Institutionalizing Love: The Nuniaq-ing Custom among Alaskan Iñupiat

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Sprott, Julie E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1999
• Subjects: Alaskan Eskimo; Iñupiat; Northwest Arctic; childrearing; childrearing customs; naming practices; kinship; child indulgence; family relationships; Esquimau de l’Alaska; iñupik; Arctique du Nord-Ouest; coutumes d’éducation des enfants; attribution d’un nom; liens du sang; douceur avec les enfants; liens familiaux; Arctic; Nuniaq; Arctique*; eskimo*
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/63975

Nuniaq-ing young children is a distinctive Iñupiaq childrearing custom that survives to this day. It concerns a kind of stereotyped cooing and singsong phrases directed by adults to infants and young children, and it appears to cement ties of particular kin to particular children. For example, paren...