People who have maintained cultures with spiritual connections with whales for many years

byMichael Dawes

A whale is a very high-intelligent creature,Sing a songIt is also known to be. However, there is no human being who can understand the words whale speaks, and in general it is often thought that it is impossible for human beings and whales to talk. However, Inuit people who traditionally hunted whales have said they have maintained a spiritual connection with whales, and in recent years there has been a growing movement to show certain understanding to Western scientists I will.

When Whales and Humans Talk | Hakai Magazine
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In 1986, an Inuit man named Harry Blower was hospitalized in a hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, and the condition was close to death due to illness. At that time, Mr. Blower seems to have experienced that his consciousness transits to the body of an orbital whale in the hospital. The polar bear is a bowl's whale's consciousness of the northernmost part of AlaskaYutoku AgguicHe told me that he took me until. Mr. Blower and the whale traveled over the coastline for 1000 kilometers, and eventually "UmiakuIt seems he saw a small boat covered with a seal skin with an Inuit called Inuit, between drift ice.

Mr. Blower saw the shock of Mori driven by the Inuits approaching the body of the whale, and saw Inuit of Utokuy Agwik in Umiak. There were also sons of Mr. Blower in the Inuits. Mr. Blower who awoke in the hospital could speak to the scientist to whom the whale was driven into the whale and to the reservoir where the whale meat was kept.

Many western scientists may dismiss as "just a sick patient's dream" even when he hears Blower's story. However, Inuits such as Mr. Blower believe that human beings and whales have a spiritual connection and that they have mutual understanding beyond just the predator and prey relationship.

byCaps the flickr

The detailed age when the whaling technology was born is not clear, but it is thought that it was born from the coast near Alaska in about 600 AD 800 years. Whaling has brought people in the Arctic Circle so much food that they could not get so far and made a drastic change in their lives. An Inuit settlement was created in a place suitable for whaling like Utokui Agwic, sailors with whaling technology built up wealth, whales are big for Inuit people, both culturally and spiritually It became an existence.

Medieval European people were fascinated by Inuits living in the Arctic Circle have a mysterious relationship with whales. In the medieval literature, the thing of the Arctic Circle is "a monster fish (whale)" and people who have magical powers who can summon monster fish to the coast using the power of magic and spells live Land. " Even later explorers and missionaries explained whaling technology, we could not shake the mystique of Inuits.

In 1938, he was an American anthropologistMargaret LantisHe explained that there is a "whale cult" among Inuits and those whaling whales living in the Arctic Circle. Mr. Lantis proved the existence of various rituals and taboos that indigenous people went to strengthen their relationship with whales. He said he was dedicating travel bags to provide fresh water and meals for whales many indigenous people killed by whaling and safely return whale spirits to spiritual houses. In addition, singing that brings whales is transmitted to individual whaling boats, Sherman performs ceremonies using whale bones, and clans whaling do have secret sculptures made of ancestral bone transmitted .

byRoberto Baca

Erica Hill, an animal archaeologist at the University of Alaska, is studying the spiritual culture that existed in past people, based on relics and traditions using animal bones. Mr. Hill found a sculpture imitating a gigantic whale kept by Inuit, which is kept in the National Museum of Natural History of the United States, and felt "It is very simple but very well representing a whale".

Mr. Hill is an indigenous tribe in InuitInupiatoFrom the dictation of the dictation, I came to the conclusion that the sculpture imitating a whale was made for the whales who swim in the sea, not for human beings. "From the faith that" whales are fascinated by their own appearance ", we made sculptures of whales as fine as possible and put them on top of whaling vessels," Hill says.

YupikuIn a tradition transmitted to the people, whales swim together under Umiak for about an hour, the seamen who is in Umiak is a respected person, whale sculptures firmly imitate themselves, and It is said to confirm whether Umiak itself is beautiful. If the whale's sculpture is not good, or if Umiak is dirty, the seaman who is in Umiak is also a lazy person who treats a whale as a person who does not carefully treat whales, and whales will leave Umiak. On the contrary, when a whale acknowledges the seafarer, it seems that she was supposed to move from myself to a position where Mori will reach from Umiak.

byMichael Dawes

There is also a tradition that whales approach sea urchins, explore what kinds of seafarers are, and teach other seafarers about seafarers. The idea that whales make proxies and listen to people's words and talk with other whales is not unusual among indigenous people whaling.

Maka tribeYaNouchanianusMany Arctic citizens, including the Arctic, had a way of perceiving that whales killed by whaling were "dedicating their bodies to the human community." The whales did not volunteer for suicide, they said that they wanted to be caught by choosing a hunter to rebuild whales, conducting ceremonies with good behavior and precise procedures using the remains. Some also thought that whales originally lived on land and return to land again by being caught by human by whaling.

The idea that a whale shared a culture with humans was something that Western scientists could not understand. However, in recent research whalesSing a songCommunication is done, it is known that there are regional dialects in that song. Furthermore, even though the indigenous people insisted that "whales do not like the smell of smoked", Western scientists believed that whales do not have the ability to smell the smell for a long time, but in fact the whales also I know to smell the smell.

byBernard Spragg. NZ

From the 19th century to the 20th century, the Arctic whaling culture was facing extinction crisis due to the influx and regulation of Western culture. However, in recent years the movement to gradually protect traditional culture is strengthening, and whatever tradition has been forgotten, it is said that the former whaling culture is returning.

Mr. Blower who took over as a whale told back to his hometown, who was a Christian believer, said, "I am going to be a whale after death, it is probably the best experience to be a whale, last It is said that all people are eating it, "he said.