Tupilaq

In Inuit religion, especially in Greenland, a tupilaq was an avenging monster fabricated by an angakkuq (a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism) by using various objects such as animal parts (bone, skin, hair, sinew, etc.

Early European visitors to Greenland, fascinated by the native legend, were eager to see what tupilaq looked like, so Inuit began to carve representations of them out of sperm whale teeth.

Today, tupilaq of many different shapes and sizes are carved from various materials such as narwhal and walrus tusk, wood and caribou antler.

The angakkuq (shaman) would don their parka or anorak backwards, with the hood over their face, and engage in sexual contact with the bones used to make a tupilaq, singing and chanting during the entire process, which could take several days.

[3] The myth states that the making of a tupilaq was risky to its own maker if the attacked person made it rebound: in this case, public confession was the only rescue.

[15] To the Copper Inuit (Inuinnait), the tupilaq, spelt tupilak was similar to the devil of Christianity.