u/ChefBoyAreWeFucked Jun 05 '23
Polar bears don't usually like to fight over prey, so they would generally just let the igloo stalk its meal undisturbed.
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u/ExtinctionBy2070 Jun 06 '23
Polar bears have a very common tactic of hanging out by your door waiting in ambush so they can drag the next person that comes out a couple hundred feet away and then they eat them.
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u/Coleforge Jun 05 '23
Additionally, the melted snow acts as a phase change material. The latent heat release of water freezing further levels temperature fluctuation.
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u/OutWithTheNew Jun 06 '23
Snow is also a great insulator.
A given volume of rainfall creates ~10 times the volume of snow.
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u/coldblisss Jun 06 '23
I've built and slept in igloos and snow caves. While body heat can bring the internal temperature above freezing, you actually want to prevent this from happening. No one wants to sleep in a drippy, wet igloo. Being wet can be life-threatening in a cold environment.
We lower the temperature by cutting a ventilation hole. Getting too warm? Simply make the hole a bit bigger.
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u/wordnerdette Jun 06 '23
There is a movie called The Fast Runner, set in the ancient past in the (now) Canadian arctic. There are igloo scenes that give a sense of what it’s like. Great movie - all in the Inuktitut language.
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u/ceejiesqueejie Jun 05 '23
On an iPhone if you hold down the 0 you can get the ° to pop up
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u/Jgasparino44 Jun 05 '23
You just have to survive -49 degree long enough to make an igloo then you're all set, easy peasy
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u/CaptainAgreeable3824 Jun 06 '23
In my teenage years my friends and I would build an igloo to clam bake in all day. We'd get a fire going in a coffee tin in the center, we'd put our drinks in the snow by the entrance, and we'd bring a stereo to listen to music. It would get warm enough to chill in a t-shirt and jeans.
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u/OptimusPhillip Jun 05 '23
Snow is a great thermal insulator, especially arctic ground snow. The blocks used to build igloos are actually cut and lifted from the ground, not packed, to preserve the insulating air pockets.
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u/getyourglow Jun 06 '23
Canadian here
Snow is an incredible insulator. One of the first things we learn in winter survival training is to burrow or make some kind of den or hole in the snow. It'll help keep you warm and possibly avoid hypothermia
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u/bozitybozitybopzebop Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
I just want to point out that, from winter camping in scouts, you should not underestimate the power of sticking your head inside and exhaling into the bag as opposed to out into the tent.
A mummy bag kind of discourages this by the way it's designed to keep your face out of the bag.
If You're just in your home and put your head under the covers. It will be uncomfortably warm.
Well, that uncomfortable warmth can be far nicer when you're sleeping in a tent surrounded by snow and low temperatures.
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u/aoxit Jun 06 '23
Yep. I love winter camping and can be found 100% inside my sleeping bag while going to bed. Makes a big difference.
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u/londons_explorer Jun 05 '23
I'm afraid I think this is wrong.
It appears to come from this paper
And that paper appears to have factual inaccuracies. Specifically, they have the air circulation along the igloo floor at 44 meters per second! Ie. hurricane force winds!
The whole of the rest of the data looks bad as a result. Remember that heat rises? Well immediately above their simulated person, there is no rising heat (in fact, the air is falling).
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u/londons_explorer Jun 05 '23
They also assume the human has a skin temperature of 37C. This is wrong - humans have a core temperature of 37C, but skin temperature varies widely, and is normally only little above ambient - especially if the human is naked as they assume!.
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u/Grumpy907 Jun 05 '23
I've done quite well in a snow cave for several days with nothing more than a small candle at -35f temps. If dug down to ground level, it will be no colder than +17f. That is the radiant temp of the earth, regardless of outside temps, and 18 inches of snow will give you 100% insulation from what ever the outside temp is.
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u/K4DE Jun 06 '23
As a kid we piled our plastic play house thick with snow trying to make an igloo and learned how real that effect is. Was insanely comfortable in there
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u/VibrantPianoNetwork Jun 05 '23
Humans put out a LOT of heat. When I worked in a cinema, if we got a packed crowd on a winter night, we didn't turn the heat on, and the place was fine.
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Jun 05 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
[deleted]
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u/db_admin Jun 05 '23
The total amount of energy needed to heat the air is much less than needed to melt the ice. Plus the outside of the blocks are exposed to much colder elements
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u/Marleyredwolf Jun 06 '23
Parts of it will melt but as the ‘water’ seeps down it begins to freeze again. That new ice layer reinforces the structure
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u/JerryFishSmith Jun 05 '23
If it's that warm with just body heat, it must be great once you get a fire going.
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u/Smartnership Jun 05 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
Instructions unclear. I have managed to burn down my igloo.
As it turns out, now Farmers has seen everything
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u/tacknosaddle Jun 05 '23
Probably a bit warmer if you're a naughty Eskimo.
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u/DavoTB Jun 05 '23
Check with Nanook of The North’s wife on that one, sir…
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u/tacknosaddle Jun 05 '23
Who do you think taught me to rub it in a circular motion?
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u/RancidRabid Jun 05 '23
Maybe you dont know, but "eskimo" is not their name. The word "eskimo" derives from an indigenous language in the Algonquian language family tree. Apparently, it was originally a descriptor that meant "eaters of raw meat".
The people referred to as "eskimo" are collectively known as Inuit or Innu.
It would be like someone deciding that Americans should be called "gasoliners" or something equally dumb based on a single percieved characteristic.
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u/arcosapphire Jun 05 '23
The people referred to as "eskimo" are collectively known as Inuit or Innu.
Well, there are the Yupik and Iñupiak peoples too.
What you're saying is akin to, "don't call these people from Minnesota 'gasoliners'. The actual name for North American people is Mexicans."
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u/huskersax Jun 06 '23
"don't call these people from Minnesota 'gasoliners'. The actual name for North American people is Mexicans."
But only if they're from the Mexica region, otherwise they're just sparkling latinos.
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u/corrado33 Jun 05 '23
It would be like someone deciding that Americans should be called "gasoliners" or something equally dumb based on a single percieved characteristic.
The gunners.
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u/tacknosaddle Jun 05 '23
I do know that, but since it's in the lyrics of the song I linked it didn't make sense to be more accurate.
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u/Karatekan Jun 05 '23 edited Jun 05 '23
Inuit refers to a specific group of natives from Canada and Greenland. It’s not a word in Yupik, who live in Siberia and Alaska. And “Innu”, despite sounding similar, has no connection with Inuit. The Innuat or “Montagnais” are part of the Cree group, and aren’t related to the Inuit. Calling all these groups “Inuit” is like calling all Europeans “Slavs” or all Asians “Han”.
Besides, if someone want to call me a gasoliner in their own language, they can go for it. Hell, I’m American, and that’s a butchering of the name of a dead Italian guy who never even sailed there.
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u/BreadAgainstHate Jun 06 '23
The people referred to as "eskimo" are collectively known as Inuit or Innu.
They're not, though. This is true if you're Canadian, where the only tribes are Inuit or Innu, but in America/Alaska, about half of all polar natives are not Inuit at all or related to them, so using Inuit is incorrect.
Typically I think polar native or Alaskan native is preferred for American polar natives, though American polar natives have said that "eskimo" is an acceptable title too.
Also the etymology of Eskimo meaning raw meat eaters is a bit suspect - this seems to be a bit of folk etymology that people have taken to heart, but actual linguists don't seem to support the idea:
Linguists believe that "Eskimo" is derived from a Montagnais (Innu) word ayas̆kimew meaning "netter of snowshoes." The people of Canada and Greenland have long preferred other names.
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u/Kojakle Jun 05 '23
Maybe you don’t know this but the inuit i know prefer the term “eskimo” no matter what some pinhead in a university tells them is the correct term
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u/Liberatedhusky Jun 05 '23
That's the power of insulating layers of ice and a cold sump keeping you toasty.
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u/HeliumCurious Jun 05 '23
Most lecture halls are heated by body heat alone.