The bringer of light: the raven in Inuit tradition

Abstract

In the western Arctic and in the northwest coast and Alaska, the significance of the raven as a creator and trickster is generally acknowledged. In the eastern Arctic there are no such elaborate mythical cycles concerning the bird. But the raven still plays an important role in myths and rituals. In this paper, some features of the Alaskan complex and the position of the raven in the eastern Arctic are discussed. The basic features of the Alaskan raven complex are used as heuristic principles guiding research into the situation in the eastern Arctic region. It is argued that in many respects the raven is responsible for society but without being part of it. As a predator and a scavenger it is often associated with eating dirt, excrement and human flesh, and yet it created light, enabling people to see and invented tattooing, enabling women to marry.

How Raven Marked the Land When the Earth Was New

“…comm., February 2009) was struck by the use of place names by Yup'ik narrators in these Raven stories, noting that specific places are never cited in Athabascan creation stories. Similarly, Raven does not appear to be associated with specific places in the eastern Arctic (Oosten and Laugrand 2006). In Yup'ik Raven tales, however, place names are omnipresent.…”

Earliest evidence for hunter-gatherer impacts on raven diet and ecology in the Gravettian of Southern Moravia

“…Recent work on raven behavior and ecology has demonstrated that sustained human neighborhoods often have decisive impacts on the demography and population packing of common raven [106][107][108][109] . In northern environments, raven movement, population density and seasonal ock size have been linked to the availability and concentration of anthropogenic food subsidies 110 , especially at land ll sites 111,112 , and this is also documented in Indigenous accounts, storytelling and mythology [113][114][115] . It has been noted that common raven prefer high-quality food items 89 but non-breeding ocks consistently monopolize food bonanzas related to human refuse 116 , which generally promote local avian biodiversity, notably among generalist feeders and adaptive scavengers 117 .…”

Reimagining Tattoo Platform: Current Platforms, Culture Analysis,and Prototype

“…In the tribe, like Tongans, tattoos were used to signify status or accomplishments (Deter-Wolf & Diaz-Granados, 2013). They were also used as medicine and protected the Indigenous people (Oosten & Laugrand, 2006). The tattoo culture that contemporary Americans adopted began with sailors in America (Dominguez, 2005).…”