Eskimo yo-yo

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Basic motion of the yo-yo, the handle must be moved rhythmically to maintain the orbits Alaskan yo-yo.svg
Basic motion of the yo-yo, the handle must be moved rhythmically to maintain the orbits

An Eskimo yo-yo [a] or Alaska yo-yo [b] (Central Yupik : yuuyuuk; [19] Inupiaq : igruuraak) is a traditional two-balled skill toy played and performed by the Eskimo-speaking Alaska Natives, such as Inupiat, Siberian Yupik, and Yup'ik. It resembles fur-covered bolas and yo-yo. It is regarded as one of the most simple, yet most complex, cultural artifacts/toys in the world. [8] [9] The Eskimo yo-yo involves simultaneously swinging two sealskin balls suspended on caribou sinew strings in opposite directions with one hand. It is popular with Alaskans and tourists alike. [10] This traditional toy is two unequal lengths of twine, joined together, with hand-made leather objects (balls, bells, hearts) at the ends of the twine. [20] [c]

Contents

The object of the Eskimo yo-yo is to make the balls circle in opposite directions at the same time. Each cord is a different length to allow the balls to pass without striking one another, [16] [12] and the balls are powered by centripetal force (as they rise the performer pumps down, while they fall the performer pumps up). [17] This basic trick may be referred to as the "Eskimo orbit", and the orbit may be performed vertically, horizontally, or (horizontally) above one's head. [21] Other tricks or patterns include atypical beginnings and wrapping and/or bouncing the strings around a part of one's body and then continuing with the orbit. A three-ball version of the Eskimo yo-yo also exists, and this requires all three balls to be moving at the same time. [22]

The objects at the end of the string are made in a variety of shapes, ranging from seals, ptarmigan feet and dolls, to miniature mukluks and simple balls. [10] [12] The handle may be wood, bone, or ivory, [13] as well as baleen. Many are plainly decorated; others display elaborate decorations, fine beadwork, and intricate details. [10] The Eskimo yo-yo is bola, toy, and art form all rolled into one. One of their most popular forms of the Alaska Native art are yo-yos. Also, this is a popular tourist art found in gift shops across Alaska. [10] See: Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. Much like the spinning top (e.g. Maxwell's top), the yo-yo may also be used to demonstrate visual properties such as optical rotation [23] and circular dichroism. [24]

Though the early history of the Eskimo yo-yo is not recorded, Eskimos maintain that this game originated as an important and widely used hunting tool made simply with sinew and bones, the bola. [10] [15] [18] It possibly evolved on St. Lawrence Island from the similarly constructed sinew and rock bolas used in bird hunting. [11]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Eskimo" may be considered a derogatory term. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
  2. ↑ Known in English as Eskimo yo-yo, [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] Alaskan yo-yo, [15] Alaska Eskimo yo-yo, Alaskan Eskimo yo-yo, Alaskan Inuit Eskimo yo-yo, Alaska Native yo-yo, Inuit yo-yo, [17] Inupiat yo-yo, [18] Yup'ik yo-yo, Yupik yo-yo or Eskimo bolo, [16] Arctic bolo, [10] Mountain bolo [16]
  3. ↑ Definitions:
    • "The Eskimo Bolo has been used for years in many cultures and has been known as Mountain Bolo, Eskimo Yo-yo, and other names. Some ancient cultures used a similar device as a hunting weapon. The object of the Eskimo Bolo is to make the balls circle in opposite directions at the same time. Each cord is a different length to allow the balls to pass without striking one another." [16]
    • "The Eskimo yo-yo is a toy popular with Alaskans and tourists alike that involves rotating two sealskin balls suspended on sinew strings in opposite directions. It probably evolved on St. Lawrence Island from the similarly constructed sinew and rock bolas used in bird hunting." [11]
    • "Based on a bola design, in olden times tools like this were made of rocks tethered together with sinew and were used to catch birds...the two ends can be made to rotate in opposite directions – that is, with one end revolving around the center handle clockwise, and the other revolving counterclockwise." [18]
    • "An 'Eskimo yo-yo' is a toy consisting of two objects attached to strings of slightly different lengths. The player twirls the strings so that the objects circle in opposite directions. Miniature mukluks, small stuffed fur animals such as birds or seals, and ptarmigan feet are common yo-yo attachments." [12]
    • "This game consists of two pieces connected by a sinew, yarn, or strings. They have a handle of wood, bone, or ivory. The pieces are covered with seal skin. The object is to keep the balls swinging in opposite directions. To play, start one ball swinging in one direction, then toss the other ball in the opposite direction (one yo-yo string should be slightly longer than the other). A slight up and down movement of the wrist will help prevent the balls from striking each other." [13]
    • "The Eskimo yo-yo is a training version of the bolo weapon. To play with an Eskimo yo-yo, get the two orbitals spinning in opposite directions—it's harder than you might think!" [14]

Related Research Articles

Eskimo is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit languages</span> Branch of the Eskaleut language family

The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit languages are one of the two branches of the Eskimoan language family, the other being the Yupik languages, which are spoken in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Most Inuit people live in one of three countries: Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark; Canada, specifically in Nunavut, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, the Nunavik region of Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador; and the United States, specifically in northern and western Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupik peoples</span> Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iñupiat</span> Indigenous people of Alaska, U.S.

The Inupiat are a group of Alaska Natives whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat, including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation. They often claim to be the first people of the Kauwerak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskaleut languages</span> Language family of the Arctic and sub-Arctic

The Eskaleut, Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of what are now the United States (Alaska); Canada including Nunavut, Northwest Territories, northern Quebec (Nunavik), and northern Labrador (Nunatsiavut); Greenland; and the Russian Far East. The language family is also known as Eskaleutian, or Eskaleutic.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolas</span> Type of weighted throwing weapon used in South America

Bolas or bolases is a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling their legs. Bolas were most famously used by the gauchos, but have been found in excavations of Pre-Columbian settlements, especially in Patagonia, where indigenous peoples used them to catch 200-pound guanacos and rheas. The Mapuche and the Inca army used them in battle. Mapuche warriors used bolas in their confrontations with the Chilean Army during the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit Circumpolar Council</span> Inuit run Arctic organization

The Inuit Circumpolar Council is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 180,000 Inuit and Yupik people living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Chukchi Peninsula. ICC was accredited by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and was granted special consultative status at the United Nations in 1983.

Eskimo kinship is a category of kinship used to define family organization in anthropology. Identified by Lewis H. Morgan in his 1871 work Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, the Eskimo system was one of six major kinship systems. The system of English-language kinship terms falls into the Eskimo type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupik languages</span> Languages of the Yupik peoples

The Yupik languages are a family of languages spoken by the Yupik peoples of western and south-central Alaska and Chukotka. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that they are not mutually intelligible, although speakers of one of the languages may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been extinct since 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iñupiaq language</span> Group of dialects of the Inuit language

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulu</span> Traditional all-purpose knife of Inuit, Yupik and Aleut women

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The claim that Eskimo words for snow are unusually numerous, particularly in contrast to English, is a cliché commonly used to support the controversial linguistic relativity hypothesis. In linguistic terminology, the relevant languages are the Eskimo–Aleut languages, specifically the Yupik and Inuit varieties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masks among Eskimo peoples</span>

Masks among Eskimo peoples served a variety of functions. Masks were made out of driftwood, animal skins, bones and feathers. They were often painted using bright colors. There are archeological miniature maskettes made of walrus ivory, dating from early Paleo-Eskimo and from early Dorset culture period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaska Native religion</span> Traditional indigenous cultural practices and beliefs

Traditional Alaskan Native religion involves mediation between people and spirits, souls, and other immortal beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, and Northwest Coastal Indian cultures, but today are less common. They were already in decline among many groups when the first major ethnological research was done. For example, at the end of the 19th century, Sagdloq, the last medicine man among what were then called in English, "Polar Eskimos", died; he was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea, and was also known for using ventriloquism and sleight-of-hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yup'ik</span> Indigenous people of Alaska

The Yupʼik or Yupiaq and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yupʼik, Central Yupʼik, Alaskan Yupʼik, are an Indigenous people of western and southwestern Alaska ranging from southern Norton Sound southwards along the coast of the Bering Sea on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and along the northern coast of Bristol Bay as far east as Nushagak Bay and the northern Alaska Peninsula at Naknek River and Egegik Bay. They are also known as Cupʼik by the Chevak Cupʼik dialect-speaking people of Chevak and Cupʼig for the Nunivak Cupʼig dialect-speaking people of Nunivak Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circumpolar peoples</span> Term for Indigenous peoples of the Arctic

Circumpolar peoples and Arctic peoples are umbrella terms for the various indigenous peoples of the Arctic region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit</span> Indigenous peoples of northern North America

Inuit are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally), Alaska, and Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jensen Arctic Museum</span> Museum at Western Oregon University

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qargi</span> Traditional dwelling type of the Arctic

Qargi, Qasgi or Qasgiq, Qaygiq, Kashim, Kariyit, a traditional large semi-subterranean men's community house' of the Yup'ik and Inuit, also Deg Hit'an Athabaskans, was used for public and ceremonial occasions and as a men's residence. The Qargi was the place where men built their boats, repaired their equipment, took sweat baths, educated young boys, and hosted community dances. Here people learned their oral history, songs and chants. Young boys and men learned to make tools and weapons while they listened to the traditions of their forefathers.

References

  1. ↑ Israel, Mark. "Eskimo". Alt-usage-english.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-03. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  2. ↑ "Cree Mailing List Digest November 1997". Archived from the original on 2012-06-20. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  3. ↑ Mailhot, Jose (1978). "L'etymologie de "esquimau" revue et corrigée". Études/Inuit/Studies. 2 (2).
  4. ↑ Goddard, Ives (1984). Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5 (Arctic). Smithsonian Institution. ISBN   978-0-16-004580-6.
  5. ↑ Kaplan, Lawrence. "Inuit or Eskimo: Which name to use?" Alaskan Native Language Center, UFA. Retrieved 14 Feb 2015. Archived 2017-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Setting the Record Straight About Native Languages: What Does "Eskimo" Mean In Cree?". Native-languages.org. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  7. ↑ "Eskimo". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:banana, 2000. Bartleby. Archived from the original on 2001-04-12. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  8. 1 2 Kiana, Chris (2004/2016). Original 100 Alaska Eskimo Yo-Yo Stratagems: Instructional Book. Publication Consultants. ASIN: B007SNYM38. ISBN   978-1594330131/ ISBN   9781594331879. [ pages needed ]
  9. 1 2 "Chris Kiana". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2014-11-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) and "Keynote Speaker: Christopher (Chris) J. Kiana, M.B.A., MA-RD, Ph.D., candidate", WCSpeakers.com (accessed: December 01 2016).
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Klistoff, Alysa J. (2007), Weapon, Toy, or Art? The Eskimo yo-yo as a commodified Arctic bola and marker of cultural Identity [ permanent dead link ]. University of Alaska Fairbanks. OCLC   103303229.
  11. 1 2 3 Applegate Krouse, Susan and Howard, Heather A. (2009). Keeping the Campfires Going: Native Women's Activism in Urban Communities , p.103, n.4 (cites Lee, Molly. "Strands of Gold", Anchorage Daily News (We Alaskans). October 17, 1999, 18-13.). University of Nebraska Press. ISBN   9780803226456.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Morrow, Phyllis (1987). Making the best of two worlds: an anthropological approach to the development of bilingual education materials in southwestern Alaska , p.206, n.1. Cornell.
  13. 1 2 3 "Eskimo Yo-Yo Archived 2016-12-01 at the Wayback Machine ", AnchorageMuseum.org/Shop. Accessed: November 30, 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Eskimo Yo-Yo - Cylindrical Archived 2016-11-30 at the Wayback Machine ", AlaskaMuseumStore.com. Accessed: November 30, 2016.
  15. 1 2 3 "Juanita Tukrook", CommunityCelebration.org. ("First Nation Inupiak elder. Born in Fairbanks, Alaska in a small village called Tanana along the Arctic slope."): "Even when we catch ducks, we use this for a feather duster or you know something in the house. We try to use all parts of the animal. This is um...made from seal and this is called ah...Alaskan yo-yo, Eskimo yo-yo. And this is how you work it. But this is some of the toys I played with growing up." Accessed November 29, 2061.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 "Eskimo Bolo Archived 2014-11-09 at the Wayback Machine ", ToysfromthePast.com. Accessed: November 29, 2016.
  17. 1 2 Walton, Sandra J. "An Inuit yo-yo", Science Experiments on File (FOFWeb.com/onfiles/SEOF), p.2.
  18. 1 2 3 Donachy, Jack & Barbra (October 8, 2013. "Inupiat (Eskimo) Yo-Yo with Polar Bear Fur", CutterLight.com. Accessed November 29, 2016.
  19. ↑ Liz Atseriak, Igarta and Brunk, Cara (1998). Yuuyuuk [Eskimo yo-yo]. Lower Kuskokwim School District. ASIN: B01FWT5PY4. (in Central Yupik)
  20. ↑ Doogan, Mike (1993). How to Speak Alaskan , [ page needed ]. Epicenter. ISBN   9780945397243.
  21. ↑ Kiana, Chris. "3 Basic Tricks". Archived from the original on 10 February 2005. Retrieved 2016-11-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  22. ↑ "More than One Way to Play Bola". CHIN-Canadian Heritage Information Network. Archived from the original on 5 June 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  23. ↑ Gill, S. J. (1961), "A demonstration of optical rotation with an "Eskimo yo-yo"". Journal of Chemical Education 38 (5): 263. (subscription required)
  24. ↑ Meloan, Clifton E. and Gere, Dennis (1977), "The use of an Eskimo yo-yo to demonstrate circular dichroism and optical rotation". Journal of Chemical Education 54 (9): 577. (subscription required)

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