Atiq

I am told that in traditional Inuit culture, a name and a soul are the same thing. This combined identity and spirit is called the atiq. When a person dies, their atiq will continue and they will be reincarnated into another body. Before a child is born, the child's paternal grandmother will have a dream of what atiq that child will have and who they will be. That child will be treated as the person they were and treated with the same respect. Nobody is raised with condescension, disrespect, or even reproaches. People learn to obey social mores not for fear of punishment, but by being taught that if they disrespect tradition they will put their atiq at risk. If they disobey the laws of the community, they may not be reincarnated into another life. Other discipline is not necessary.

Animals also have atiq that deserve similar reverence. When the meat of an animal is not shared or when the body of an animal is not treated with proper deference, that animal's atiq is put in danger. A lack of respect of that animal's home and habitat similarly can cause the loss of an animal's atiq. If the atiq of the animals start to disappear, then there will be fewer animals and food will become scarce. It is well known to the Inuit that if something happens to the fauna, something the people are doing is not right.

In present day, I suppose this system no longer really can work. There are too many people with unknown atiqs who don't know who they are. There are too few animal atiq left, and the logic of the system falls apart with so many influences from outside the culture. Still, I feel like before all the things forced themselves in from outside, these stories were totally and literally true in that part of the world.