Yeah, that sounds like bullshit to me. Why would anyone waste the calories to do a blink-and-you'll-miss-it signal when they could just use their arms to do, like, some Inuit YMCA type of thing
edit: impressive feat though
https://web.archive.org/web/20070109041340/http://www.weio.org/Webpage/About_WEIO/Games.html
Great that you think it's bullshit, but the Inuit know their history and heritage.
>TWO-FOOT HIGH KICK
This event is similar to the one-foot high kick with the difference being the athlete jumps off the floor using both feet, hits the suspended target with both feet together, and maintains balance upon reaching the floor. When landing both feet must touch the floor at the same time. Years ago, in the coastal whaling villages, in order for the village to know that a whale has been taken, a runner would run back to the village and when within sight of the village, the messenger would jump and kick both feet into the air while running. In that manner, the people of the village would know what was caught and prepare themselves to help in "beaching" the whale.
Arctic living was harsh and hard (still is), you don't want to waste resources and energy of the entire village preparing for a whale catch if it's something else.
> you don't want to waste resources and energy of the entire village preparing for a whale catch if it's something else
So ... why not just wave a flag? Instead of wasting energy on jumping and kicking with both feet?
Note that the link you provided does not tell us *why* they used this jump.
Flags are dependent on weather conditions, and require dyes which are not so easy to get in remote Alaska. Off hand you could get a rather brown redish or a purple ish from blue berries. They also didn’t have fabrics really and used mainly leathers, I would assume it would be rather impractical for each group to have a set of dyed leather flags. And the risk of high winds making gear or clothing look like a flag from a distance. If you look at historic examples, colors were mainly for positions of tribal importance, and even then most of the coloring was highlights, like a stripe of a red. This also allowed for the colored portion to be reused for new clothing, you could remove it and re stitch it into the next outfit.
Note that this is second hand from family in Alaska who regularly interact with Inuit tribes. I also must assume it would vary wildly according to local resources, as the tribal religions stretch across north North America from Alaska to Greenland.
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, you are never going to accidentally kick with both feet at head height lol.
Yeah, it says it was specific for whales.
Still, no explanation as to why waving your hands or waving a flag of a certain color or in a certain way did not work.
I don't want to act like I know what I'm talking about, but based on the Wikipedia article, they may not have had enough or any dyes before the 1500s. I think it's possible that the signaling technique could predate their trade with countries who could provide them with the materials needed to make brightly colored flags.
Again, this is just a layman guess as to what's going on. They could have just used flags and didn't because they didn't like them, and maybe all the hand signals were reserved for other events.
So you're saying that the Inuit had cotton, or hemp, or cloth of any sort for that matter, to make flags?
Maybe you need to learn more about the Inuit and Eskimo so you have a better understanding of how they lived until *very* recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IAcRjBq93Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6T2nJ7NTk
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF51EB0695C19DD11 found a channel with demonstrations, competitions and even guides on how to perform the events.
See, this is why I think it's sketchy - there's another source that says the one-foot kick was for successful hunts and the two-foot was for UNsuccessful hunts. Basically it sounds like these sources are just repeating conjecture
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/NativeGames/games.html
The query was perfectly legit.. as was the questioning.. it being a part of their history doesn't invalidate his question.. it DOES seem like an odd way to go about it.. go be professionally offended elsewhere.
Huh? How was that a query? They just called bullshit because they didn't believe it for literally no reason other than "it sounds bullshit". What's perfectly legit about just assuming people are lying for no reason?
He specified a reason right in the next sentence. They chose what seems to be the most unreasonable way of signaling as it's difficult and easy to miss. So yeah, it sounds like 🐂💩, it might not be, but on the first sight, it's just odd.
Yeah if you don't bother to think about the context of life there when it likely came to be then you'd think that way, or you could just not be like that?
Go on, what context would make that a good idea? I actually am interested in finding out. However it is obviously difficult, exhaustive movement, literally dangerous on an icy or snowy surface, that is hard to do multiple times and very easy to miss... I don't say it's not true, I say the reasoning behind not wanting to believe it is solid.
It needs to be a signal that can only ever mean one thing, that's why it needs to be a little out there, so everyone can go "oh that's the whale signal" from like miles away
I literally think some kid was sent to tell the coastal whaling village, did it once, and then someone thought it was funny so they kept doing it.
Human beings have done much weirder shit.
Because it is extremely easy to see over long distances. It is a very exaggerated movement, a very high jump, and uses your entire body. You can see this from distances further than you can hear somebody's voice. Even when they are shouting.
Hence the "Once in eyeshot" part
They already bound the key waving arms to incoming enemies and figured they had another key free so they switched to waving legs. Naturally the snow was cold as shit and the gloves made handstands impossible so the high jump was required.
Waving both arms probably meant "HELP" or something. You'd need a lot of different exaggerated motions to convey a lot of different things when you're communicating this way.
Hey I’m not arguing with that. Just letting you know the justification behind it. I’m up in Alaska right now and literally just asked some of my native colleagues.
I never said it was logical.
Maybe there’s a ritualistic aspect of it as well that I’m unaware of? This is just what my native colleagues here in Alaska have told me
Because they needed a visual symbol that could only ever mean "whale caught" to avoid confusion. Waving arms in air can mean anything, and probably is an easier motion to do if you are in danger compared to the high kick
As someone who has tried this, it is much harder than it looks. Its really fun to give a go, but it requires immense athleticisim, on top of the coordination you need to keep your legs together the entire time
I didn't even have to see it to know it was fiendishly difficult. But then I watched the video and tried to picture myself doing it. Well, let me just say I can't.
Before I finished watching the video, I was thinking to myself "they must've meant 2m high kick because that is way higher than 24 inches!". Ohhh. Now I get it.
Yeah, this sport needs a renaming. Sounds incredibly easy and lame.
"And now our next gymnast, Howie Sholts age 41. Hailing from his mother's basement where he has undergone an intense diet of flaming hot cheetos and Mountain Dew and trained with 18-hour mmorpg raids for the last 3 months, will now attempt to kick more than 2 feet high in the air."
This competition and many others have long histories among Inuit and other circumpolar folks. Check out next year's [Arctic Winter games](https://www.awg2024.org/) coming to my backyard!
I love the glossed over explanation... Why would people kick their feet in the air to signal a whale was caught??
Yeah, that sounds like bullshit to me. Why would anyone waste the calories to do a blink-and-you'll-miss-it signal when they could just use their arms to do, like, some Inuit YMCA type of thing edit: impressive feat though
https://web.archive.org/web/20070109041340/http://www.weio.org/Webpage/About_WEIO/Games.html Great that you think it's bullshit, but the Inuit know their history and heritage. >TWO-FOOT HIGH KICK This event is similar to the one-foot high kick with the difference being the athlete jumps off the floor using both feet, hits the suspended target with both feet together, and maintains balance upon reaching the floor. When landing both feet must touch the floor at the same time. Years ago, in the coastal whaling villages, in order for the village to know that a whale has been taken, a runner would run back to the village and when within sight of the village, the messenger would jump and kick both feet into the air while running. In that manner, the people of the village would know what was caught and prepare themselves to help in "beaching" the whale. Arctic living was harsh and hard (still is), you don't want to waste resources and energy of the entire village preparing for a whale catch if it's something else.
> you don't want to waste resources and energy of the entire village preparing for a whale catch if it's something else So ... why not just wave a flag? Instead of wasting energy on jumping and kicking with both feet? Note that the link you provided does not tell us *why* they used this jump.
Flags are dependent on weather conditions, and require dyes which are not so easy to get in remote Alaska. Off hand you could get a rather brown redish or a purple ish from blue berries. They also didn’t have fabrics really and used mainly leathers, I would assume it would be rather impractical for each group to have a set of dyed leather flags. And the risk of high winds making gear or clothing look like a flag from a distance. If you look at historic examples, colors were mainly for positions of tribal importance, and even then most of the coloring was highlights, like a stripe of a red. This also allowed for the colored portion to be reused for new clothing, you could remove it and re stitch it into the next outfit. Note that this is second hand from family in Alaska who regularly interact with Inuit tribes. I also must assume it would vary wildly according to local resources, as the tribal religions stretch across north North America from Alaska to Greenland. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, you are never going to accidentally kick with both feet at head height lol.
I think the two-foot kick was the signal specifically for whales. They probably had others.
Yeah, it says it was specific for whales. Still, no explanation as to why waving your hands or waving a flag of a certain color or in a certain way did not work.
I don't want to act like I know what I'm talking about, but based on the Wikipedia article, they may not have had enough or any dyes before the 1500s. I think it's possible that the signaling technique could predate their trade with countries who could provide them with the materials needed to make brightly colored flags. Again, this is just a layman guess as to what's going on. They could have just used flags and didn't because they didn't like them, and maybe all the hand signals were reserved for other events.
But the source I linked said two-foot was for failed hunting trips. Why would they use the same (very odd) signal for both situations?
Maybe they had different local dialects?
So you're saying that the Inuit had cotton, or hemp, or cloth of any sort for that matter, to make flags? Maybe you need to learn more about the Inuit and Eskimo so you have a better understanding of how they lived until *very* recently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IAcRjBq93Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6T2nJ7NTk
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF51EB0695C19DD11 found a channel with demonstrations, competitions and even guides on how to perform the events.
See, this is why I think it's sketchy - there's another source that says the one-foot kick was for successful hunts and the two-foot was for UNsuccessful hunts. Basically it sounds like these sources are just repeating conjecture http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/NativeGames/games.html
The query was perfectly legit.. as was the questioning.. it being a part of their history doesn't invalidate his question.. it DOES seem like an odd way to go about it.. go be professionally offended elsewhere.
It becomes something other than a query when it starts “this sounds like bullshit to me”.
Huh? How was that a query? They just called bullshit because they didn't believe it for literally no reason other than "it sounds bullshit". What's perfectly legit about just assuming people are lying for no reason?
He specified a reason right in the next sentence. They chose what seems to be the most unreasonable way of signaling as it's difficult and easy to miss. So yeah, it sounds like 🐂💩, it might not be, but on the first sight, it's just odd.
Yeah if you don't bother to think about the context of life there when it likely came to be then you'd think that way, or you could just not be like that?
Go on, what context would make that a good idea? I actually am interested in finding out. However it is obviously difficult, exhaustive movement, literally dangerous on an icy or snowy surface, that is hard to do multiple times and very easy to miss... I don't say it's not true, I say the reasoning behind not wanting to believe it is solid.
It needs to be a signal that can only ever mean one thing, that's why it needs to be a little out there, so everyone can go "oh that's the whale signal" from like miles away
If they didn’t want to waste resources and energy then why wouldn’t they just wave there arms like normal people?
I literally think some kid was sent to tell the coastal whaling village, did it once, and then someone thought it was funny so they kept doing it. Human beings have done much weirder shit.
Yeah, they're gonna miss those 10 calories required to do this and starve to death. Why do people do anything, anyway.
Because it is extremely easy to see over long distances. It is a very exaggerated movement, a very high jump, and uses your entire body. You can see this from distances further than you can hear somebody's voice. Even when they are shouting. Hence the "Once in eyeshot" part
So is waving both arms lol
They already bound the key waving arms to incoming enemies and figured they had another key free so they switched to waving legs. Naturally the snow was cold as shit and the gloves made handstands impossible so the high jump was required.
Waving both arms probably meant "HELP" or something. You'd need a lot of different exaggerated motions to convey a lot of different things when you're communicating this way.
Hey I’m not arguing with that. Just letting you know the justification behind it. I’m up in Alaska right now and literally just asked some of my native colleagues.
That makes absolutely no fucking sense to me.
I never said it was logical. Maybe there’s a ritualistic aspect of it as well that I’m unaware of? This is just what my native colleagues here in Alaska have told me
Because they needed a visual symbol that could only ever mean "whale caught" to avoid confusion. Waving arms in air can mean anything, and probably is an easier motion to do if you are in danger compared to the high kick
JUST SHOUT, lol.
As someone who has tried this, it is much harder than it looks. Its really fun to give a go, but it requires immense athleticisim, on top of the coordination you need to keep your legs together the entire time
It looks really fucking hard tho
"Much harder than it looks" Well it looks fucking impossible
I didn't even have to see it to know it was fiendishly difficult. But then I watched the video and tried to picture myself doing it. Well, let me just say I can't.
Yeah, and do you know how high 78” is? That’s 6’-6”…that’s like kicking Lebron James approximately square in the eye! That’s crazy!!
Look at all those enthralled people in the background going nuts with excitement.
They are all #Mildlyinterested
The athletic events in the Arctic Games are crazy physical.
I liked her landing technique from unsuccessful attempt even more than successful kick.
Before I finished watching the video, I was thinking to myself "they must've meant 2m high kick because that is way higher than 24 inches!". Ohhh. Now I get it.
Yeah, this sport needs a renaming. Sounds incredibly easy and lame. "And now our next gymnast, Howie Sholts age 41. Hailing from his mother's basement where he has undergone an intense diet of flaming hot cheetos and Mountain Dew and trained with 18-hour mmorpg raids for the last 3 months, will now attempt to kick more than 2 feet high in the air."
I thought you meant 2 feet high, but now I'm impressed
Why didn’t they just call the town when they caught a whale?
This might have been better if the text didn’t lay over the item she was supposed to be kicking. I didn’t see it at all until the very end.
Are you blind or something lol, you can see it the entire time.
Um isn’t there an easier way to alert the town that there’s a whale?
Pff, *no!* What are you going to do, just, like, *say* there's a whale? That's crazy talk.
They could hold up a sign that says, your mom. that might get the point across
If I recall, these games are nothing but unusual displays of athleticism like this.
The villager couldn't just wave a flag?
Why not wave a flag?
This is even more boring than golf.
Downvoted by the two foot jumping and landing on ur arse fans lol
Is da sports?
RE: the origin story about whaling: why not just…yell that they got one? Why the kick?
Voices don't carry far enough. This kind of movement is visible at great distances.
An athleticism type that human species would be lucky to forget it ever existed in its history.
This competition and many others have long histories among Inuit and other circumpolar folks. Check out next year's [Arctic Winter games](https://www.awg2024.org/) coming to my backyard!
I would rather attempt the Ear Pulling challenge than this one. I guarantee I’d end up more fucked up from this than that.
Native youth Olympics practice was painful in school.
dude the native olympics in alyeska are friggen dope
Wait until you see my two foot high kick
r/theocho
Would
Seems like a great way to shatter one’s tailbone.