Bear Worship

 Paleolithic Bear Cult


The existence of an ancient bear cult among Neanderthals in Western Eurasia in the middle paleolithic period has been a topic of discussion spurred by archaeological findings. Emil Bächler, a main supporter of the argument for the presence of an ancient bear cult, found bear remains in Mornova Cave in Slovenia. Upon excavation, archaeologists on site determined that the bones were found arranged in such a way that it was not naturally possible. Along with Bächler’s discovery, bear skulls were found by André Leroi-Gourhan, arranged in a perfect circle in Saône-et-Loire. Leroi-Gourhan suggests that these bear remains were placed in their arrangement intentionally; an act which has been attributed to H. neanderthalensis.

Sending Off the Bear in Ainu Culture

The Ainu people, who live on select islands in the Japanese archipelago, call the bear “kamuy” in their language, which translates to mean "god". While many other animals are considered to be gods in the Ainu culture, the bear is the head of the gods. For the Ainu, when the gods visit the world of man, they don fur and claws and take on the physical appearance of an animal. The Ainu people willingly and thankfully ate the bear as they believed that the disguise (the flesh and fur) was a gift to the home and that the god chose to deliver its meat voluntarily.

The event of Iyomante* (イヨマンテ in Ainu) (also Kumamatsuri** in Japanese) began with the capture of a young bear cub. As if he was a child given by the gods, the cub was fed human food from a carved wooden platter and was treated better than Ainu children for they thought of him as a god. If the cub was too young and lacked the teeth to properly chew food, a nursing mother will let him suckle from her own breast. When the cub reaches 2–3 years of age, the cub is taken to the altar and then sacrificed. Usually, the villagers will shoot it with both normal and ceremonial arrows, make offerings, dance, and pour wine on top of the cub corpse. The words of sending off for the bear god are then recited. This festivity lasts for three days and three nights to properly return the bear god to his home.

*“sending off”
**“the bear festival”

The Nivkh

The Nivkh live at the mouth of the Amur River and on the northern parts of Sakhalin Island. They speak a language not proven to be related to any other language, either in Siberia or anywhere else. Many features of the Nivkh language are unique, especially the number system (in Nivkh there are about seven ways to express each number, depending upon the shape of the object being quantified). The Nivkh, like the Ainu, are thought to be a remnant of the aboriginal population of the Amur region that everywhere else was replaced by Tungusic tribes such as the Ewenki. Several features link the modern Nivkh to the ancient Neolithic inhabitants of the Pacific coast: a settled way of life based on fishing, dugout dwellings, fishskin clothing as well as dogskin clothing, and a religious cult related to the worship of the river.

Nivkh religion was animistic. The mountains, trees and even the island of Sakhalin were considered animate beings with sentient spirits. Sakhalin was believed to be an enormous animal, its forests being the fur of this animal. When earthquakes rocked the land, the Nivkh believed that this huge beast was stirring. As with the Ainu, the bear was particularly revered. In a very simular ritual, a clan would capture a bear cub and raise it to a certain age, wherupon they would ritually sacrifice it during a solemn ceremony. A Nivkh Shaman (ch'am) would preside over the Bear Festival, celebrated in the winter between January and February. During the Festival the bear is dressed in a specially made ceremonial costume and offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans. The festival was arranged by relatives to honor the death of a kinsman. Generally, the Bear Festival was an inter-clan ceremony where a clan of wife-takers restored ties with a clan of wife-givers upon the broken link of the kinsman's death. The Bear Festival was suppressed in the Soviet period. 
 
Bear Festivals of the Pyranese

There are annual bear festivals that take place in various towns and communes in the Pyrenees region. In Prats-de-Mollo, the Fête de l'Ours (fr) ("festival of the bear") held on Candlemas (February 2) is a ritual in which men dressed up as bears brandishing sticks terrorize people in the streets. Formerly, the festival centered on the "bears" mock-attacking the women and trying to blacken their breasts (with soot), which seemed scandalous to outside first-time observers. But according to the testimony of someone who remembered the olden days before that, the festival that at Prats-de-Mollo involved elaborate staging, much like the version in Arles.

The Arles-sur-Tech version (Fête de l’ours d’Arles-sur-Tech (fr)) involves a female character named Rosetta (Roseta) who gets abducted by the "bear". Rosetta was traditionally played by a man or a boy dressed up as a girl. The "bear" would bring the Rosetta to a hut raised on the center square of town (where the victim would be fed sausages, cake, and white wine). The event finished with the "bear" being shaved and "killed".

source. adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_worship#Nivkh_bear_festival

Smoking Propaganda III

To smoke,
hold a gun to your face.
The index and middle finger, outstretched.
The 3rd and 4th fingers, tucked in, towards the palm.
The thumb; perpendicular.
There, between the index and the middle,
the paper spoke, transfixed.

Then the hand
closes in on itself ::between::
::between:: the prehensile thumb and middle finger;
an act of sleight magic;
as the stubby one rolls the filter into the middle.

Finally, the index drops aggressively.
The hand strikes;
a cigarette chimes;
as the ash is shaken
from its dirty,
orange
crown.

Veils of phlegm in my throat.