Thursday, March 4, 2010

Vancouver

Inukshuk
Cuba

Avril Lavigne

Germán Arciniegas

Isaiah 55:8-9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Vancouver (inukshuk15)
Chess: "Cuba" "Avril Lavigne" "Germán Arciniegas" "Inukshuk" "Vancouver"

Inukshuk


An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) [1] (from the Inuktitut, plural ; alternatively inukshuk in English[2] or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun[3]) is a stone landmark or cairn built by humans, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome, containing areas with few natural landmarks.

The inuksuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for hunting grounds, or as a food cache.[4] The Inupiat in northern Alaska used inuksuit to assist in the herding of caribou into contained areas for slaughter.[5] Inuksuit vary in shape and size, with deep roots in the Inuit culture.

Historically the most common type of inuksuit is a single stone positioned in an upright manner.[6] An inuksuk is often confused with an inunnguaq, a cairn representing a human figure. There is some debate as to whether the appearance of human or cross shaped cairns developed in the Inuit culture before the arrival of European missionaries and explorers.[6]

At Enukso Point on Baffin Island there are over 100 inuksuit and the area has been designated one of Canada's national historic sites

The word inuksuk means "something which acts for or performs the function of a person." The word comes from the morphemes inuk ("person") and -suk ("ersatz" or "substitute"). It is pronounced inutsuk in Nunavik and the southern part of Baffin Island (see Inuit phonology for the linguistic reasons). In many of the central Nunavut dialects, it has the etymologically related name inuksugaq (plural: inuksugait).

Despite the predominant English spelling as inukshuk, both the Government of Nunavut[9] and the Government of Canada through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada[10] are promoting the Inuit preferred spelling inuksuk.

A structure similar to an inuksuk but meant to represent a human figure, called an inunnguaq (ᐃᓄᙳᐊᖅ, "imitation of a person", plural inunnguat), has become widely familiar to non-Inuit. However, it is not the most common type of inuksuk and is distinguished from inuksuit in general.

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