Difference between Eskimo and Inuit
Eskimo is a word which is often used by most people to refer to the native people who tend to live in all the polar regions of the world. These regions include Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and even some parts of Canada. We often read about these people who live in igloos and homes made out of snow. These people are generally refereed to as Eskimos. Now Inuit is a name give to a group of people who are living in the arctic region of the world.
To start things off, we can look at the fact that the word Eskimo is used almost like a wide term, which is used to refer to all the native people living in the arctic and polar regions of the world. This means that anyone, who is of native ethnicity and lives in these regions is an Eskimo. On the other hand, Inuit was originally used to label the initial inhabitants of Canada and Greenland.
Further reading below: Difference between Eskimo and Inuit.
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The term Eskimo is continued to be used to refer to all the indigenous people who live in these areas. However, in 1982, an act was passed which gave the word Inuit recognition, and made its usage possible. This act was passed, since the original natives and settlers in these areas tend to find the word Eskimo to be a little offensive, which is why they prefer to be called Inuit. The reason being, that the word Eskimo means eaters of raw flesh.
Some people tend to differentiate between the two, as they call all the original settlers in Alaska and Siberia as Eskimos, while they refer to the original settlers of Greenland and Canada as Inuit.
Both these words are often mixed up and confused for one another, but they don't really differentiate from one another in a very large manner, since they basically mean the same thing at the end of the day.
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Eskimo
This is a term used to refer to natives living in the arctic and polar regions of the world. However, it is a term which some consider to be offensive, while people in Alaska prefer to be called Eskimos as opposed to anything else.
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Inuit
It is a term used to refer to the original inhabitants of Greenland and Canada. The word came into being in 1982, after it was reported that the term Eskimo was offensive.
