Central Yup'ik Eskimos - Religion and Expressive Culture



Religious Beliefs. The traditional worldview of the Yup'ik Eskimos has encompassed a system of cosmological reproductive cycling: nothing in the universe ever finally dies away, but is instead reborn in succeeding generations. This view was reflected in elaborate rules circumscribing naming practices, ceremonial exchanges, and daily living. These rules required careful attitudes and actions to maintain the proper relationship with the human and animal spirit worlds and so ensure their return in successive generations. Over the past one hundred years, the Yup'ik Eskimos have become active practitioners of Russian Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Moravianism. Although they have abandoned many traditional practices, many have been retained and the traditional generative worldview remains apparent in many aspects of contemporary village life.

Religious Practitioners. Traditionally, shamans exercised considerable influence as a result of their divinatory and healing roles. When the missionaries arrived in the nineteenth century, they viewed the shamans as their adversaries, and many of the shamans actively resisted the new Christian Influence. Others, however, converted and went on to become native Christian practitioners. Today the major Christian denominations in western Alaska are run by native pastors and deacons.

Ceremonies. The traditional winter ceremonial cycle consisted of six major ceremonies and a number of minor ones. Individually, the ceremonies served to emphasize different aspects of the relationships among humans, animals, and the spirit world. Among other things, the ceremonies ensured the rebirth and return of the animals in the coming harvest season. Through dramatic ritual reversals of the normal productive relationships, the human community was opened to the spirits of the game as well as the spirits of the human dead, who were invited to enter and receive recompense for what they had given and would presumably continue to give in their turn. Masked dances also dramatically re-created past spiritual encounters to elicit their participation in the future. Together the ceremonies constituted a cyclical view of the universe whereby right action in the past and the present reproduces abundance in the future. Over the years, Christian missionaries would dramatically challenge the expression of this point of view, although they have never fully replaced it.

Arts. Singing, dancing, and the construction of elaborate ceremonial masks and finely crafted tools were an important part of traditional Yup'ik life. Although the ceremonies are no longer practiced, traditional recreational dancing and intervillage exchange dances continue in many coastal communities. A rich oral literature was also present traditionally. Although many of the stories have been lost, the region still possesses a number of knowledgeable and expert orators.

Medicine. The Yup'ik people traditionally understood disease to be the product of spiritual malevolence brought on by a person's improper thought or deed in relation to the spirit world. Curing techniques consisted of herbal medicines, Ritual purification, and the enlistment of spirit helpers to drive out the malevolent forces. At present, Western clinical Medicine is the primary means of handling sickness and disease, although traditional herbal remedies are still often employed.

Death and Afterlife. Death was not viewed as the end of life, as some spiritual aspects of each man and animal were believed to be reborn in the following generation. The traditional Yup'ik Eskimos also believed in a Skyland as well as an underworld Land of the Dead, both of which housed the souls of dead humans and animals. It was from these worlds that the spirits were invited to participate in the ceremonies held in their honor in the human world.


User Contributions:

did they have certain gods? if so what where they and what did they rule over? Did the gods sometimes take mortal forms like the greek god? please respond

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