Reminiscent of Babylon and Egypt, some native religions teach a trinity. The book The Eskimos says that the Spirit of the Air, the Spirit of the Sea, and the Spirit of the Moon form a trinity that “ultimately controlled practically everything in the Eskimo environment.”

Thus, early explorers were surprised to find Eskimo parents lax in disciplining their children, even addressing them with terms such as “mother” or “grandfather.” Author Ernest S. Burch, Jr., explains that this was because the child had been named after the relative indicated by the term used, and an Eskimo father naturally “shrank from the idea of chastising his grandmother, even if she had now moved into the body of his son.”