Animism in Rainforest and Tundra, 4 & 6


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4.

Evenki People & Their Hounds

Tatiana Safonova & Istva`n Sa`ntha

82-95


p. 88 human-to-hound communication via context

"Evenki ... with their dogs ... communicate ... by sharing contexts, or 'frames' to use Gregory Bateson's term (... 1972:177-93). When Evenki travel with their dogs, they never call them or give orders."

Bateson 1972 = Gregory Bateson : Steps to an Ecology of Mind : Collected Essays in Anthropology. San Francisco : Chandler.


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6.

'Spirit-charged' Animals in Siberia

Alexandra Lavrillier

113-29


p. 114 Evenki/Tungus tribe

"The Evenki (previously called Tungus) are spread ... from western to eastern Siberia and into northern Manchuria. ... They all live by hunting different kinds of game."


pp. 115-7 onnir

p. 115

"Onnir denotes a specific capacity ... to ... shamanize ... . ...

{cf. Strong's 202 />o^n/ 'force + 5216 /nir/ 'lamp'}


An individual's 'spirit charge' leaves ... 'imprint' on all objects ... they touch {he or she toucheth} and on all their {his or her} actions. This 'imprint' can be 'active' even after their death.

p. 116

Thus, humans are thought to leave their 'imprint'

This "imprint is known to occultists as /morphogenic trace/.}


on hunting and herding tools, on the land they walk on, on the clothes they wear, on the meat they take when hunting, on the skins they take, on the items they sew ..., and on all the ritual gestures they perform. ... Such 'imprints' left by individuals with a heavy 'spirit charge' are thought to be able to 'act' even after their death either directly or through objects. ...

Some individuals ... provoke events ... just by 'thinking about it'. For example, an elder (a shaman's son) ... has an ... ability, with which he had to be very careful. When ... he thinks of a punishment ..., it automatically happens. Everybody knows about his skill ... . A 'spirit charge' is ... transmittable through inheritance. Thus, many people said to have a 'heavy spirit charge' are descendants of shamans.

p. 117

One informant, a shaman's daughter, gave ... a more complete explanation of 'spirit charge'. She said :


[quoted :] All Evenki have onnir, it is made up of spirits inside them. Spirits can enter the body, or leave it for a while. ...

{According to Basilides, each person is "an encampment of many different spirits" (CA:S 2:20:113); according to Valentinus, "the habitation of many demons" (ibid., 114 -- GR, p. 283).}


The shaman's onnir has more spirits than ordinary people's. He is able to 'win' over more spirits ... . ... The shaman is able ... to put them to good use. This is why he ... knows or sees many things which ordinary people do not see. ...


However, if they do not ... put the spirits to ... use, the spirits of the onnir will ... 'eat' them, so that they will suffer or die.

{This is a requirement demanded by spirit-guides of shamans : that the shamans perform diligently some acceptable spiritual work to long as they remain physically able. Wilfull neglect to perform such work will result in illness and, if persisted in stubbornly, death.}


For this purpose, they should ... sing, dance, decorate, perform rituals ... to make one's onnir richer and more powerful. That is why the shaman ... is ... periodically ... to carry out a ritual for ... control {gratification} of his 'spirit charge'."

CA:S = Clemens Alexandrinos : Stromateis.

GR = Hans Jonas : The Gnostic Religion. Beacon Pr, Boston, 1958. https://books.google.com/books?id=lXM0pd6oaKsC&pg=PA283&lpg=PA283&dq=


pp. 117-8, 128 omi

p. 117

"the bodies of humans and [of] certain animals can be the temporary seat of an omi which is alien ... . For example, the omi of a dead human may take up residence for some time in the body of a bear ... . ...

p. 118

The omi of a dead shaman may also ... inhabit a wild animal briefly, appearing to humans in a forest ... . [p. 128, n. 5 : "see also Hayamon (1990:389, 770)."]

p. 128, n. 8

"Evenki understandings of life and death ... : ... After a person dies, their {his or her} omi leaves the physical body and goes down from the middle world (the world of the living) into the lower world (the world of the dead) where it lives a similar life to its life in the middle world. Then, the recyclable vital entity [viz., omi] joins the upper world, where it stays with the 'entities to be born'. When a young couple first get together [i.e., engage in sexual intercourse], the omi of their future child comes down through the smoke hole of the tent and settles in the womb of the future mother. During the first year of its life, the omi is considered to be poorly attached to the child's body."

Hayamon 1990 = Roberte N. Hayamon : La chasse a` l'a^me ... du chamanisme sibe`rien. Nanterre : Socie'te' d'Ethnologie. https://books.google.fr/books?id=6Kk4CZcJD-4C&pg=PA688&hl=fr&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false wrong pp. #s -- actually : ibid., pp. 553-4, 557-9, 562, 781, 864


p. 118 'beings'; 'life'

"[The category] 'beings' to which humans, wild and domestic animals, trees and rivers belong {is} called iinekir. ...

For instance, animals and humans are called bider[-]il (the living), while

spirits are ich[-]il (with life)".

"All the 'beings' [viz., animals and trees] constituting {wildlife of} the taiga ... are supposed to be able to 'communicate' (speak or sing in Evenki) with humans."

{Cognate with Evenki /IL/ 'life' may be not only Korean personal name /IL/, but also Strong's 353 />YaL/ 'strength'.}


pp. 118-9 categories of animals

p. 118

"1. The category of domestic animals includes domestic reindeer and dogs."

p. 119

"2. One category ... is composed of animals


said to come 'from the world of the dead' :

{Their souls (omi) are indigenous to the world of the dead in the sense that their divine species-spirit-guardians reside there.}


mice, shrews, lizards and carrion bugs".

{Shrew-deities appear in the 2nd cavern of the netherworld Book of Caverns. Cf. "shrew ... hybrid demon from the Book of the Dead" ("DTh").} {Two lizard-deities "guarded the house of Miru, ruler of the underworld." (MM&L, s.v. "Moko-hiku-waru").}


"3. The third main category, beyngal, is ... divided into ... sub-categories. The sub-category of food game (beyur) includes ... red deer, roe deer, moose, grouse, ... mouse deer ... . The giant wood wasp -- beyutkan, or 'little black blood game' (Urocerus gigas L.) -- is also part of this category, and is thought to be the 'soul' of ... moose ... . ...

Other sub-categories are constituted by migrating birds (geese, swans, cranes, ducks); by small birds, which are supposed to be a seat for the human recyclable vital entities of future babies; and by fish (salmon, char, eelpout, pike)."


{4. other insects} [a sub-category :] "treated as a kind of pet, such as the big beetle (Cerambus cedro L.), or the birch-tree rhynchite (Byctiscus betulae L.)." [another sub-category :] "Others, like spiders, are thought to be ancestral protectors of the home."

"DTh" https://www.pinterest.com/source/demonthings.com/

MM&L = Margaret Orbell : Maori Myth and Legend. Univ of Canterbury Pr.


p. 121 wood-wasp as soul of deer; dead bear as similarly attractive of game-animals

"the giant wood-wasp ... is considered ... a 'soul' of ... cervidae. It is supposed to come of its own volition to the camp to offer itself (as game) to humans."

"a bear killed during the winter hunt ... is considered to bring all kinds of game to humans in the following year."


pp. 121-2 attraction by soul of dead hound; similar attraction by superannuated domestic reindeer; temporary disappearance by reindeer

p. 121

"When dogs die because of old age, the Evenki attribute to dogs the capacity to attract their master toward them in the world of the dead."

{This is similar to the Zaratustrian understanding that souls of dead humans are guided, into the world for souls of the dead, by hounds.}

p. 122

"The old saddle reindeer are taken far away into the forest when their death is immanent to prevent them from attracting their owner toward them."


"reindeer ... When they turn around anti-clockwise inside the enclosure, ... are supposed 'to want to disappear' -- their herders will not find them for several days ... . ...


Usually, the shaman or some elders have to perform some ritual gestures with the aim ... to make a sacred reindeer protector of the herd."


p. 122 praediction of the future by talking domestic animals

"Domestic reindeer, especially the best and older working reindeer, are supposed to be able to predict the future using human language once in their lifetime."

{There are certain spirit-entities who, speaking in human language in the direction of some nearby animal and imitating its natural voice, may cause humans to mistake those spirits for the animals themselves (though whenever I have heard such -- always feigning to be nearby birds' voices -- I was never successfully deceived by the spirit-voices into supposing the voices issued from the animals themselves). The spirits may be testing the humans' susceptibilities to trickery; and Evenki (according to this story, at least) are eminently trickable.}

[p. 128, (n. 7 : "Regarding similar ... capacities of domestic reindeer among the Eveny, see Vitebsky (2005:280-81)."]

Vitebsky 2005 = P. Vitebsky : Reindeer People : ... Spirits in Siberia. London : Harper Collins.


p. 123 alleged praeternatural powers of various categories of ordinary animals

"the cuckoo is said to be able to influence the weather, announce the rebirth of nature in spring and predict people's future;

{Some spirit-voices feigning to be a cuckoo may praetend to "influence the weather ... and predict people's future" etc., in order to test humans for gullibility; and nai:ve Evenki (according to this story) evidently fail this test.}

certain plants are also thought to be its clothes, lasso, hat, and so forth.

{Perhaps guardian-spirits of these plants (and well as the guardian-spirit of the cuckoo-species itself) somehow assist (tacitly -- i.e., by raising no objections -- and/or otherwise) the spirit-voices in carrying out their duty of testing humans.}

With the ladybird, in order to become lucky, one has to 'play the shaman' -- that is, give it a little piece of wood that it will beat 'like a drum'.

Among the 'species' 'from the world of the dead' ..., mice, shrews and lizards are supposed to able to attract people to the world of the dead, and Evenki are quite frightened of them.

Among the 'species' 'migrating birds' ..., swans are supposed to provoke famine or worse for the family that does not keep all containers outside the house full of water during their and other birds' migration : nomads often say, 'migratory birds need to drink water during their trip. If they cannot find it, they can drink your blood!'

Pike are seen as 'frightening fish' and one of the more dangeous spirits of the shaman."

{Persons seldom or never tested by such spirit-voices (voices which feign themselves to be those of ordinary cuckoos, etc.) would include (1) sobre-minded persons who remain in the company of other sobre-minded persons, and (2) persons who utterly doubt the existence of any such spirits, and who if they heard any would suppose that they must be becoming insane -- spirits do not bother to test disbelievers because the disbelievers already have tempermentally indicated two attitudes : (1) lack of susceptibility to being tricked (which would make for a passing grade on that part of the test), and (2) an atheistic doubt of all spirituality (which would make for a failing grade on that part of the test). Persons who pass both parts of such tests are subjected (by other types of spirits) to further tests of various other types (as I am aware from personal experience) involving matters of sound judgement and of good ethics; passing enough of such tests can result in one's being given tasks (prayer-work, actually) involving some responsibility. [written July 22 2015]}


p. 125 mana, kamo, etc.

tribe

term for spiritual power

alleged source of the power

bibiographic reference (pp. 128-9, n. 9)

Evenki

onnir

[shamanry (pp. 113, 116)]

(this article)

Nahuatl

tonalli

birthdate or astrological event

Descola 2005, p. 298

Melanesian

mana

social class

Mauss 1991, p. 340

Kwakiutl; Tlingit

naualaku

" "

Mauss 1991, p. 344

Kanak of New Caledonia

kamo

" "

Leenhardt 1947

Samo of Burkina Faso

?

kinship-identity

Hertier 1977

India

?

moral qualities

Mauss 1991, pp. 348-55

Descola 2005 = Philippe Descola : Par-dela` nature et culture. Paris : Gallimard.

Mauss 1991 = Marcel Mauss : Sociologie et anthropologie. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France.

Leenhardt 1947 = M. Leenhardt : Do Kamo : la personne et le mythe dans le monde me'lane'sien. Paris : Gallimard.

Heritier 1977 = Franc,ois He'ritier : "L'identite' Samo". In :- Claude Le'vi-Strauss (ed.) : L'identite'. Paris : Grasset. pp. 51-80.


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Marc Brightman, Vanessa Elisa Grotti, & Olga Ulturgasheva (edd.) : Animism in Rainforest and Tundra : Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia. Berghahn Bks, Oxford, 2012.