Mergers: Cousins
The Eveny people of the far Northeast Artic are an ancient people of reindeer husbandry that is still active today. Their shamans wear antler headdresses, become reindeer and can fly. What distinguishes them from other reindeer herding people in the far Northeast Arctic Regions is that they ride the reindeer but use their dogs to pull the sledges. Reindeer are considered mystical beings because of their hypnotic look and the depths in their eyes and soul. Besides their usefulness to carry the Eveny across the brutal lands and to haul food supplies and carcasses from the hunt, they are also revered and provide a sacred food supply. There spiritual name is Kujjai. Like their elk cousins, reindeer are protectors both of their owners and the vast reaching tundra of the Northern lands.
A single circumpolar band of indigenous culture has emerged in the Artic North. Among the Inuit of Greenland, west to Nome, in the far East of Russia and Siberia and throughout the entire circumpolar region where Komi, Chuchi, Nevelek, Sami, and Eveny indigenous cultures exist (just to name a few) there are shared origin stories, dances and shamanic feats. Tales and legends of animal erotica and cross species transformation, weather, ice, hunting, migration patterns, seasonal rituals and celebrations, and star stories to tell time and location are told.
Nature and culture are inextricably bound—no seams, no fences, everything alive, animated, walking, hunting, singing, dancing, talking, listening, appreciating, unified.
There simply is no human verses animal. Animal behavior is no different than human behavior—all are part of the same dynamic continuum. Women marry dogs and bears, take reindeer husbands, people transfigure into artic foxes, bears turn into black icebergs and wolverines, reindeer procure sperm banks for infertile women, hybrids are common. There are mermaids like Nuliajuk, (Sedna), and mermen, there are giants and dwarfs, claw trolls, shadow people and spirits, spirits of stones that marry, spirits that lived inside of bearded seal whips, and animal masks.
Listening, appreciating, unified…
Perhaps it is not so important to know if myths come from experience or from collective memories stored in the field.
Listen, appreciate