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Never Alone Inupiaq Community Analysis

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After almost 10,000 years, the Inupiaq population remains as a hunter-gatherer society. They have thrived for thousands of years in blizzard environments, however they continue to maintain and support themselves on the land and surrounding sea of northern Alaska. In the video game, Never Alone, the Inupiaq’s culture and lifeways are depicted through indigenous Alaskan stories. The game addresses several ways in which Inupiaq folklore, subsistence strategies, and worldview are portrayed. Inupiaq folklore primarily consists of storytelling, art, and their community as a whole. As generations pass, storytelling is used as a popular source of entertainment, as well as a way of reinforcing beliefs and values. In almost all cases, the elders in …show more content…

In order to survive in a rough freezing environment, the Inupiaq have established a solid understanding of the surrounding’s resources to utilize. Applying cultural concepts to their subsistence strategies, the community practices cooperation and sharing routinely. Hunting not only provides food, but also supports the Inupiaq community with warmth, clothing, tools, and shelter. A subsistence lifestyle equals subsistence hunting, meaning, that this strategy feeds the whole community. Respectfully, elders are fed first. Since the Inupiaq live in arctic conditions, they are highly unable to collect plant food. However, they do hunt whale, seal, caribou, fish, and birds. One delicacy hunted by the Inupiaq is the duck. A bola, the type of tool used for duck hunting, is made of feathers, string, and stone that can be twirled to catch prey. Climate change may also affect subsistence in terms of rainfall, bird migration, glaciers, and possibly even malfunction in seasons, which is caused by lack of thick ice. The Inupiaq culture adapts accordingly to the availability of differing animals in changing seasons. Additionally, communal activities circulate the seasonal hunter-gatherer cycle. They must depend on a deep understanding of their environment and the behavior of the animals around them. For the Inupiaq, subsistence is a way of

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