Nauruan indigenous religion is an indigenous religion of the Nauruans.
Worldview
editAn offering to the female deity Eijebong was made. Dead spirits are believed to be invoked through trances by a medium, and those spirits were said to be living in the island of Buitani.[1] Believers say that the sky and the earth were created by a spider called Areop-Enap.
Deities
editEigigu
editEigigu is a girl from Nauruan mythology, who is said to be the wife of the moon (maramen).[2]
Detora
editDetora is a boy in Nauruan mythology, who became the king of the sea.[3]
Areop-Enap
editGaomodugudug
editA figure in legend that exemplifies the role of frigate birds in Nauru.[4]
Eyouwit
editA young girl who lived in the sky.[4]
Decline
editThere are very few, if any, people on the island who still subscribe to this religion, because of the dominant belief of Christianity imposed upon them by Christian colonization. Main sources for attestations of the religion in its old form comes from sources written by German ethnologist Paul Hambruch in 1914 and 1915 (available in German here: volume 1, volume 2), which was not well received by German missionary Alois Kayser.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Pacific Islands. H.M. Stationery Office, Great Britain. 1945. p. 333.
- ^ "the story of eigigu". naurugov.nr. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
- ^ "The story of Detora, the King of the sea". naurugov.nr. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
- ^ a b Petit-Skinner, Solange (1981). the nauruans. MacDuff Press. ISBN 0960627200.
- ^ Dobbin, Jay; Hezel, Francis X. (2011). Summoning the Powers Beyond: Traditional Religions in Micronesia. JSTOR j.ctt6wqh65.11.
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