Religion and expressive culture – North Alaskan Eskimos

Religious Beliefs.

The traditional religion was animistic. Everything was believed to be
imbued with a spirit. There was, in addition, an array of spirits that
were not associated with any specific material form. Some of these
spirits looked kindly on humans, but most of them had to be placated in
order for human activities to proceed without difficulty. Harmony with
the spirit world was maintained through the wearing of amulets, the
observance of a vast number of taboos, and participation in a number of
ceremonies relating primarily to the hunt, food, birth, death, the life
cycle, and the seasonal round. In the 1890s a few natives from Southwest
Alaska who had been converted by Swedish missionaries began evangelical
work in the Kotzebue Sound area. About the same time, Episcopal and
Presbyterian missionaries from the continental United States began work
in Point Hope and Barrow, followed by members of the California Annual
Meeting of Friends in the Kotzebue Sound area. After some difficulties,
the Friends were successful in converting a large number of people, and
these converts laid the foundation for widespread conversions to
Christianity throughout North Alaska. Today, practically every Christian
denomination and faith is represented in the region.

Religious Practitioners.

In traditional times, shamans interceded between the human and spirit
worlds. They divined the concerns of the spirits and advised their
fellow humans of the modes of behavior required to placate them. They
also healed the sick, foretold the future results of a particular course
of action, made spirit flights to the sun and the moon, and attempted to
intercede with the spirits when ordinary means proved ineffective.
Around 1900, the shamans were replaced by American missionaries. Most of
them, in turn, have been replaced by natives ordained as ministers or
priests in the Christian faiths to which they adhere.

Ceremonies.

The traditional ceremonial cycle consisted of a series of rituals and
festivals related primarily to ensuring success in the hunt. Such events
were most numerous and most elaborate in the societies in which whaling
was of major importance, but they occurred to some degree throughout the
region. Intersocietal trading festivals were also important. The
traditional cycle has been replaced by the contemporary American
sequence of political and Christian holidays.

Arts.

Traditional arts consisted primarily of the following: (1) making
essentially utilitarian objects (such as tools, weapons, and clothes) in
a particularly elegant fashion; (2) storytelling; and (3) song and
dance. Since the advent of store-bought products and television, all the
traditional art forms have declined considerably.

Medicine.

There were two forms of traditional medicine. One, which involved
divination and intercession with the spirits, was conducted by shamans.
The second involved the massage and/or manipulation of various body
parts, particularly the internal organs. The former has given way to
Western clinical medicine. The latter, after several decades of being
practiced in secret, has recently experienced a revival.

Death and Afterlife.

Life and death were believed to be a perpetual cycle through which a
given individual passed. When a person died, his or her personal
possessions were placed on the grave for use in the afterlife, although
it was understood that, in due course, the soul of everyone who died
would be reanimated in the form of a newborn infant. The traditional
beliefs about death and the afterworld have been replaced by an array of
Christian beliefs. Whereas funerals were not well defined or important
rituals in traditional times—the observance of special taboos was
much more important—they have in recent decades become elaborate
events in which hundreds of people from several villages often
participate, particularly when the death of an elder is involved.