Almost everyone loves snow. It gives you lots of different opportunities: you can go skiing, start a snowball fight, build a snowman or go sledding. However, it is not only used for activities in your leisure time. When you are surrounded by snow for a longer period, you also have to use it in a way that is beneficial for your living conditions. Over hundreds of years ago, the Indigenous people of the Arctic, the Inuit, figured out how to turn snow into a home; and with that, the first igloos were built.
The word igloo comes from the Inuktitut word “iglu” and means “house”. It was historically used by Inuit families and traveling hunters for the winter season. Nowadays, they no longer represent the Inuit’s common type of housing and rather gained practical value for hunters and those seeking emergency shelter. Igloos are made out of hard snow, known as pukaangajuq, with an average height of 3 to 3.5 meters and a diameter of 3.5 to 4.5 meters, often housing a family. Nevertheless, some igloos held up to 20 people or were arranged in a cluster, in which a number of living chambers or units with a specific function were connected by a common entry tunnel. Even though igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used by the inhabitants of Canada’s Arctic and a western area in Greenland. However, before the life in the snow house can start, the igloo has to be built. To start off, a solid, flat location with pukaangajuq has to be selected. The foundation of the igloo are large snow blocks which are then either being cut out with knives made out of whale bone or metal and other tools. These snow blocks later become the inward-leaning walls of the igloo and by constructing it around this space in a dome shape and standing within the soon-to-be igloo, the new house is made. Additionally, windows can be built by using lake ice or clear gut skin from a seal. The entrance is provided by narrow passageways with snow blocks functioning as doors and once the construction is complete, snow is being used to fill in any gaps to keep it warm on the inside. The reason as to why the igloo doesn’t melt is because the warmth inside the house with the addition of the cold Arctic air outside, freezes any melting sections which then strengthens its structure. In order for that to happen, holes at the entrance and at the top of the igloo are left for the heat to escape. Temperatures inside an igloo are usually just above freezing but they can be as high as 15 degrees Celsius, depending on the number of people inside and the heat source.
Though the interior varies from igloo to igloo, the beds are always made out of lose snow. Additionally, some beds have animal skins and caribou fur to sleep on. One of the most important objects inside an igloo is the qulliq, a traditional oil lamp which operates on seal oil. Traditionally, the men were the hunters which meant that if they hadn’t hunted any seals lately and retrieved the oil, the igloo would be dark and cold. Nevertheless, the igloos had to be cleaned everyday. This included smoothing the sleeping platforms, scraping the ice off of the window to keep it transparent, removing the old snow and replacing it with fresh snow and cleaning the ground. As you can see, the maintenance of an igloo is more work than maybe expected but it was a mandatory part in the daily routine in order for the families to have a home to sleep in.
Even though living in an igloo seems unreal for a lot of people, it was the Inuit’s way of moving the cold period in their favour and building a life out of snow and ice.
Sources:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/igloo (Rene R. Gadacz, January 17th, 2023)
https://www.avataq.qc.ca/en/Nunavimmiuts/Puurtaq-Project/Life-in-an-igloo (Nunavimmiut Collections Institute, January 17th, 2023)