Pinga Explained

In the Inuit religion, Pinga ("the one who is [up on] high") is a goddess of the hunt and medicine. She is heavily associated with the sky.

Caribou Inuit tradition

In Caribou Inuit communities, Pinga had some authority over caribou herds. She became angry if people killed more caribou than they could eat, so Caribou communities were careful not to over-hunt. Pinga is also a psychopomp, receiving the souls of the newly deceased and preparing them for reincarnation. Angakkuit (shamans) might see or communicate with Pinga or sometimes she'd send a spirit to speak with them.

Some Caribou Inuit viewed Sila and Pinga as the same or similar while other communities differentiated between the two.

References

• Merkur . Daniel . Breath-Soul and Wind Owner: The Many and the One in Inuit Religion . American Indian Quarterly . Summer 1983 . 7 . 3 . 23–39 . 10.2307/1184255 . 1184255 .
• Jarich . Oosten . Frédéric . Laugrand . Representing the "Sea Woman" . Religion and the Arts . 2009 . 13 . The mistress of the animals of the hunt, Pinga, lives somewhere up in the air or in the sky.
• Book: Emily Elisabeth. Auger . The Way of Inuit Art: Aesthetics and History in and Beyond the Arctic . 2005 . McFarland . 9780786418886 . 50.
• Kees . Bastmeijer . Willem . Rasing . Voedsel en recht in de jagers- verzamelaarssamenleving van de Inuit . Rode Draad . October 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210821174231/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kees-Bastmeijer/publication/266967102_Voedsel_en_recht_in_de_jagersverzamelaarssamenleving_van_de_Inuit/links/543fc9960cf2fd72f99daa8a/Voedsel-en-recht-in-de-jagersverzamelaarssamenleving-van-de-Inuit.pdf . 2021-08-21 . live . Food and Law in Inuit Hunter-Gatherer Society . Dutch.
• Book: Kleivan . Inge . Iconography of Religions: Arctic Peoples . 1985 . Brill . 9789004071605.