The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Visiting the Six Worlds : Shamanistic Journeys in Canadian Mi'kmaq Cosmology

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

Mi’kmaq Indians’ descriptions of journeys between parallel worlds, as we find them in tales collected from the early seventeenth century to the earlier twentieth, are far too complex to fit into Mircea Eliade’s model of shamanism or romantic images of Indians as being “one with nature”. The tales reveal six parallel worlds in which all types of beings belongs to families, have wigwams, and search for food. The parallelism between the worlds has no significance for beings living their ordinary lives, but it is of the utmost importance for understanding how differing types of beings (people, animals, supernaturals) achieve interworlds journeys. The notions of cosmological deixis and perspectivism are used to explore the narratives and shed light on Mi’kmaq cosmology.

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

312-336

Publication/Series

Journal of American Folklore

Volume

119

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

American Folklore Society

Topic

  • History of Religions

Keywords

  • cosmological deixis
  • Mi’kmaq tales
  • shamanism
  • traditional ecological knowledge
  • interworlds journeys
  • perspectivism

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0021-8715