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Tupilak

"The history of the tupilak goes back 5,000 years. The tupilak proper was a magically created troll animal, which the Greenlanders manufactured out of the bones of children or various animals. The tupliak was made at a lonely well-concealed spot, the individual bones being put in place by the thumb and little finger only. If other fingers were used, the attempt would be a failure.Earth or seaweed was used for the musculature. The whole thing was wrapped in a piece of old skin and life was given to it by the singing of a magic song. The creator had no need to be a shaman, as tupilak magic came more under witchcraft and consequently anyone skilled in the latter could make a tupilak provided he adhered to the proper procedure.The purpose of the tupilak was to be rid of an enemy, and the tupilak attacked in the form of the animal it represented. If it was a seal, it would drag down the hunter and drown him. As a polar bear, it would eat the enemy.The tupilak was a magical impliment devoid of independent will. It was, thus, compelled to obey a person posessing insight into the supernatural world. Were the tupilak given orders by two different people, it would obey the one with the greater magical ability. Should the victim prove to be the more adept at the magic art and had reason to suspect what was taking place, he would return the tupilak in order that it would hunt its creator instead.When the Greenland explorer, Gustav Holm, reached Angmagssalik in 1884, he asked what a tupilak looked like. The people of Angmagssalik found it difficult to draw it on the spot, and therefore carved one in wood. This was the beginning of tupilak production which gradually spread all over Greenland. Only in rare instances will a Greenlander use his tupilak to bring misfortune or disaster to his neighbor.Today the artist is under the spell of goodness, of laughter, humor and kindness and not under the demonic control of the diabolic shamans. He creates what he has envisioned in his dreams, from what others have told him and from his own experiences with his fellow men. They still assume "unnatural" forms as did the original tupilaks.There is no definite or single theme behind the tupilak. Some are funny, some are droll, some sad and tragic, some show age old superstition. Others catch a wierd monster of the imagination. They appear as fettishes, totemic figures, and as fertility designs in various seemingly pornographic stances. However, this was not intended by the shaman or the artist."

Source: Native art by Lorentz Josefsen