Lord of the Animals

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Stone Age cave painting with a hunting context: "Lord of the animals" or shaman?

As lord of the animals , or more rarely, mistress of the animals a divine being is called, which in the primary religions of many hunter-gatherer cultures as guardians of wildlife , sometimes as their creator and sustainer of their fertility or as assistant to the hunter is considered. This notion was especially widespread in northern Eurasia , parts of Africa and North and South America .

Despite differences, the Potnia theron (mistress of animals) played a comparable role in the Minoan culture and ancient Greece . The science of religious history assumes that this god-like idea was already venerated in the oldest archaic-animistic religions in human history.

Variety of figures

Jaguar god of the Maya: Bearded god with jaguar cape and jaguar on a leash

The manifestations of this spirit being were very different: The shape was described either as human-like, animal-like or hybrid. The majority of these beings are male, but there are also female or androgynous figures. Some examples:

  • different peoples of the cultural area Siberia : bear-shaped master of animals , who lives deep in the taiga
  • Ainu (Japan): Kamuy , synonym for God and Bear
  • Hindu Kush: mothers of the wild goats and ibexes who live in the icy high mountains
  • Tungus peoples : mistress of the elk and deer who lives in the root system of the world tree
  • Pygmies (Central Africa): Kmvum, heavenly creator god and lord of animals and plants
  • Eskimo : Sedna , the mistress of fish and marine mammals who lives on the seabed
  • Cheyenne (USA): Ehyoph'sta, the spirit of a buffalo heifer in female form
  • Maya (Yucatan): Yuntsil balam, the whistling jaguar god, subordinate to the helper spirits for individual animal species
  • Mbyá (Gran Chaco): Gu-achu Ja Ete or Omimby i va'e - the one who whistles - the "true master of the game"
  • Tupí-Guaraní peoples (especially Brazil, Bolivia): Curupi is said to be the "master of the animals" - probably since the early colonial period. "[...] completely hairy, he carries a bow and arrow in one hand, a stick in the other, he shoots the game and sometimes abducts one or the other person back home"
  • Aché (Paraguay): Chono ("thunder, lightning, thunderstorm"), patron or mistress of some animals, especially some birds. Said to have been a bird similar to the hummingbird in the past, today an armless and legless trunk with a head.
  • Murngin (Australia): "Great Father up there in the sky", looks like a very tall person and is the owner of all animals. He himself eats them in heaven and only if he throws their bones on the earth afterwards, many new animals of the respective species emerge from it. (Note the similarity to the Dema deities of the horticultural cultures of New Guinea)

meaning

“Chono live in the hereafter, where the tree called“ cloudless sky ”has its crown. When there is a thunderstorm, he goes down to earth. This happens out of anger, which, however, usually does not represent Chono's anger, but rather the anger of human and animal souls. If the Aché hunted the bird “jakane” ( Euler snapper tyrant ) too hard, Chono's lightning would come out of the eye of this animal. The vengeance does not necessarily hit people, but certain trees that are inhabited by human dead souls. "

- Mark Münzel

All these god beings have in common that they protect certain animals and decide whether an animal may be killed or not. Humans - who in traditional hunter cultures see themselves as relatives of animals - get into a dilemma through hunting, because killing relatives is considered an offense in all human cultures . The hunter has to ask the spirit world for reconciliation . He can influence the decision of the Lord of the Animals through his respect or gifts. To do this, certain rules and rituals must be observed. In the event of violations, people feared punishment from the Lord of the Animals. A widespread rule, which apparently served the sustainable preservation of the game population, was the restriction to the number of prey animals that were necessary for a living.

For some ethnic groups , the local necromancer was responsible for establishing contact with the animal god and was also partly responsible for the luck of the hunt.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Walter Hirschberg (founder), Wolfgang Müller (editor): Dictionary of Ethnology. New edition, 2nd edition, Reimer, Berlin 2005. p. 171 - Keyword: Lord of the animals.
  2. ↑ a b Christian Ratsch and Heinz Jürgen Probst: Le bàho: Ethnozoology among the Maya in Yucatán using the example of Orthogeomys spp. In. INDIANA 10, Ibero-American Institute Berlin, Gebr. Mann, ISSN  0341-8642 . Pp. 240-242.
  3. ↑ a b c Klaus E. Müller: Shamanism. Healers, spirits, rituals. 4th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2010 (original edition 1997), ISBN 978-3-406-41872-3 . Pp. 17-18, 41.
  4. ↑ Rudolf Tammeus et al. Gerd-Rüdiger Koretzki (Ed.): Workbook. Discover - understand - shape religion. 7th / 8th School year: materials for teachers. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2001. p. 149.
  5. ↑ Hans Peter Duerr: Sedna, or, The love of life. Volume 2, Suhrkamp 1984, p. 35.
  6. ↑ a b c d Sabine Lenke: Heil und Heilung. Concepts of illness and medicine of the South American Guarani Indians, reflected in the sources of the Jesuits. Inaugural dissertation, Free University of Berlin, 2012. pp. 154–155, 157–158.
  7. ^ W. Lloyd Warner from A Black Civilisaition. London 1937/1958, p. 542, quoted on Introduction to Archaic Cosmology . Winter semester 1976/77, accessed on March 30, 2016.
  8. ↑ ESTUDIO SOCIONATURAL COMUNIDAD ACHÉ DE YPETIMÍ . ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 8, 2015. p. 61. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fesos.org