Re/Creating ‘Evocative Images’ (sunannguanik iqqaigutinik): Procedural Knowledge and the Art of Memory in the Inuit Practice of String Figure-Making

This paper examines how certain procedural and structural features of string figure-making as practiced in Inuit societies fit into the cosmology and knowledge systems of these peoples. Drawing on data stemming both from classic ethnography in the Inuit area at large and from fieldwork carried out in Inuit communities of the eastern Canadian Arctic since the 2000s, it focuses chiefly on the symbolic and cultural interpretations of some mathematical ideas involved in this practice (aya’rraq, ayaqhaaq, ajaraaq). After a brief consideration of the importance ascribed by pioneering anthropologists to the study of the methods of making string figures (notably among the Inuit, then called “Eskimo”), particular emphasis is put on Inuit vernacular concepts and expressions that refer to this practice as a procedural activity relating to knowledge encoding and sharing. The re/creation of evocative images rooted in the ancestors’ experiences and perceptions is notably mentioned as a major principle underlying the mnemonic and cognitive values associated with such a practice, along with the storytelling performance that would often accompany the making and animation of these ephemeral artifacts. Furthermore, the analysis of the ritual rules and the performativity that characterized the practice in pre-Christian Inuit societies sheds light on the symbolic prevalence of several structural features that situated string figure-making in a significant relation to sila, as a cosmological principle referring to the universe, the outside, the weather, and by extension a principle at the basis of certain forms of cognitive ability. Examining the symbolic efficacy that was formerly ascribed to Inuit string figure-making also highlights the spatial conceptualization of this practice (perceived as upwards and outwards oriented) and its display at several spatiotemporal scales, while providing clues on particular meanings attached to topological and geometrical ideas embedded in this practice. Among the practice’s procedural and geometrical properties whose significance appears as most salient in Inuit cosmologies, thread-crossing (or knot-making), symmetry, transformation and iteration are more specifically considered here. The bilateral symmetry that prevails in a significant part of the iconography comprising Inuit string figures is notably analyzed as featuring a notion of pair that relates either to the anatomical field (of human and animal bodies) or to intraspecies relationships. In conclusion, considerations on building on Inuit traditional string games for studying and teaching mathematics in a culturally responsive curriculum in contemporary Inuit communities are developed.