Life Is an Inflated Bag.

• Published in: Anthropologie et Sociétés
• Main Author: Birgitte Sonne
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Département d'anthropologie de l'Université Laval 2008
• Subjects: Sciences Humaines et Sociales; Social Sciences and Humanities; Sonne; Inuit; symbolisme; religion; chamanes; perspectivisme somatique; symbolism; shamans; somatic perspectivism; simbolismo; perspectivismo somático; anthro-se; lang; Greenland; bearded seal; East Greenland; eskimo*; esquimaux; Groenland; inuit; Alaska; walrus*
• Online Access: http://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/as/2007-v31-n3-as2313/018374ar.pdf; https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/as/2007-v31-n3-as2313/018374ar.pdf; https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/018374ar; https://doi.org/10.7202/018374ar; https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/as/2007-v31-n3-as2313/018374ar/; https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2101634451

Literal and metaphoric meanings of Inuit pooq/puuq and associated objects are treated and shown to interact in ways that apply also to the interaction through ritual between the visible world and the invisible ones of Inuit cosmology. Such mergings give occasion for a discussion of Viveiros de Castro’s theory of somatic perspective, which in other respects fits the Inuit case perfectly well. Literally pooq means bag, cover, caul and, as a metaphor “mother”, i.e. in the spirit languages from East Greenland to North Alaska. Airfilled bags, intestinal ones in particular, abound in Eskimo ritual, but the East Greenland ritual and myth of becoming an angakkoq puulik (shaman with pooq) does not reveal any “mother”, bag, cover, or caul. Treating the initiators, polar bear and walrus also in other myths, they turn out to be part of a “pooq complex” that includes the intestines and weapon of bearded seal in a mid-winter context. Pursuing the connotations of the multiple objects formerly made of bearded seal intestines they turn out to be the same in ritual. Bearded seal paraphernalia offers spiritual protection and permits connection with and movement between this and the other worlds. In this light bearded seal connotations reveal a merging of the puulik initiation and the symbolism of rebirth in life, in time, and in space. L’auteure aborde les significations littérales et métaphoriques de l’inuit pooq ou puuq et des objets qui y sont associés et montre qu’elles interagissent de la même manière dans les rituels entre le monde visible et les mondes invisibles de la cosmologie inuit. Ce parallèle donne l’occasion de remettre en question la théorie de la perspective somatique de Viveiros de Castro, qui correspond parfaitement bien, à d’autres égards, à la situation inuit. Littéralement, pooq signifie sac, abri, poche des eaux et, métaphoriquement dans la langue des esprits, « mère », de l’est du Groenland au nord de l’Alaska. Les sacs remplis d’air, faits d’intestins en particulier, abondent dans les rituels esquimaux, ...