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dieletztepanzerhexe · 2 years ago

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When a person dies in Achaivaiam, he or she only appears to die. The dead are still very much alive. All life always has existed and always will exist, but it takes ritual work to ensure that it continues within the Chukchi circle of rebirths and is not overtaken by tannit.

All beings: animals,the deceased, inanimate objects, and “even the shadow on the walls” (Bogoras 1904–1909: 281) are said not only to possess intentionality but also to live in societies, and consider themselves to be human beings.

As with many other Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples, the Chukchi cosmos is organized around the principle of rebirth (Bogoras 1904–1909; Bronz and Willerslev 2012; Mills and Slobodin 1994; Obeyesekere 2002; Willerslev 2000); a dead person’s soul will cycle back to be reborn in a neonate, who can therefore be identified as an ancestor returned.

On a September night Vova, a 45-year-old father and husband, died of tuberculosis in his home. We are told, however, that only his body has died; Vova can still hear, communicate, and feel hunger, thirst, and emotions since the invisible side of his being is considered as remaining alive. We call this the soul, but had it not been contained by his name it would merely be the anonymous essence or existence: va’irgin.

To please Vova and secure his comfort, a room in his house is emptied and he is placed on reindeer skin in the center with his head resting on a pillow. There is a clear resemblance here with a typical reindeer sacrifice where the deer is also placed comfortably on a bed of willow branches. A crucifix and a stone are placed on Vova’s chest, the first to chase away the ke’let, who are said to gather around the dead body to eat its soul, the second to ensure that he does not stand up and walk around, and begin to consume the people around him. He is surrounded by a minimum of four women, preferably more, who are placed strategically along each side of his body to serve as “protective armor.” (see Figure 1) None of the protectors leave Vova’s side without ensuring that another woman takes her place. Spirit food, enel’vit, in the form of fur from a white rabbit mixed with reindeer fat, is placed in the window of the room to feed any spirits in the hope that they will then allow Vova a safe passage.

Vova stays in his house for three days while all the preparations for his further journey are taking place. During those days the house is full of guests, who come and go as they please. They bring tea, sugar, candy, tobacco, and other luxuries to his wife, which she then serves to the guests. The guests place packets of cigarettes on Vova’s stomach on top of the blanket. When they later wish to smoke, they help themselves from this pile of cigarettes as if Vova himself who—as a good host— were offering them. The visitors all chain smoke to prevent the smell of Vova’s decomposing body from filling the room.

On the third morning, family and friends share their last meal with Vova. Then he is dressed in his death suit. It is only the women who are allowed to participate in dressing Vova, so the men retreat to the outdoors. The dressing is a dangerous affair due to Vova’s semi-sacred status, and the women dressing him face potential retaliation. The women therefore disguise themselves by imitating ravens: they put on feathers made of hay and they croak like ravens (see Figure 2), as they will also do later on the pyre. The raven is the creator and trickster in Chukchi mythology. His name is Ku’urkil, or the “self-created one” (Bogoras 1904–1909: 315). He is like a great shaman that possesses enormous powers to make things in the world. Yet he is also a fool who does this by default, someone people can trick to take on their blame. By becoming ravens the women signify the power to transform Vova’s body from one being to another, but as a consequence of the inherent moral ambiguity in sacriice or any killing, they also ensure that they will not be held responsible for any anger caused. Further precautions are taken by sewing Vova’s hood together so that he is blindfolded and does not recognize the intruders.

As already described, the prototypical notion of the ancestral world is that of “experience reversed.” For this reason, Vova is dressed opposite to what is normal: the left boot is put on the right foot and vice versa, the same goes for the mittens. Furthermore, his spear and walking stick are made in miniature because small turns big on the other side. When Vova is fully dressed in his new body, everyone present says good-bye to him by walking around him in the direction of the movement of the sun. As they walk over his legs, everyone kicks his knees three times with the back of their feet while roaring like bears (Chukchi: kainu). According to Bogoras, brown bears are considered akin to man among the Chukchi. They are, so to speak, human beings clad in bearskin and are believed to be shamans (Bogoras 1904–1909: 325). This understanding is widespread throughout inner Asia, and Joseph Campbell noted, that it has been found in the entire North from Finland and Northern Russia through to Hudson Bay and down the West coast to the tribes of Tlingit and Kwakiutl (Campbell 1959: 339).

The two women imitating ravens step up onto the pyre, and while imitating the sounds of the bird they cut open Vova’s stomach as if slaughtering him like a sacrificial reindeer. By cutting Vova’s stomach open, the necessary destruction of his physical body is set in motion, which will enable his soul to be re-leshed on the other side.

Since the ritual killing of Vova is both a morally problematic and risky affair, it is something that needs to be carried out in a hurry. Therefore, as soon as their deeds are done and the smoke from the ire is thick enough to conceal their true identity, the raven bodies are cast into the flames and the women jump down from the pyre and join the other participants. In haste they purify themselves with the ashes of another small ire in case any ke’let have attached themselves to them.

As the ire consumes Vova’s body, the participants become increasingly joyful. They begin playing the roles of ke’let (see Figure 6), involving what is called the “game of coal” (Chukchi: inaykeletok). Men and women chase and capture one another other to color each other’s faces black with coal. This is yet another shape shifting, which enables the transformation of Vova’s life-form to take place. The ke’let, as the consumers of human souls, are temporary enacted as happy helpers in the destruction of Vova’s present bodily form and thus his life’s continuation on the other side. While the ke’let jump around and Vova’s body continues to burn, a few elderly women sit with their backs towards the pyre and sing songs of his successful journey.

During the cremation, the two realms, that of the living and that of the ancestors, have effectively merged. While this is necessary to allow for a successful transference of the deceased from one to the other, it is now of utmost importance to ensure that these realms are re-separated into their proper place. If not, the deceased will, in the words of an elderly Chukchi woman, “start walking the streets of the village, taking their living kin with them to the ancestral realm.” Therefore, when the pyre has burned down it is time for the living to leave the place. Each participant takes a twig home with him or her to burn. In this situation the twig is a visible manifestation of the soul of the living, and thus a secure way for them to contain it and take it home. As they leave the same way they came, two women sitting on each side of the road cleanse the participants by touching them with alder twigs as they pass by. Then the two women close the road by planting small twigs into the ground and placing stones in front of them. In the reversed world of the dead, these will be experienced as impenetrable forests and mountains that will prevent the deceased from following his living kin and friends.

Entering the sacred space of Shamanka (”Shamaness”) to perform the “second burial” must be done with care. One must step gently and throw a stone where the pyre was in order to scare away any ke’let. The remains of the deceased (the ashes and pieces of bones together with the three stones placed between the poles, which made the foundation of the pyre) are gathered by sweeping them together with alder branches, then they are encircled with a lasso-ring. The lasso is said to “catch the place” of the ancestors. A twig as well as tea, tobacco and other small offerings are placed inside the lasso-ring, and the participants then have tea around the encirclement. The twig represents the souls of the living, who have the last cup of tea with Vova. When tea is finished the twigs are taken home and burned to ensure that none of the participants’ souls remain in the ancestral realm.

This is the end of the second burial. At this point the previous body containing the life force of the deceased has been destroyed, the meat has been separated from the soul, the relationship with Vova has been closed with a last goodbye tea party, and he is now free, and should be able to endure his long journey to the ancestral realm.

The men create a mini-herd of reindeer by placing the vital bone parts—the antlers with the skull, the femurs, jawbones and the irst cervical bone—in a row on the ground. The reindeer skulls and bones are cautiously placed in the correct order by the herders, according to their real life placement and personality within the herd; so that the leader of the herd leads the convoy, and the followers follow. Their heads are directed towards the north, which, as previously mentioned, marks the entrance to the ancestral world.

Only now that a private identifiable reindeer is sacrificed can Vova journey to the ancestral world together with the reindeer belonging to his kin, and only now can his name-soul and those of the others that died during the past year resettle into a life among the ancestors.

“Regenerating life in the face of predation. A study of mortuary ritual as sacrifice among the Siberian Chukchi” JEANETTE LYKKEGÅRD AND RANE WILLERSLEV

#anthropology #animism #shamanism #ritual #reindeer #chukchi #kamchatka #death #funerary rites #ancestors #ancestral worship #siberia #deer #my upl #sacrifice

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