Читать книгу American Environmental History - Группа авторов - Страница 35

From the Distant Time stories, Koyukon people learn rules for proper conduct toward nature. But punishment for offenses against these rules is given by powerful spirits that are part of the living, present-day world. All animals, some plants, and some inanimate things have spirits, vaguely conceptualized essences that protect the welfare of their material counterparts. They are especially watchful for irreverent, insulting, or wasteful behavior toward living things. The spirits are not offended when people kill animals and use them, but they insist that these beings (or their remains) be treated with the deference owed to the sources of human life.

Not all spirits are possessed of equal power. Some animal species have very potent spirits called biyeega hoolaanh, which are easily provoked and highly vindictive. These dangerous spirits can bring serious harm to anyone who offends them, taking away luck in hunting or trapping and sometimes causing illness, disability, or even death. Animals possessed of such spirits include the brown bear, black bear, wolverine, lynx, wolf, and otter. The beaver and marmot have similarly powerful spirits but are not so vengeful.

The remaining mammals, birds, fish, and some plants and inanimate things have less powerful spirits. Although these are very real and can inflict punishment (usually bad luck in taking the species), all my instructors agreed that no Koyukon word exists for this kind of spirit. In response to my perplexed questioning, one person explained:

The animal and its spirit are one in the same thing. When you name the animal you’re also naming its spirit. That’s why some animal names are hutłaanee – like the ones women shouldn’t say – because calling the animal’s name is like calling its spirit. Just like we don’t say a person’s name after they die … it would be calling their spirit and could be dangerous for whoever did it.

While most Koyukon adults seem to concur on the basic premises of their ideology, they vary widely in their opinions about the specifics and apparently do not feel inclined toward a rigid, systematized theology. This often left me confused, no doubt because of my Judeo-Christian background; and if my account of certain concepts is amorphous or inconsistent it properly reflects my learning experience. Koyukon people must find us painfully compulsive and conformist about our systems of belief.

… When an animal is mistreated, I was told, its individual spirit is affronted but all members of its species may become aloof from the offender. In former times, shamans could manipulate spirits for the opposite effect. They made dream visits to “animal houses” that were filled with spirits of a particular animal, then attracted them to certain parts of the country to enrich the harvest there.

Many other supernatural beings inhabit the traditional Koyukon world … but these seem to have little importance today. Perhaps Christian teachings displaced or undermined these beliefs, unlike those concerned with spirits of natural entities. Devices used to catch and kill animals – such as nets, snares, and deadfalls – also have powerful spirits (biyeega hoolaanh) with many associated taboos. Like the spirits of natural entities, these are still considered important today. For example, if a person borrows someone else’s snare, he or she may take sick or die from its spirit power. Similarly, stealing a snared animal exposes the thief to grave danger from the spirits of both the snare and its catch.

Proper treatment of natural spirits involves hundreds of rules or taboos (hutłaanee), some applying to just one species and others having much more general effects. The rules fall into three main categories – first, treatment of living organisms; second, treatment of organisms (or parts of organisms) that are no longer alive; and third, treatment of nonliving entities or objects. I will briefly summarize these rules ….