The place and significance of the bear image (related to Ursus spp.) in the worldview of the peoples inhabiting the northern hemisphere, Eurasia and North America, has been long recognized. In the U.S., Paul Shepard and Barry Sanders recently examined (1985) the bear representation, primarily in myth and literature, from an historical and ecological perspective. In 1926, U.S. anthropologist A.I. Hallowell examined the role of bear ceremonialism cross-culturally. Unfortunately, he had little access to the work of Russian anthropologists who studied bear rituals in a great variety of cultural settings from Sakhalin to Lapland. Also, data on Ainu bear ceremonialism were relatively meager in Hollowell's time. Many new data have been accumulated both in Japan and in Russia by anthropologists since Hallowell published his seminal article. New data also have been collected from indigenous peoples of the North American forest belt. I examine the differential meanings ascribed to the bear in light of new data and with modern methods of analysis of symbolic systems.
- Volume 10
- Issue
- Pages 343-347
- Publication Date 1 January 1998
- DOI
- File Size 195.03 KB
- Download