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<P align="justify"> The bear had a special cultic position in Saami culture. According to Johan Randulf, who wrote about the South Saami, The Saami consider all animals sacred but they consider the bear to be the most sacred of all. (1723) ({{Artikkelilinkki|1056|Sacred}}). The bear was believed to come from the {{Artikkelilinkki|1016|<i>sáiva</i>}}. There existed between man and the bear a kind of unspoken agreement about the obligations of each. Man must respect the bear, and when he killed it he must observe strict ritual rules, while the bear must not kill human beings. This rule was confirmed by experience: generally bears avoided people. If one approached humans, they considered it an indication that it was not a natural bear, but one conjured up by a shaman and sent to harm a particular person, or then even a metamorphosed human being ({{Artikkelilinkki|10102|Animal metamorphoses}}). If a bear killed a person, the taboos were no longer respected, and its carcass might even be desecrated; its reincarnation was prevented by cutting off its right front paw and burying it separately. In this way the skeleton was no longer complete, and the bear s cycle of lives ended ({{Artikkelilinkki|1057|Soul}}).</P> <P align="justify"> A bear hunt was a completely ritualistic and cultic series of events. Bear hunting had no essential significance with regard to the sustenance of the Saami; rather it was an operation that had its own intrinsic value. A properly performed bear ritual guaranteed that the bear would be born again in the <i>sáiva</i>, where it was expected to tell its fellow bears what a great honour it was to be killed and worshipped by humans. There is more detailed information about the bear ritual in Sweden and Norway than in the other areas where the Saami lived. There a complete bear hunt included the following stages:</P> <ol> <li> tracking down the bear when the first snow came, often with the oracular aid of the shaman s drum; <li> the formation of the hunting party. In Scandinavia, hunting seems to have been a social event of some importance, and the tracker held a celebration in which the participants committed themselves to take part in the hunt. In Finnish Lapland, hunting was more centred round the family;<li> the actual hunt in the late winter or early spring. Before setting out, the hunters consulted the shaman, who used his drum to ascertain whether the hunt would be successful. If the response was favourable, the men were obliged to remain celibate for several days before the hunt. They fasted on the eve of the hunt, and after washing they exited from the lodge via the <i>[[Boaššu|boaššu]]</i>, the sacred back door. They went to the bear s lair in a procession, the tracker first, a drummer, the person who chosen from the best hunters to slay the bear, and then the other hunters in order of precedence. At the lair, the bear was woken up from its winter sleep. The purpose of this was to ensure that the soul of the bear, which might have been wandering outside its body while it was asleep, would return and not remain to wander around and possibly cause problems after the bear was killed. When the bear rushed out of the lair, the hunter chosen to bring it down killed it with a special bear spear . The carcass of the bear was left until the following day in the position of death : on its left side with its head facing left from the lair. The purpose of this too was probably to ensure that the soul would settle in the body. During the whole procedure of the kill, the bear was addressed with euphemisms in the secret language of bear hunters.<li>the return to the village. The reindeer that pulled the bear s carcass was protected by a brass ring talisman, and it was taboo to women for the following year. Nor were women during the ceremony permitted to cross the tracks of the returning hunting party. During the journey, the hunters sang the first bear song. The only song that has survived is one from Kemi Lapland recorded in Finnish by Gabriel [[Tuderus, Gabriel|Tuderus]]; it emphasizes the divine origin of the bear and the intrinsic purpose of the bear ritual. The women received the hunters by looking at them through talismanic brass rings and pouring red juice made from alder bark over them; this was done in honour of the God of Hunting, <i>Leaibeolmmai</i> ( the Alder Man ). Then other songs were sung in which the bear was called <i>saivo olmai</i>, man of the <i>sáiva</i> if it was a male and <i>saivo neit</i>, girl of the <i>sáiva</i> if it was a female;<li> the cooking and eating of the bear s meat, the actual bear feast. The bear was skinned and its meat was cooked, at least in Norway and Sweden, in a separate hut erected especially for the bear feast which women were prohibited from entering. In Finland, the women would seem to have been permitted to participate in this. The skinning was accompanied with songs in which the bear was assured that its death had not in fact been caused by the hunters, but that it had fallen down a steep precipice or that men from other lands had killed it. When the meat was butchered, care was taken not to break a single bone, and all the bones were scrupulously collected. The meat had to be cooked without salt; this rule indicates that the bear ritual was very ancient, going back to a time when the Saami of the interior had no salt. In Norway and Sweden the men took the cooked meat to their lodges, and the women were allowed to eat it, albeit only meat from either the front or rear ends (although the information on this varies). However, once again they had to take the precaution of eating it through a brass ring;<li> purification rituals and the carnivalistic element. The bear hunters cleansed themselves with fire and lye. This purification was followed by games in which the men and women participated, and which may have been erotic in nature. Omens concerning the time of the next bear hunt were also sought in these games;<li> the burying of the bear. The bear s bones, the skin of its snout and its tail were arranged and buried in positions that were the same as those of a whole carcass. The purpose of this was to ensure that the bear would be born again in the sáiva. For this it was necessary that all the bones had been saved and that predators had not been able to get at them;<li> shooting at the bear s skin. There then followed a second carnivalistic stage, in which the bear s skin was stretched on a wooden frame, and the blindfolded women of the village were allowed to shoot arrows at it. It was believed that the husband of the first woman to hit the mark would be the next slayer of a bear, or if the woman was unmarried that her future husband would be a great bear hunter;<li> A period of three or four days celibacy. Only after this period had been observed were men permitted to approach their wives.</ol> <P align="justify"> The relationship between the bear and the women of the village was extremely critical at all stages of the bear ritual. There were two dimensions to it: the sexual threat presented to the women by the bear, and the women s threat to the success and equipment of the hunt. Generally speaking, the bear and the women seem to have constituted a threat to one another. The women had to protect themselves from the force of the bear, but on the other hand their sexuality would seem to have been a bbbbb to the bear. It was believed that a male bear did not kill a woman unless she was carrying a male foetus, and that a female bear would not kill a man. There was a widespread belief that if a woman was molested by a male bear she should raise her skirt, and the bear would cover his eyes with his paws and turn away in shame. </P> <P align="justify"> In fact, the bear ritual of the Saami of Norway and Sweden is based on a legend according to which there existed an erotic relationship between the woman and the bear. In this legend, a Saami girl spends the night in a bear s lair and thus becomes the wife of the bear; in the end the bear is slain by her brothers after they have taught the girl all the stages of the bear ritual and the taboos relating to herself. As such it merely provides a justification for the bear cult and emphasizes the possibility of a sexual relationship between the bear and the woman; it does not directly suggest that the bear was the progenitor of the Saami, as some scholars have supposed. Nor can the honorifics used of the bear like grandfather be regarded as evidence of totemism, because this epithet was a generally an honorary title for any highly respected person.</P> <P align="justify"> Rather, the bear cult was probably a manifestation of the fact that the bear was an animal with which the Saami wished live on amicable terms, but whose strength they also wished to share. The bear was the most sacred of the animals, but in the rituals its strength became part of the Saamis own strength.</P>
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