Tupilaq

A made thing

In Greenlandic belief, a tupilaq (plural tupilait) was a being made in secret, from parts of different animals and sometimes human remains, and brought to life with songs and rituals in order to harm an enemy. It was set loose in the sea, often in the form of a seal, to find and kill its victim. Making one was dangerous: if the intended victim had a stronger angakkuq, the tupilaq could be turned back to destroy the one who made it.

From belief to carving

The original tupilait were not meant to be seen, and none survive. When Europeans in East Greenland in the late nineteenth century asked what a tupilaq looked like, Greenlandic carvers made small figures to show them, and from these a whole art form grew. Today tupilaq figures carved from bone, antler, narwhal and walrus tusk, and soapstone are among the best-known Greenlandic artworks, often grotesque composites of human and animal features.

Sources

Descriptions of tupilait come mainly from Greenlandic tellings recorded by Hinrich Rink and later Danish ethnographers, and from the Tasiilaq (Ammassalik) region of East Greenland. The practice described belongs to the past; the carvings are a living art.