Igloo, inuit's original home

In winter, the sun shines on the mirror-like polar ice sea, the ice field can see the crystalline igloo scattered, and the Inuit people built with pure natural materials, without any color pollution, gorgeous transformation is in progress.

Igloo, inuit's original home

◎ Written by / Wang Jiaxian Li Leshi

Courtesy photo / Switzerland Tourism

Scandinavian Tourism Office Quebec Tourism Board

The curious igloo of the Inuit

Innovative people were adept at extracting useful substances from the elements of nature: wealthy Europeans embraced impregnable stone castles, Americans met nature in warm outdoors with tents or thatched huts, and Inuit built fairytale igloos using the ubiquitous ice and snow.

The Inuit are often confused with the Eskimos as two separate indigenous peoples. In fact, the two names mean the same thing. The Inuit did not like to be called "Eskimo" because it came from the language of their enemy, the Indian Algonchin tribe, which meant "man who ate raw meat", and "Inuit" was their self-designation, meaning "human". Like the Indians, they came to the Americas only later from the Bering Strait. Looking at the Inuit, and examining ourselves, we can see so many similarities that we can intuitively recognize that the Inuit were once a member of the land of Asia Minor.

△ On the arctic ice field, the owner of the Inuit dog pulling the sleigh is not only a close companion of the Inuit, but also a good partner of the owner in the harsh winter.

The Inuit are arguably the most difficult indigenous peoples in the world, living in one of the most climatically unpleasant regions of the world for thousands of years. In the polar tundra, access to building materials was hopeless, but the Inuit were natural craftsmen who gave birth to a new term, igloo, using only ice and snow. The Inuit relied more on animals than anyone else in the world because plants could not grow here. Because of the meat-eating diet, the Inuit would rush to the vicinity of the ice sea to squat and hunt prey, and the igloo appeared, which became the winter shelter of the Inuit, and the igloo generally only lived outside the hunters, they may only live for a few days, but may also live all winter for the prey.

△ Inuit's main food source is whales, seals and other animals. They often have to wait in the igloo for a winter in order to hunt.

△ Inuit's men are heroic hunters, women are skillful women who are good at sewing, and the traditional family lifestyle has been continued from generation to generation.

The "greenhouse" of the ice and snow pile

The classic 1950s cartoon "Chilli Willy," about a cunning and adventurous Alaskan penguin, highlights the igloo. The classic "Chilliville" igloo is the traditional dome house where the Inuit lived. In winter, the sun shines on the mirror-like sea of ice, and the Arctic ice field can see crystalline igloos scattered, and the scenery is picturesque.

Winters in the Arctic are very long, and hunters often spend months alone in igloos. In addition to bravery and fearlessness, stoicism is also a necessary quality for Inuit men.

Igloos are made of ice or snow bricks of various sizes. Familiar hunters can usually build one in an hour, while novices can take three or four hours. A built house, coupled with a small oil lamp, can isolate the temperature outside at minus forty or fifty degrees. The house made of snow and ice captured a large amount of body temperature for the owner. Because the igloo is strong and impermeable, the cold wind is kept out of the house, so people living in the igloo can be protected from the cold wind. Heat in the house can hardly be transmitted to the outside of the house through the ice wall. In addition, the igloos of ice are integrated, and the animal skin curtain is hung at the door, which can greatly reduce the convection of air and reduce heat volatilization. In order to strengthen the cold protection function, the Inuit often had to cover the hemispherical roof with a thick layer of weeds and a layer of seal skin, while the spiral walls of the house were covered with animal skins, which could also protect against the cold.

△ The Arctic has an inexhaustible supply of building materials, and the most basic step is to make a circular roof foundation with snow bricks.

Another way to keep out the cold is to cover the window with transparent sea beast intestines. Living in such a beautiful house, the melting inside the igloo caused by body heat and sunlight exposure is very slight. In the vacant igloo, the molten snow water freezes again, and in the cycle of gradual thawing and re-freezing, the whole igloo is getting stronger and warmer than ever. With any luck, the temperature of the igloo could be above freezing, which is really incredible.

The ice house stores a considerable amount of daily food, such as elk meat, sea animal meat and so on. At night, when the whole family sleeps, men, women and children can slip into a large leather pocket and snuggle up to each other for warmth. If a guest visits, the Inuit lay another layer of soft snow on the snowbed, and the soft snow is covered with a layer of animal skins, so that the snow bed is very warm.

△ The igloo will store a considerable amount of food, and when the Inuit family sleeps at night, they will burrow into a leather bag and snuggle up to each other for warmth.

△ The Inuit often had to hang animal skins on the walls of the igloo to protect them from the cold.

Modern style of the igloo

Civilization slowly evolved, the Inuit gradually began a new life, the new generation accepted the new civilization, began to westernize life, and the igloo that could only be built in winter, but also because of the new village houses and warm weather, gradually became a symbol of tradition and abandonment. Other ice buildings inspired by the Inuit began to flourish and even become fashionable.

△ Modern interpretation of the igloo style, if not afraid of the cold, Switzerland's underground ice hotel can be bathed.

In sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Norway and other high latitudes, designers from dozens of countries gather in the polar regions every year to create a modern version of the Inuit igloo , the Ice Hotel: no bathroom, no TV, just an ice bed and artist-designed ice sculptures. The ice bed has a base made of ice cubes, a reindeer deerskin, two feather pillows and a thermal sleeping bag. If you go to the crystal clear ice bar, you can also drink a vodka from a large glass made of ice - be careful that your lips stick to the wall of the cup; likewise, be careful when you sit down on a snowball stool in the room; and the ice walls and icicles that are illuminated by the big chandelier... This is the Ice Hotel.

When spring blossoms, all the ice houses begin to melt, the silence returns to nature silently, all traces of civilization are silently erased, and another low-carbon era is quietly coming.

△ The above three photos are the ice hotels in Sweden, Switzerland and Quebec, Canada.

Make your own igloo

If you've experienced the polar regions first-hand, make an igloo too!

Preparation: Generous snow or ice, large knife or snow shovel, waterproof gloves, a flat field.

1. Use a snow saw or knife on flat ground to cut the ice into large pieces, the volume of the ice cubes is about 3 feet long, 15 inches high and 8 inches thick.

2. Place the ice cubes in a circle and build them layer by layer in the order of the ice cubes from largest to smallest, so that the ice cubes tilt inward to form a dome.

3. If necessary, please support the top ice cube with a stick or other object indoors, and the ice cubes should be staggered between each other to prevent the dome from collapsing.

4. Fill in the dome ice cubes and use a shovel or saw to cut a hole in the wall to create the entrance to the igloo. (Made into an L-shaped entrance that igloo lovers like because they keep the shape of the air outlet better)

5. Fill all the gaps with snow. Pits can be dug into the house to expand the igloo space.

6, if there is still some fun, you can use snow decoration to build a good house, plus windows or baffles.

Notes:

1, if you want to light a small furnace, to prevent carbon monoxide from overly concentrated to reach a dangerous level, the ventilation hole should pay attention to keep it unobstructed.

2, you can build a sleeping platform in the house as a bed, because the hot air rises, it will bring more heat.

Brilliant typography presentation

This article is an excerpt from the July 2010 issue of Civilization

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