Life Is an Inflated Bag.
Literal and metaphoric meanings of Inuit pooq/puuq and associated objects are treated and shown to interact in ways that apply also to the interaction through ritual between the visible world and the invisible ones of Inuit cosmology. Such mergings give occasion for a discussion of Viveiros de Castro’s theory of somatic perspective, which in other respects fits the Inuit case perfectly well. Literally pooq means bag, cover, caul and, as a metaphor “mother”, i.e. in the spirit languages from East Greenland to North Alaska. Airfilled bags, intestinal ones in particular, abound in Eskimo ritual, but the East Greenland ritual and myth of becoming an angakkoq puulik (shaman with pooq) does not reveal any “mother”, bag, cover, or caul. Treating the initiators, polar bear and walrus also in other myths, they turn out to be part of a “pooq complex” that includes the intestines and weapon of bearded seal in a mid-winter context. Pursuing the connotations of the multiple objects formerly made of bearded seal intestines they turn out to be the same in ritual. Bearded seal paraphernalia offers spiritual protection and permits connection with and movement between this and the other worlds. In this light bearded seal connotations reveal a merging of the puulik initiation and the symbolism of rebirth in life, in time, and in space.