ANARUATTIAQ, the (dog's) excrement

Relations

Item Relations

This Item Part of the following string figure series Item: TULUGARJUK, raven
Item: NUVUJATTIAQ, the cloud (Often) part of the same series as This Item

Graphical representation of this item’s relations

Citation

Céline Petit, “ANARUATTIAQ, the (dog's) excrement,” String figures, accessed February 24, 2026, https://stringfigures.huma-num.fr/items/show/248.
  • Overall presentation

  • Name : ANARUATTIAQ, the (dog's) excrement

  • Creator : Céline Petit

  • Contributor(s) : Herve PANIAQ, Iglulik, Nunavut, Canada
    Leetia QAUNAQ, Iglulik, Nunavut, Canada

  • Date : 2005-2018

  • Information on the string figure

    • General presentation of the string figure

    This figure is part of the string game (or string figure series) known as 'the raven', TULUGARJUK. It appears as the fourth and last figure of this series, as a result of the slight transformation of the figure of the 'cloud', NUVUJATTIAQ. This fourth figure is said to represent the dog pup's ordure (anaruaq) rolling away.

    Construction method (ISFA)

    1. Make the figure of the 'cloud', NUVUJATTIAQ.
    2. Release L2 loop, insert L2 proximally into L1 loop and extend : this represents the pup's poop (ANARUATTIAQ).

    See Wirt et al. 2009: 45-47 for detailed step-by-step illustration.

    Accompanying words

    While making the figure move down, the following words are uttered: "anauvarjua sikpuq, sikpuq, sikpuq..."

    Close references (bibliography)

    "The dog's ordure", Jenness 1924: 36-39, XXVII, fig. 36 (collected among Siberian Yupiks, Iñupiat, western and eastern Canadian Inuit).
    "The dog's ordure", Paterson 1949: 16, 6 (fig. 6d, Cape York and Craig Harbour).
    "Anaruaciaq - l'excrément" (Arviligjuarmiut, Canada), Mary-Rousselière 1969 : 50, fig. 45.

    Mathematical concepts involved

    Transformation, translation (slide).
  • Item references

  • Key words : String figure; String game; Inuit; Iglulik; Eastern Canada; Arctic

  • Publisher : Laboratory SPHERE (UMR 7219, University of Paris & CNRS)

  • Rights : Creative commons / Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

  • Language : Inuktitut, English

  • Location : Iglulik (Igloolik), Nunavut, Canada

  • Description : Description of the string figure representing the excrement of a dog pup among the Inuit of the Iglulik area (Nunavut, Canada): method of construction, associated words, references to the same figure as collected within different Inuit groups (Alaska, Canada, Greenland).

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