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The Arctic As A Homeland
by Piers Vitebsky
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The Arctic As A Homeland
Religion
  All northern peoples believe that there is a close relationship between humans and nature. Humans and animals are said to be able to understand each other. Animals were said to have spirits which affect the fortune of humans. Angry spirits caused illness and benign spirits helped the hunter by guiding animals into his path. Traditionally, the wishes of the spirits could be found out by a spirit medium called a shaman. In a special ritual performance, the shaman would go into a trance. It was thought that the shaman's soul had left his or her body and flown to the land of the spirits. Here, the shaman would try to get back the soul of a sick person which had been captured by the spirits, or to get the spirits to promise that the hungry community would catch an animal.
  Among some Inuit, for example, it was said that seals were provided for humans by a spirit called Sea-Woman who lived at the bottom of the sea. If people behaved badly she would punish them by not allowing the seals to be caught. Once a seal was killed, it was offered a drink of water and its soul was returned to the sea, so that it would be re-born in the body of a new seal. Since he had treated it with respect the previous time, the 'same' seal would then allow itself to be killed by the same hunter on another occasion. Even though many of these beliefs have been modified by contact with Christianity, hunting is still thought to depend on a mutual respect between seal and hunter,
  This kind of thinking reinforces the ideal of sharing which is vital to keeping everyone alive in this harsh environment. Since the seal has given itself to the hunter voluntarily, he in turn has to give a share of its meat to others. Under a custom called in some areas nimat, it is good manners for a hunter in Siberia who has killed an elk or other large animal to give the entire animal to someone else. This is especially expected of a teenager who has caught his first animal, and it is also a way for him to prove to others that he has become a proper hunter. In this region, though not everywhere, women as well as men can be great hunters.
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In a workshop where sculptures based on traditional patterns are made.
Some of these beliefs have grown weaker during this century under the influence of Christian missionaries, teachers and government officials. For a long time, indigenous peoples themselves turned their backs of these beliefs in order to appear 'modern'. But many ideas about the relationship between humans and animals remain strong. Some Inuit in Greenland still whisper 'thank you' to a seal they have just killed. Now, with the appalling example of industrial society's destructive attitude to the environment in front of them, many of the younger generation of Native peoples are looking again at the ideas of their parents and grandparents and often seeing them in a more favourable light.
Even those who can no longer believe in spirits, often feel that there is something sacred in the landscape and that you can feel this when you are alone face to face with the power of the forces of nature.
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The Arctic is a Homeland, by Piers Vitebsky. http://www.thearctic.is
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