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Shamanism among Eskimo peoples

Yup’ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s. Nushagak, located on Nushagak Bay of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska, is part of the territory of the Yup’ik, speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup’ik language.Shamanism among Eskimo peoples refers to those aspects of the various Eskimo cultures that are related to the shamans’ role as a mediator between people and spirits, souls, and mythological beings. Such beliefs and practices were once widespread among Eskimo groups, but today are rarely practiced, and it was already in the decline among many groups even in the times when the first major ethnological researches were done, just an example: among Polar Eskimos, in the end of 19th century, Sagloq died, the last shaman who was believed to be able to travel to the sky and under the sea - and many other former shamanic capabilities went lost even in that time as well (ventriloquism, sleight-of-hand).

The term Eskimo has fallen out of favour in Canada and Greenland, where it is considered pejorative and the term Inuit has become more common. However, Eskimo is still considered acceptable among Alaska Natives of Yupik and Inupiaq (Inuit) heritage, and is preferred over Inuit as a collective reference. To date, no replacement term for Eskimo inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people has achieved acceptance across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples. The Inuit and Yupik languages together constitute one branch within the Eskimo-Aleut language family alongside the Aleut branch. (The Sireniki Eskimo language is sometimes proposed to form a third branch of the Eskimo, but sometimes it is regarded as belonging to the Yupik languages).

Connection to shamanism

The term "shamanism" has been used for various distinct cultures. Classically, some indigenous cultures of Siberia were described as having shamans, but the term is now commonly used for other cultures as well. In general, the shamanistic belief systems accept that certain people (shamans) can act as mediators with the spirit world, contacting the various entities (spirits, souls, and mythological beings) that populate the universe in those systems.

The word "shaman" comes from a Tungusic language and its etymology is debated, one explanation analyzes it meaning "he/she who knows". Shamans use various means, including music, recitation of epic, dance, and ritual objects to interact with the spirit world - either for the benefit of the community or for doing harm. They may have spirits that assist them and may also travel to other worlds (or other aspects of this world). Most Eskimo groups had such a mediator function, and the person fulfilling the role was believed to be able to command helping spirits, ask mythological beings (e.g. Nuliayuk among the Netsilik Inuit and Takanaluk-arnaluk in Aua’s narration) to "release" the souls of animals, enable the success of the hunt, or heal sick people by bringing back their "stolen" souls. Shaman is used in an Eskimo context in a number of English-language publications, both academic and popular, generally in reference to the angakkuq among the Inuit. The /a’li?nal?i/ of the Siberian Yupiks is also translated as "shaman" in both Russian and English literature.

Shamanism among the Eskimo peoples exhibits some characteristic features not universal in shamanism, such as a dualistic concept of the soul in certain groups, and specific links between the living, the souls of hunted animals and dead people. The death of either a person or a game animal requires that certain activities, such as cutting and sewing, be avoided to prevent harming their souls. In Greenland, the transgression of this death taboo could turn the soul of the dead into a tupilaq, a restless ghost which scared game away. Animals were thought to flee hunters who violated taboos.

Shamanic intiation

Unlike many Siberian traditions, in which spirits force individuals to become shamans, most Eskimo shamans choose this path. Even when someone receives a "calling", that individual may refuse it. The process of becoming an Eskimo shaman usually involves difficult learning and initiation rites, sometimes including a vision quest. Like the shamans of other cultures, some Eskimo shamans are believed to have special qualifications: they may have been an animal during a previous period, and thus be able to use their valuable experience for the benefit of the community.

The initiation process varies from culture to culture. It may include:

a specific kind of vision quest, such as among the Chugach.

various kinds of out-of-body experiences such seeing oneself as skeleton, exemplified in Aua’s (Iglulik) narration and a Baker Lake artwork

Special language

In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly archaic version of the normal language interlaced with special metaphors and speech styles, for example "the shadow is ripening" (the shaman is returning from his spiritual journey during a seance). Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech. Also the shamans among Asiatic Eskimos had a special language, using periphrastic substitutions for names of objects and phenomena; they used it for conversation with the IPA: [tu?n??aq]s (spirits). The Ungazigmit (belonging to Siberian Yupiks) had a special allegoric usage of some expressions.

Observing Sorqaq shaman’s seance in a community at Thule, Peter Freuchen explains the motivation in that case:

" During their seances angakoks are not allowed to mention any objects or beings by their regular names, since it could bring disaster upon the ones mentioned. "

In this case, the special language was understood by the whole community, not restricted to the shaman or a few "experts".

In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialised babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with "alien" beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little "alien" - just like spirits or animal souls). The motif of a distinction between spirit and "real" human is also present in a tale of Ungazigmit (subgroup of Siberian Yupik)

" The oldest man asked the girl: "What, are you not a spirit?" The girl answered: "I am not a spirit. Probably, are you spirits?" The oldest man said: "We are not spirits, [but] real human" "

Social position

The boundary between shaman and lay person was not always clearly demarcated. Non-shamans could also experience hallucinations, and almost every Eskimo can report memories of ghosts, animals in human form, or little people living in remote places. Experiences such as hearing voices from ice or stones were discussed as readily as everyday hunting adventures. Neither were trance-like states the monopoly of shamans, and laic people (non-shamans) experiencing such were welcome as well to report their experiences and interpretations. The ability to have and command helping spirits was characteristic of shamans, but laic people could also profit from spirit powers through the use of amulets. In one extreme instance a Netsilingmiut child had eighty amulets for protection. Some laic people had a greater capacity than others for close relationships with special beings of the belief system; these people were often apprentice shamans who failed to complete their learning process.

Soul concepts

See also: Soul dualism

In generally, some of the various cultures termed "shamanistic" can be understood better if we understand also the soul concept of the researched culture.

This applies also for some Eskimo groups. It must be noted that Eskimo cultures are not alike, neither are their soul concepts.

In some of them, shamans may fulfill multiple functions, including healing, curing infertile women, and securing the success of hunts. These seemingly unrelated functions can be grasped better by understanding the soul concept which, with some variation, underlies them.

Healing

It is held that the cause of sickness is soul theft, in which someone (perhaps an enemy shaman or a spirit) has stolen the soul of the sick person. The person remains alive because people have multiple souls, so stealing the appropriate soul causes illness or a moribund state rather than immediate death. It takes a shaman to retrieve the stolen soul. According to another variant among Ammassalik Eskimos in East Greenland, the joints of the body have their own small souls, the loss of which causes pain.

Fertility

The shaman provides assistance to the soul of an unborn child to allow its future mother to become pregnant.

Success of hunts

When game is scarce the shaman can visit (in a soul travel) a mythological being who protects all sea creatures (usually the Sea Woman), who keeps the souls of sea animals in her house or in a pot. If the shaman pleases her, she releases the animal souls thus ending the scarcity of game.

Soul dualism is held in several cultures (including Eskimo, Uralic, Turkic peoples). There are traces of beliefs that human have more than one souls. Of course the details have variations according to the culture under discussion. In several cases, a free soul and a body soul are distinguished: the free soul may depart body (during life), the body soul manages body functions. In several Eskimo cultures, it is the shaman’s free soul that undertakes these spirit journeys (to places such as the land of dead, the home of the Sea Woman, or the moon) whilst his body remains alive. According to an explanation, this temporal absence of the shaman’s free soul is tackled by a substitution: the shaman’s body is guarded by one of his/her helping spirits during the spirit journey, also a tale contains this motif while describing a spirit journey undertaken by the shaman’s free soul and his helping spirits.

When a new shaman is first initiated, the initiator extracts the shaman’s free soul and introduces it to the helping spirits so that they will listen when the new shaman invokes them; or according to an another explanation (that of the Iglulik shaman Aua) the souls of the vital organs of the apprentice must move into the helping spirits: the new shaman should not feel fear of the sight of his new helping spirits.

In some Inuit groups, animals may be believed to have souls that are shared across their species.

In some groups, babies were named after deceased relatives. This might be supported by the belief that the child’s developing, weak soul must be "supported" by a name-soul: invoking the departed name-soul which will then accompany and guide the child until adolescence. This concept of inheriting name-souls amounts to a sort of reincarnation among some groups, such as the Caribou Eskimos.

Some kinds of magic requiring secrecy (or novelty), and the neutralizing effect of publicity

It was believed in several contexts that secrecy or privacy may be needed for an act or an object (either beneficial or harmful, intended or incidental) to be effective, and that publicity may neutralize its effects.

Magic formulae usually required secrecy and could lose their power if they became known by other people than their owners.

Deliberately harmful magical acts (ilisiinneq) had to be done in secrecy.

If the victim of another detrimental magical act (tupilaq-making) had enough magical power (for example through amulets) to notice the act and "rebound" it back to the perpetrator, the endangered person could escape retribution only by public confession of his planned (and failed) sorcery.

a rite of passage celebrating the first major hunting success of a boy often contained a "partaking" element: the whole community cut the dead animal or took part in its consumption. The function of this rite was to establish a positive relationship between the young man and the game animal; because the killed animal could bring danger to the hunter, this ritual lessened the danger by sharing the responsibility.

Some of the shaman’s functions can be understood in the light of this notion of secrecy versus publicity. The cause of illness was usually believed to be soul theft or a breach of some taboo (such as miscarriage). Public confession (lead by the shaman during a public seance) could bring relief to the patient. Similar public rituals were used in the cases of taboo breaches that endangered the whole community (bringing the wrath of mythical beings causing calamities).

In some instances, the efficiency of magical formulae could depend on their novelty. An origin myth attributes such power to newly created words, that they became instantly true by their mere utterance. Also in shamanic practice, too much use of the same formulae could result in losing their power. According to a record, a man was forced to use all his magic formulae in an extremely dangerous situation, and this resulted in losing all his conjurer capabilities. As reported from the Little Diomede Island, new songs were needed regularly for the ceremonial held to please the soul of the whale, because "the spirits were to be summoned with fresh words, worn-out songs could never be used..."

Shamanism in various Eskimo groups

Inuit

Among the Canadian Inuit, the shaman was known as an Angakkuq (Inuktitut) or Angatkuq (Inuvialuktun) (Inuktitut syllabics ?????).

Iglulik

According to Aua (an informant and friend of the anthropologist Rasmussen), one of the shaman’s tasks among the Iglulik Inuit is to help the community in times when marine animals, which are kept by the Sea Woman (Takanaluk-arnaluk) in a pit in her house, are scarce. If taboo breaches that displease her lead to the failure of sea hunts, the shaman must visit her. Several barriers must be surmounted (such as a wall or a dog) and in some instances even the Sea Woman herself must be fought. If the shaman succeeds in appeasing her the animals will be released as normal.

The Iglulik variant of a myth explaining the Sea Woman’s origins involves a girl and her father. The girl did not want to marry. However, a bird managed to trick her into marriage and took her to an island. The girl’s father managed to rescue his daughter, but the bird created a storm which threatened to sink their boat. Out of fear the father threw his daughter into the ocean, and cut her fingers as she tried to climb back into the boat. The cut joints became various sea mammals and the girl became a ruler of marine animals, living under the sea. Later on her remorseful father joined her.

This local variant differs from several others, like that of the Netsiliks, which is about an orphan girl mistreated by her community.

Aua also passed on information about the ability of an apprentice shaman to see themself as a skeleton, naming each part using the specific shaman language.

Inuit at Amitsoq Lake

For the Inuit at Amitsoq Lake (a rich fishing ground) sewing of many items was seasonally prohibited. Boot soles, for example could only be sewn far away from settlements in designated places. Children at Amitsoq had a game called tunangusartut in which they imitated the adults behavior towards the spirits, including shamanizing, even reciting the same verbal formulae as shamans. This game was not considered offensive because a "spirit can understand the joke."

Netsilik Inuit

The Netsilik Inuit (Netsilingmiut - People of the Seal) live in a region with an extremely long winter and stormy conditions in the spring, where starvation was a common danger.

The cosmos of many other Eskimo cultures include protective guardian powers, but for the Netsilik the general hardship of life resulted in the extensive use of such measures, and even dogs could have amulets. Unlike the Igluliks, the Netsilik used a large number of amulets. In one recorded instance, a young boy had eighty amulets, so many that he could hardly play. In addition one man had seventeen names taken from his ancestors that were intended to protect him.

Among the Netsilik, tattooing provided power that could affect which world a woman goes to after her death.

The Sea Woman was known as Nuliayuk "the lubricous one". If the people breached certain taboos, she would hold the marine animals in the tank of her lamp. When this happened the shaman had to visit her to beg for game. The Netsilik myth concerning her origin stated that she was an orphan girl who had been mistreated by her community.

Another cosmic being known as Moon Man was thought to be friendly towards people and their souls as they arrive in celestial places. This belief differs from that of the Greenland Eskimos, where the Moon’s anger was feared as a consequence of some taboo breaches.

Sila was a sophisticated concept among Eskimo cultures (where its manifestation varied). Often associated with weather, it was conceived of as a power contained in people. Among the Netsilik, Sila was imagined as male. The Netsilik (and Copper Eskimos) held that Sila originated as a giant baby whose parents were killed in combat between giants.

Caribou Eskimos

"Caribou Eskimos" (Caribou Inuit) is a collective name for several groups of inland Eskimos (the Krenermiut, Aonarktormiut, Harvaktormiut, Padlermiut and Ahearmiut) living in an area bordered by the tree line and the west shore of Hudson Bay. They do not form a political unit and contacts between the groups are loose, but they share an inland lifestyle and exhibit some cultural unity. In the recent past, the Padlermiuts did have contact with the sea where they took part in seal hunts.

The Caribou had a dualistic concept of the soul. The soul associated with respiration was called umaffia (place of life) and the personal soul of a child was called tarneq (corresponding to the nappan of the Copper Eskimos). The tarneq was considered so weak that it needed the guardianship of a name-soul of a dead relative. The presence of the ancestor in the body of the child was felt to contribute to a more gentle behavior, especially among boys. This belief amounted to a form of reincarnation.

Because of their inland lifestyle, the Caribou had no belief concerning a Sea Woman. Other cosmic beings, variously named Sila or Pinga, take her place, controlling caribou instead of marine animals. Some groups made a distinction between the two figures, while others considered them the same. Sacrificial offerings to them could promote luck in hunting.

Caribou shamans performed fortune-telling through qilaneq, a technique of asking a qila (spirit). The shaman placed his glove on the ground, and raised his staff and belt over it. The qila then entered the glove and drew the staff to itself. Qilaneq was practiced among several other Eskimo groups, where it was used to receive "yes" or "no" answers to questions.

Copper Inuit

As mentioned, shamanhood among Eskimo peoples was a diverse phenomenon, just like the various Eskimo cultures themselves. Similar remarks apply for other beliefs: term silap inua / sila, hillap inua / hilla (among Inuit), ellam yua / ella (among Yup’ik) was used with some diversity among the groups. In many instances it refers "outer space", "intellect", "weather", "sky", "universe": there may be some correspondence with the presocratic concept of logos. In some other groups, this concept was more personified (/s l?am ju?wa/ among Siberian Yupik).

Among Copper Inuit, this "Wind Indweller" concept has some relatedness to their shamanhood: shamans were believed to obtain their power from this indweller, moreover, even their helping spirits were termed as silap inue.

Yupik

Like the Netsiliks, the Yupik also practised tattooing. Another feature of them that is observable among several other Eskimo groups: also they used a special shamanic language (for talking to spirits, called IPA: [tu?n??aq]s).

Ungazigmit

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See Help:IPA for a pronunciation key.

The Siberian Yupiks had shamans. Compared to the variants found among Eskimo groups of America, shamanism among Siberian Yupiks stressed more the importance of maintaining good relationship with sea animals. The Ungazigmit people, speaking the largest of the Siberian Yupik language variants, had /a’li?nal?i/s, who received presents for their shamanizing. These payments were known as /a’kili??aq/. In the language spoken by Ungazigmit, there were many words to distinguish the different kinds of payments one might make or gifts one might give, depending on the nature and occasion (such as a marriage). These included such fine distinctions as "thing, given to someone who has none", "thing, given, not begged for", "thing, given to someone as to anybody else" and "thing, given for exchange".

As for a special shamanic language known in several Eskimo groups, also the Ungazigmit had a special allegoric usage of some expressions.

Chugach

The Chugach people live on the southern-most coasts of Alaska. Birket-Smith conducted fieldwork among them in the 1950s, by which time shamanism was already extinct. As among other Eskimo groups, Chugach apprentice shamans were not forced to become shamans by the spirits, but instead deliberately visited lonely places and walked for many days as part of a vision quest that resulted in the visitation of a spirit. The apprentice passed out, and the spirit took him or her to another place (like the mountains or the depths of the sea). Whilst there, the spirit instructed the apprentice in their calling, such as teaching them the shaman’s song.

Sireniki Eskimos

Sireniki Eskimos are former speakers of a very peculiar Eskimo language in Siberia, before they underwent a language shift rendering it extinct. The peculiarities of this Sireniki idiom among Eskimo languages amount to the extent that it is proposed by some to classify it as a standalone third branch of Eskimo languages (alongside with Inuit and Yupik). The total language death of this peculiar remnant means that now the cultural identity of Sireniki Eskimos is maintained through other aspects: slight dialectical difference in the adopted Siberian Yupik language; sense of place, including appreciation of the anciency of their settlement Sireniki.

In a period, shamanism was prohibited by authorities, still, some knowledge about shamanistic practices survived. The last shaman in Sireniki died a decade before 2000, since then there is no shaman in the village. Earlier in the 20th century, shamanistic practices could be observed by scholars in Sireniki, and also a folklore (tale) text mentions a feast that cold possibly include shamanistic features.

Noaidi

A Noaidi, Noaide or Noaydde was a shaman of the Sami people in the Nordic countries representing an indigenous nature religion. Most Noaidi’s practices died out during the 17th century, most likely because the Shamans resisted the crown; their actions were referred to in courts as"magic" or "sorcery" (cf. witchcraft.) Several Sami shamanistic beliefs and practices were similar to those of some Siberian cultures.

Description and history

Noaidi’s are said to have the role of mediator between humans and gods. To undertake this mediation the Noaidi communicated with the gods, asking questions and then being informed as to what sacrifice needs to be made by this or that person so that they can return to good health, be successful in their hunt for food, and even for good weather. Sacrifices were designed by the Noaidi to reestablish the balance between the mortal and immortal worlds.

A Noaidi could engage in any kind of affair that demanded wisdom; it is said they took payments for their services. The activities included healing people, helping children, making decisions and protecting reindeer, which represented the Sámis’ most important source of food and were also used as tributal payment.

The sources from which we learn about Noaidi’s are court protocols, tales, excavated tools (such as belts), and missionary reports. The image rendered by missionaries should in most cases be considered mere fable. That Noaidi’s were punished and in some cases sentenced to death for their "sorcery" should perhaps rather be interpreted as an attempt to obliterate opposition to the crown.

A topic of research has been whether or not the (Sami) concept noaydde was derived from the (Finnish) noita or vice versa. However, noayddes has only been traced in the Sami culture and not Finnish. It is probable that the word has come down to both Sami and Baltic-Finnic languages from the ancient Proto-Finno-Ugric language, as there is a possible cognate word also in the distant Finno-Ugric language Mansi.

Remnants in music tradition

Some of the yoiks were sung on shamanistic rites, this memory is conserved also in a folklore text (a shaman story).

Yoiks were sung on shamanistic rites. Recently, yoiks sung in two different styles, one of these are sung only by young people. But the traditional one may be the other, the "mumbling" style, resembling to magic spells.

Several surprising characteristics of yoiks can be explained by comparing the music ideals, as observed in yoiks and contrasted to music ideals of other cultures. Yoiks, in some instances, intend to mimic natural sounds. This can be contrasted to another music ideal, bel canto, which intends to exploit human speech organs on the highest level to achieve an almost "superhuman" sound.

The intention to mimic natural sounds is present in some other cultures as well: overtone singing, and it can be present in certain shamanic songs of some other cultures as well. It may serve also entertainment (game) or practical (luring animals in hunt) functions.