Relationship

The livingness of this relationship principle can be seen particularly in the preparations for the hunt.  Hunters learn to “slip inside the skin” of their prey through ceremonial dances, in which they become one with the spirit-animal. Through these sacred ceremonies and their stories, the people are educated and informed in respectful ways of being human.  For instance, during the hunt one is taught to wait for the individual animal who will  “give himself.”   This story of the far north Yupik people, told by Calvin Martin, in The Way of the Human Being, shows us a glimpse into the generous mindset: the unity between the human being and the food we eat.[i]  This story is often told around the fire during evening celebrations of a successful seal hunt. 

“We are told the Seal People have kind feelings about human beings; they recognize us as their younger siblings and know, therefore, that we need help and guidance through life.  Because of their good-heartedness, a young hunter was once invited to live with the Seal People.  Soon he found himself underwater, dressed in a seal-skin garment   His hosts showed him the various ways of seal life and also showed him the way seals perceive human beings. 

One day the seals saw hunting boats paddling out into the ice and, because they love to watch our human ways, hurried along to swim close-by,.  The seals told the boy that if he wanted, he could choose a boat and its hunters, to whom he could “give himself”  as a gift.  

Their instructions were concise and clear: if he saw a boat that was unkempt, dirty and not well-repaired, he should understand that this is the boat of lazy, selfish people; they did not honor their boat by caring for it.  As such, they would also not honor his gift by sharing his flesh with the village, rather, they would hoard it.  They were not the sort of people to help the women and children of the village, to respect and honor the old people.  But if he saw a boat that was well-tended, bright and beautiful, if he saw the respectful countenances of the hunters, and heard their songs of the hunt, he would then know that these were the sort of people worthy of his gift.  They would put on a wonderful celebration, full of music, song and dance.  They would sing of his generosity and their thankfulness.  They would honor him and the generosity of the sea.

One thing we may not know is that the Seal People are mesmerized by human voices and drumming.  They are swept away by human singing, dance and the beauty of the feast.  The Seals told him that if he chose to “give himself,” when the spear pierced his flesh he would “slip out of his seal-skin garment.” His spirit could then climb into the boat and return to the human village with the hunters, to join the festive preparations.  At the moment before dawn, he could choose to slip back into the sea and be given a new seal-garment, or he could stay there to soon be born as a human baby.

The boy-seal did as he was told; he chose a wonderful hunting boat and began to swim close beside it.  He surfaced again and again, looking to catch the eye of one of the hunters.  Soon a shining young man and he exchanged glances, the spear entered his seal-flesh, which he gladly gave to the hunters.  As his spirit sailed back to the village with the hunters, he relished the songs praising his generosity, offering himself to the entire village.  That evening he strolled among the people. Their glowing faces, laughter, song and dance…the fire…everything delighted him.

At the moment before dawn he hesitated, thought for a moment, then slipped back into the sea, his new seal garment awaiting him.”

 Hunter-gatherer societies experience a different reality than we do. The veil between the worlds of human and other-than-human beings is thin.  As siblings, we can slip inside each other’s skin, move back and forth between the worlds, to thereby know the living earth more fully. Spirit speaks in every wind, stone and blade of grass, every twitch of a doe’s ear.  The world is entirely alive with embodied spirit, and human beings participate in this animate and intimate way of knowing, which is beyond words and the mind alone. This animating intelligence is gathered by touch, scent, light, sound, heartbeat, echoes, primordial memories, dreams and heart imbued thought.

[i] Calvin L Martin, The Way of the Human Being, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1999, Chapter “…to the Skin of the World.”