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User:Physis/Eskimo shamanism2

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Eskimo shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy

Eskimo shamanism refers to the those aspects of the culture of the Eskimo (Inuit and Yup'ik) peoples, which are related to a certain mediator role between people and spirits, souls, mythological beings. Such shamanistic beliefs and practice were widespread among Eskimo groups, but nowadays they are almost entirely extinct.

Relatedness to other cultures termed “shamanistic”

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Can Eskimo cultures termed as “shamanistic”? When speaking of “shamanism” at various Eskimo groups, we must remember that the term “shamanism” has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, several indigenous cultures of Siberia were labelled to have “shamans”, but the term is used also for other cultures. In generally, the belief systems termed “shamanistic” accept that certain people (the shamans) can fill in a mediator role [1], contacting the various beings that populate the belief system (spirits, souls, mythological beings).

The word “shaman” comes from a Tungusic language and means “he/she who knows”. The shaman is really an expert in his/her own culture, thus the audience trusts him/her, he/she can act with the safety of knowledge (using various means including musical, epical or symbolical).[1]. The shamans may use the knowledge for the benefit of the community, or for doing harm. He/she may have helping spirits, travel to other words.

 
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Most Eskimo groups knew such role of mediator [2]: the person filling it in was actually believed to be able to control spirits, contact mythological beings, heal sick people by bringing back their “stolen” souls. Term “shaman” is used in several English-language publications also in relation to Eskimos (academic [3] [4]; popular [5]), mostly for angakkuq. Also the /aˈliɣnalʁi/ of the Asian Eskimos is translated as “shaman” in the Russian literature ([6]; another in English [2]).

Like most cultures labelled as “shamanistic”, also the Eskimo groups can have several special features (or at least ones that are not present in all shamanistic cultures). The soul concepts of several groups are specific examples of soul dualism and besides that, the belief system assumes specific links between the living people, the souls of hunted animals, and those of dead people. Unlike at many Siberian cultures, the careers of most Eskimo shamans lack the motivaton of force: becoming a shaman is usually a result of deliberate consideration, not a necessity forced by the spirits [3].

Career of the Eskimo shaman

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Motivation

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In the case of many Siberian peoples, the shaman may be forced by the spirits to accept his/her profession.[7] This forced motivation is generally lacking in Eskimo culture; even if the apprentice gets a “calling”, he/she can refuse it.[3]

Initiation

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The career of the apprentice Eskimo shaman usually includes a difficult learning and initiation process, sometimes also including a vision quest. Like the shamans of some other cultures, the Eskimo shaman may be believed to have a special career: he/she may have been an animal at a period of his/her life, thus he /she may be able to use the valuable experiences learned for the benefit of the community ([8], [5]; online [9]).

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At several groups, there was a special distinct language inside the community which consisted of an archaic version of the normal language, interlaced with special metaphors. At some groups, such variants were used with

  • the spirits invoked by the shaman,
  • the unsocialised baby who grew into the human society through a special ritual done by its mother.

It is aproached as a language for communication with “alien” beings in [3].

Shaman to spirits

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In several groups, the shaman used such a distinct language for communicating with spirits at his/her seances.

Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech.[4].

Mother to baby

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The role of the shaman's language can be seen from the fact that a similar language is used for an analogous goal. A mother may talk to her baby in a non-vernacular language during a socialization ritual — the newborn is regarded as a little “alien” (just like spirits or animal souls) [3]

Soul dualism

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Main article: Soul dualism

Many seemingly rather distinct features of a shamanistic culture can be understood better when some underlying concepts that permeate them are grasped. The soul concept is often such an important part [1].

The Eskimo shaman may fulfill multiple functions:

  • healing
  • achieve fertility for infertile women
  • secure success of hunt (in case of scarcity of game or long meteorological calamities hindering hunt, e.g. blizzard)

This plethora of (seemingly unassociated) functions can be grasped better by understanding the soul concept which underlies them. Variations occur at Eskimos, but in generally they are a special variant of soul dualism.

Healing
It is held that the cause of sickness is soul theft: somebody (a shaman, a spirit etc). has stolen the soul of the sick person. But why is the sick person still alive then? Because each person has more souls. Stealing the appropriate soul of the victim does not cause immediate death, only illness. It takes a shaman to bring back the stolen soul. The soul-thief can be an enemy shaman [10]. Even the joints of our body have their own small souls. If such a small soul escapes, that is the explanation of pain [11].
Fertity
The shaman avails the soul of the future child to be born by the woman (p. 4 of [4])
Succes of hunt (e.g. sea animals)
The shaman visits a mythological being who protects all sea animals (usually, the Sea Woman). The Sea Woman keeps the souls of sea animals (in her house, or in a pot). If the shaman pleases her,she releses the animal souls. They rush out into the free. This finishes the scarcity of game. [3]

It is the shaman's free soul that can take part in a spirit journey to far and dangerous places (land of dead, Sea Woman, Moon etc) while his body is still alive (p. 4 of [4]). At the initiation of the apprentice shaman, the initiator extracts the shaman's free soul and makes it familiar to the helping spirits so that they shall listen when the new shaman invokes them ([10], p. 121 of [4]).

Animals may have shared souls (shared across their species) [4]. The baby's developing own soul was usually “supported” by a name-soul: the baby was given the name of a dead relative, whose name-soul haccompanied and helped the child till adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls could amount to a kind of reincarnation at some groups (Caribou Eskimos) [3].

Certain unity of Eskimo cultures

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Eskimo groups comprise a huge area stretching from Eastern Siberia through Alaska and Northern Canada (including Labrador Peninsula) to Greenland. Important examples of shamanistic practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders.[3][4][12]

Do the belief systems of various Eskimo groups have such common features that justifies speaking about “Eskimo” belief systems? There is a certain unity in the culture of the Eskimo groups [10] [13]. Although a large distance separated the Asiatic Eskimos and Greenland Eskimos, their shamanistic seances showed many similarities [2]. Similar remarks apply for comparisons of Asiatic with North American Eskimo shamanisms [5]. Also the usage of a specific shaman's language is documented at several Eskimo groups [4] [3], including Asian ones ([2], p. 128 of [6]).

Similar remarks apply for aspects of the belief system not directly linked to shamanism:

  • tattooing (online English [14]);
  • accepting the killed game as a dear guest visiting the hunter (p. 218 [6]);
  • usage of amulets (p. 380 of [6]);
  • lack of totem animals (online Russian [15]; paper [16]).

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Hoppál, Mihály: Sámánok Eurázsiában. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2005. ISBN 963-05-8295-3. (The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is written in Hungarian, but it is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish.) Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian)
  2. ^ a b c d Menovščikov, G.A. (the same author as Г.А. Меновщиков, but transliterated): Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes. Translated to English and published in edition by Diószegi, Vilmos and Hoppál, Mihály: Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1968, 1996.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kleivan, I. and Sonne, B.: Eskimos / Greenland and Canada. (Series: Iconography of religions, section VIII /Artic Peoples/, fascicle 2). Institute of Religious Iconography • State University Groningen. E.J. Brill, Leiden (The Netherland), 1985. ISBN 90 04 07160 1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merkur, Daniel: Becoming Half Hidden / Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit. (Series: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis / Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion). Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, 1985.
  5. ^ a b c Piers Vitebsky, The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul - Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon, Duncan Baird, 2001. ISBN 1-903296-18-8 Cite error: The named reference "Vit-Sam" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d Rubcova, E.S.: Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow • Leningrad, 1954. Original data: Е.С. Рубцова: Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Академия Наук СССР. Москва • Ленинград, 1954.
  7. ^ Diószegi, Vilmos: Samanizmus. Gondolat (series: Élet és Tudomány Kiskönyvtár), Budapest, 1962.
  8. ^ „Die Seele, die alle Tiere durchwanderte”. A tale, in the following book: Barüske, Heinz: Eskimo Märchen. Eugen Diederichs Verlag (series: „Die Märchen der Weltliteratur”), Düsseldorf • Köln 1969. On pp 19–23, tale 7.
  9. ^ Tale “The soul that lived in the bodies of all beasts”. In: Eskimo Folk-Tales. Collected by Knud Rasmussen, edited and rendered into English by W. Worster, with illustrations by native Eskimo artists. Gyldendal, London • Copenhagen, 1921. Online available, view it with Microsoft Live or download as pdf, select p. 100).
  10. ^ a b c Rasmussen, Knud: Thulefahrt. Frankurter Societăts-Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main, 1926.
  11. ^ Gabus, Jean: A karibu eszkimók. Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 1970. (Hungarian translation of the original: Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous, Libraire Payot Lausanne, 1944.) It desribes the life of Caribou Eskimo groups.
  12. ^ Gabus, Jean: A karibu eszkimók. Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 1970. (Hungarian translation of the original: Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous, Libraire Payot Lausanne, 1944.) It desribes the life of Caribou Eskimo groups.
  13. ^ Mauss, Marcel. Seasonal variations of the Eskimo: a study in social morphology; in collab. with Henri Beuchat; translated, with a foreward, by James J. Fox. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, c1950.
  14. ^ Tattoos of the early hunter-gatherers of the Arctic written by Lars Krutak
  15. ^ A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos
  16. ^ Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1952) The Sociological Theory of Totemism. In Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe: The Free Press.

Category:Shamanism Category:Eskimos Category:Cultural anthropology

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