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Post by Montezuma on May 17, 2022 19:47:38 GMT -5
From Ugric siberia to the Amur siberia; the Brown bear is the most revered and feared animal. In all siberian natives, the well known "master of the forest or animals" features in most myths and legends than any other animal shows that they play a large role in siberian native religion which we will discover in this thread. The bear is so revered by native siberians and Slavs that i would say that even i post all information, it would still not be enough!
(Note:- Since the Amur region is known as a Far eastern region, so the bear importance in Amur region is largely told in the Far easterb thread.)
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Post by Montezuma on May 17, 2022 19:50:54 GMT -5
Master of the Taiga: The cult of the bear among the indeginous people of the Siberia
"Not only Siberian peoples considered the bear to be the Master of the Taiga, but namely Siberians turned their attitude to the bear into a cult. Moreover, this cult played an important role in the rites of hunting magic and everyday life."
"Evenki living in Transbaikalia and Amur Region call themselves “Orochons” and have the most serious and multi-layered cult of the bear. It is believed that every Orochon hunter is allowed to kill a strictly defined number of bears that cannot be exceeded. If this happened, the hunter would forfeit his life. Hence the sacred mystical awe of the Evenks before the Master of the Taiga. In this respect, the story of the Evenki hunter Aleksandr Erdyneevich Stepanov is indicative; it was recorded during one of the ethnographic expeditions:
“If you catch a bear, you have to apologize. You should say that you are sorry, but you just needed some fat or something else. Indeed, the fat is curative. Earlier Evenks used to hunt bears for the sake of fat, they didn’t eat so much meat, only took fat and bile. Of course, before they killed the animal, they prayed and sprinkled some vodka or milk. They asked for permission of the burkhan (spirit), saying: “Nandikan, allow us to take the bear, not the Master himself, but an ordinary bear”. After they killed the bear, they dressed his body; they had to say that they were not really dressing the body, only ants were tickling the bear. When they finished and took everything they needed and buried the meat, then they had to put a branch in the dead animal’s mouth, tie it up, then place the head on a tree, so that the animal’s spirit would not chase them”.
"The rite of the Orochons connected with the head of the killed bear is full of deep pagan symbolism: Evenks believe that the soul of the killed bear does not die, but remains in the forest for some time, after which it moves to another bear, and thus the delicate natural balance is not violated."
"EVENKS BELIEVE THAT THE SOUL OF THE KILLED BEAR DOES NOT DIE, BUT REMAINS IN THE FOREST FOR SOME TIME, AFTER WHICH IT MOVES TO ANOTHER BEAR, AND THUS THE DELICATE NATURAL BALANCE IS NOT VIOLATED."
"The attitude of Buryats to the bear is also interesting. Buryat language has two ways of designating a bear: babagai and guroohen. The first word is a combination of words - baabai (father, ancestor, forefather) and abgai (elder sister, elder brother’s wife, elder brother). It is known that when Buryats were talking about a bear or were just mentioning the animal in a conversation, they often gave it family names: a mighty uncle dressed in a fur-coat; a grandfather in a fur-coat; a mother or a father... By the way, the word babagai is a general definition of all living and deceased older relatives. So it is very symbolic that the bear is called exactly in the same way."
"A similar respectful names and perception of the bear as a close relative is characteristic not only of Buryats. For example, Khakasses called the bear aba, ada, aga, apchakh, abai, which also meant a father, a mother, an elder brother, ab uncle and other terms denoting close relations."
"The second name of the bear in the Buryat language is guroohen. This is already a more “zoological” word. Depending on the species, the bear was called khara guroohen (a brown or black bear) or sagaan guroohen (a polar bear). Probably, this bear’s name was derived from the general term “an guurol” meaning “wild animals”."
"For a long time people have tried to explain the origin of the bear through the stories with the main idea of a miraculous or magical transformation. For example, Buryat folklore has two most common options: shapeshifting that occurs at the will a person and spontaneous or violent shapeshifting that does not depend on the will of a person."
"One of the most famous fairy-tale stories tells about a werebear hunter who was forced to always remain in an animal form due to the envy and hostility of others. This bear man steals a woman, and this couple becomes the progenitors of all bears. There are also common myths telling that the origin of the bear was closely connected with the will of the god (burkhan) punishing people for any serious or small misconduct, turning them into animals. Interestingly, an example of such misconduct is a person’s desire to laugh at others. Some more popular “reasons” for punishment were also greed and cruelty. At the same time, returning to the human form was possible in the way usual for fairy tales: through love and acceptance. A werebear from the “Baabgai-khun” (“Bear Man”) folk fairy tale regained its human appearance after meeting his wife. However, as he comes back to the taiga, he always turned into a bear."
"Buryat shamans considered the bear itself to be a shaman, morover, the strongest shaman of all. Buryat language has the following expression: “Khara guroohen boodoo elyuutei”, which translates as “The bear is higher that the flight of the shaman”.
"Buryat shamans often used fir bark in their practices; the bark had to be taken from a tree scratched by a bear. Such trees were usually called “baabgain ongolhon modon” – “a tree consecrated by the bear”.
"The Buryat folk calendar contains direct associations and similarities connected with the image of the bear. For example, one of the winter months in the calendar of the Khori Buryats is called “Burgan” and an “ekhe Burgan”, which literally means “a big male bear” in the Alar dialect."
"One more evidence of the sacredness of the bear’s image in the traditional culture of Buryats is the oath with the use of the bear’s skin. Such an oath is usually given alongside with eating or biting a piece of the bear's skin and is considered the most binding and having the most terrible consequences."
"Besides, since ancient times, the bear has been one of the most popular characters of folk games of Buryats. A description of the bear games is found in the notes of travelers who visited Buryat uluses. For example, A. Potanina wrote about this folk leisure: “Here people try to correctly imitate all the movements of this powerful animal as strongly as possible. The person who imitates a bear shows the animal’s strong jaws and teeth. That person tries to take different things with the teeth and carry them to one place, thus the bear puts all people present at the game to that place. To keep the game going, everyone grabbed by the bear’s teeth should show no more signs of life and obey, no matter where the imaginary bear wants to put a person”.
1baikal.ru/en/istoriya/khozyain-taygi-kult-medvedya-u-sibirskikh-korennykh-narodov
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Post by Montezuma on May 17, 2022 19:59:40 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on May 17, 2022 20:12:06 GMT -5
"The khanty worshipped the bear in the form of bear ceremonalism."
books.google.com.pk/books?id=1PDWAAAAMAAJ&q=khanty+and+mansi++bear+worship&dq=khanty+and+mansi++bear+worship&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkpuPd6-f3AhUTgf0HHUdkCqUQ6AF6BAgLEAM
"One of the ancient cults preserved to some extent by Siberian peoples up to the pre-revolutionary era was the ritual worship of the bear. Probably thousands of years old, the cult of the bear goes back to an early stage of human culture, to the culture of the hunters of the forest areas of Northern Asia and is related to totemistic beliefs. The cult of the bear among the peoples of Siberia manifested itself in a special attitude towards the bear, in its elevation above the other animals, in the recognition of its kinship with man, in diverse superstitions and sym-bols, as well as in a number of ritual functions connected with bear hunting and the eating of bear's flesh. This form of bear worship was characteristic of most peoples of Siberia."
"Another form of this cult, whereby the bear was kept in a cage and the grown-up animal was ritually sacrificed, was ob-served only among some peoples of the Far East (Ainu, Gilyak, Orochi and Ulchi). Especially interesting is the cult of the bear among the Ket, who have until lately preserved characteristic traits of the ancient culture of the trappers and fishermen of the taiga (methods and technique of hunting, implements of the trade, means of conveyance, and elements of spiritual culture)."
"Its study not only gives us an insight into the religious beliefs inherent in the archaic economic organization of human society, but helps also to throw light on the ethnogenesis of the peoples of Siberia. Literature provides very scarce information on the bear cult of the Ket. Mention is made only of the particular role of the bear, of its having a soul like men's, and there are fragmentary notes on some aspects of the worship of the bear and ritual customs observed in the course of bear hunting."
www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112414545-016/pdf
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Post by Montezuma on May 17, 2022 20:43:05 GMT -5
The Khanty Bear Festival
 Decorated khanty bearskin for bear festival
"The Ob-Ugrians distribute bear-feast songs into three categories: bear songs (voiaare in Steinitz publications, cf. uieeryg in the Mansi language), play songs (tangetep by Steinitz, tulyglap in Mansi), and songs for calling and presenting deities (Steinitz does not provide a common nomination; kaastaneeryg, pupyg eeryg in Mansi). The first volume of Ostjakische Volksdichtung und Erzählungen aus Zwei Dialekten, the repertoire collected by Wolfgang Steinitz and published in the Publication Series of the Estonian Learned Society in Tartu in 1939 (the second volume was never published in Estonia), includes thirty three song texts from Yamgort by the river Synya and from Lokhtotgurt by the river Ob.
Ritual dances performed by men with masks
Among them twenty two are definitely connected with the bear-ceremony, but also songs like Little Afanasyev, the little master and others probably belonged to the bear-feast repertoire. Among the published song texts are three bear songs (the song from Yamgort is actually a fragment), eight songs for calling and presenting deities, and six songs are directly referred to as play songs. Apparently also songs Loon and Cuckoo woman fall under the latter category. But it is not completely certain, because in the Mansi bear-ritual repertoire the song about the loon appears among the bear songs (uieeryg) (Kannisto, Liimola 1958: 86)."
Women cover their faces while dancing in front of the bear.
www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol6/steinitz.htm
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Post by Montezuma on May 21, 2022 20:30:18 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on May 21, 2022 20:42:43 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on May 23, 2022 8:04:23 GMT -5
Both the Kamchatka Brown Bear.
"The native people of the today Kamchatla are the Evenks who celebrate the Day of the Bear."
Legends about the bear
"Bear are ancestors of everyone living on the Earth; the ancient Evenks believed and worshipped the predator, as a divinity. The ancient people said they were celebrating the Day of Bear as the Bear had ordered them to do, and the Bear also had announced rules of hunting bears, the specialist said."
"The story is the following: once two sisters went to guard a herd of deer. A snowstorm broke out, and one of the sisters fell into a bear den. She spent there the winter, and in spring the bear brought her to the people, and a certain time later the girl bore a child and a little bear, whom her mother took to bring up. As the boy grew up, it called his brother-bear to compete in force and won. The bear, as the life was leaving him, gave to the brother and every Evenk rules of hunting bears," she said.
"The Evenks still observe some of those rules. For example, a hunter must treat his folks and neighbors with the hunted bear’s meat - or the luck would abandon him for good."
Tradition of the ancestors
"In the old times, the Day of Bear had a few parts: the process of hunting, cooking, eating, sacred rituals with the bear remains. Nowadays, the most breathtaking part is the tradition of hunting, which the holiday organizers have restored from stories of the old. Besides, the holiday features the rites of purification, thanksgiving. The celebration’s key event is the contest between men in strength and agility."
www.google.com/amp/s/tass.com/economy/974268/amp
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Post by Montezuma on May 28, 2022 23:48:29 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on May 30, 2022 21:38:44 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:12:00 GMT -5
Scythians are a feirce mounted warrior nation situated in the Souther siberia which are believed to be the ancestors of the Iranians. Here we will look the bear's importance in the scythian culture. Although a little is from europe yet i include them over here since scythians were originally and mostly native in the siberia.
"In the Scythian burial complexes, the earliest image of the bear in its full form was first found in the Kelermes kurgan 4 of the second half of the 7th century BC (Fig. 1). This is a silver gilded mirror of the Greek-Eastern (Ionian) production, in which a fi gure of a walking bear clearly stands out among representations of various gods, people, and animals."
The image found in sycthia, made by greeks, shows a bear along with other animals, gods and humans.
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/762/672&ved=2ahUKEwjs4aiy07j4AhVQSvEDHeehBT4QFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2XXfdd2De0YBvEGoMSLI0h
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:17:24 GMT -5
"In the Scythian steppe, the bear motif was recorded in the kurgan of Chabantsova Mogila of the 5th century BC, near the town of Ordzhonikidze, in Dnepropetrovsk Region of the Ukraine. In the central tomb (almost completely looted), animal bones (remains of sacrificial food), fragments of iron lamellar armor, a bone handle of a knife, a bronze arrowhead, and a golden casing of a wooden bowl have been found. The representation of a bear standing upright, in profi le, with its head down, was made with the stamp on one of the plates of the casing."
The case of a wooden carving of a bear by Kurgans.
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/762/672&ved=2ahUKEwjs4aiy07j4AhVQSvEDHeehBT4QFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2XXfdd2De0YBvEGoMSLI0h
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:21:03 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:26:52 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:31:02 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:36:24 GMT -5
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Post by Montezuma on Jun 18, 2022 22:44:04 GMT -5
"The assumption concerning the existence of some form of bear cult not only in the forest-steppe, but also in the Scythian steppe, has recently received additional confi rmation, after the publication of evidence from the elite kurgan of Bliznets-2 (near Dnepropetrovsk), dated to the late 5th century BC (Romashko, Skory, 2009: 68–69). The kurgan was thoroughly looted both in the ancient times and in the 19th century. In the burial of a noble Scythian steppe dweller, fi ve claws of a brown bear were found (the length of the largest was 6.2 cm; that of the smallest 3.6 cm). These were recovered from the fi lling of an interior grave pit, next to each other. The authors indicated that such finds were very rare in the graves of the Scythian period, and were made only in few forest-steppe sites: tomb No. 2 of the Repyakhovataya Mogila kurgan, near the village of Matusov, in the Tyasmin River basin (six bear claws with drilled round holes, which used to function as bridle adornments); kurgan 2 at the Lyubotin cemetery, in the Seversky Donets River basin (a bear claw cased in gold foil, with a hole for hanging, i.e. an amulet) of the late 7th to early 6th century BC; and the central grave of the Bolshoy Ryzhanovsky kurgan
of the early 3rd century BC, in the interfl uve of the Gniloy and Gorkiy Tikich Rivers (four claws located on three sides of the skeleton of a noble Scythian warrior). “In the cases described above, bear claws, like the teeth of a bear and a wolf, should probably be interpreted in the same way as canine teeth and boar tusks, which are quite common in kurgans of the Scythian time, for example, in the Dnieper right bank forest-steppe area of the Kiev region, but are less frequently found in the steppe zone of the northern Black Sea region, which are correctly and unambiguously identifi ed as apotropaic amulets with magical powers. Obviously, the claws of such a mighty beast as a bear were to serve as apotropaia—a reliable defense for the deceased from evil forces. In our case, we have a different, extremely interesting and unusual situation for Scythian burials. Since all five claws of the bear lay… in the same place, close, or rather, together (and this is after the robbery of the burial!), we may consider them as the remains of a bear paw [my italics – V.G.]."
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/762/672&ved=2ahUKEwjs4aiy07j4AhVQSvEDHeehBT4QFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2XXfdd2De0YBvEGoMSLI0h
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 5, 2022 23:15:18 GMT -5
"Ancient Slavic and Scandinavian peoples avoided calling this animal by name in order not to summon its dangerous owner."
"The Russian for “bear”, medved (possibly, “he who knows where honey is”) and other similar names common in everyday speech like Kosolapyi (“club-footed”) replaced the real taboo name of the animal, which was with time forgotten."
scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russian-of-all-beasts/#:~:text=All%20in%20all%2C%20there%20are,to%20get%20along%20with%20people.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 5, 2022 23:18:50 GMT -5
"Down the ages, man has come across brown bears more than once. Evidence for this is so extensive that we can dwell on just a few facts here."
"In the primitive times, the bear became a cult animal embodying strength and fearlessness. Moreover, many nationalities regarded him the ancestor of humans, their senior relation, the creature that personifies the connection between the sky and the earth."
"A bear was the most worshipped animal of Ancient Slavs. In the pagan times, it was associated with the god Volos, patron of domestic animals. In the Slavic folklore a bear was the totem personifying a man: father, husband, or fiance. It was no accident that legends about turnskin bears appeared: it was believed that people could be turned into bears for misbehavior – no wonder the feet and toes of these animals resembled the humans’."
scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russian-of-all-beasts/#:~:text=All%20in%20all%2C%20there%20are,to%20get%20along%20with%20people.
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Post by Montezuma on Aug 5, 2022 23:21:59 GMT -5
"A bear is a noteworthy figure of the Russian culture: it acts in many folk tales and fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, and literary fiction works, often as the main character."
"There is a good reason for this: for a Russian person a bear has always been an important though ambiguous symbol. On the one hand, since ancient times bears have been treated with respect and given human names (“Misha”). Having killed a bear, the hunter sought to secure himself by punishing the fork with which the animal was killed. A Russian hunter would apologize to the killed animal and say: “It was not me who killed you but a Tungus (Evenki).” Villagers would often keep bear cubs for fun, and children would play “bear games”. Chained bears would be taken around villages for entertainment."
"On the other hand, bears were dreaded. Small wonder: if we can come across four- or five-meter-tall giants even today, such encounters must have been much more frequent in the old days! This fear generated stories about wood demons and evil spirits. People sought to protect themselves against the dangerous bear with magic and amulets, they dreamed about becoming relatives with him."
"Russian mythology puts an emphasis on the bears’ hypersexuality – the animals are considered to be well-disposed to women, who they attack to take them to their lairs and cohabit with them. According to legends, the progeny of such “marriage” is bogatyrs (epic heroes). It is not for nothing that in ancient Slavic wedding rituals the bride and the groom were called a he-bear and a she-bear. At Christmastide a young guy was dressed as a bear – he would go around guisers and prey on young girls."
"Psychiatrists who treat women belonging to the Russian culture are well aware of dreams in which acts a “horrible bear”. This scary image is often present in the dreams of female patients who have problems with their relatives or difficulties in the sexual sphere. Sometimes, a bear turns into the patient’s father, which normally means that the patients’ parents are on bad terms. The Russian women afflicted with neurosis demonstrate an association between the image of the frightening beast and fear of men. Interestingly, the phenomenon of “dreaming of a bear” is not new at all: Tatiana Larina in Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin had a dream in which she saw a horrible bear: he caught her and took to a log cabin, where Onegin and evil spirits were waiting."
scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russian-of-all-beasts/#:~:text=All%20in%20all%2C%20there%20are,to%20get%20along%20with%20people.
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