What is Atka?
1.
Atka is the guardian of the eskimo child. It/she/he is the soul of the last family member who died.
MY LIFE WITH THE ESKIMOS By V. Stefannson
Nappan is the soul a child is born with. It also receives the soul of the most recent deceased member of the group which soul is called Atka. Atka has wisdom from its own full life plus the wisdom from the other side and does all the deciding, acting, talking for the child.
Everyone addresses the child by the title of whatever the dead person’s relationship was to them in life. Stefannson discovered this after living and traveling with an eskimo family for many months.He noted that the child was the worst behaved kid he had ever seen and she was called “mother” by her own mother.
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