Drum dancing, Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada, 2019
Drummers at a dance near Nome in 1900.

The qilaut (Inuit: "that by means of which the spirits are called up",[1] syllabic: ᕿᓚᐅᑦ[2]) or qilaat (Greenlandic) is a type of frame drum native to the Inuit cultures of the Arctic.

The drum is distinctive in that it has a handle and is made of caribou skin, which is not particularly resonant, giving it a dull, rumbling sound. It is beaten with a stick, the qatuk.

References

This article contains Canadian Aboriginal syllabic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of syllabics.
  1. ^ Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. Primitives and the supernatural. Haskell House Publishers, 1973 ISBN 0-8383-1589-5, ISBN 978-0-8383-1589-7, pg 132.
  2. ^ Lucien Schneider (1985). Ulirnaisigutiit: An Inuktitut-English Dictionary of Northern Quebec, Labrador, and Eastern Arctic Dialects (with an English-Inuktitut Index). Presses Université Laval. pp. 299–. ISBN 978-2-7637-7065-9. Retrieved 10 November 2012.


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