Faith, Food, and Family in a Yupik Whaling Community

7. A Religious World View

202 chapter 7 A Religious World View I n Gambell, all institutions and occupations—birth, naming, marriage , death, care of the sick and injured, and traditional and nontraditional work—embrace some form of religious thought and practice .1 At its heart are the deep religious philosophies and concepts that have supported people in the community over the last 150 to 200 years. It is a world view divided between older traditional religious concepts and more recent religious concepts. The former concepts depend on ancient teachings about the ancestors and the spirits present in the environment. The latter concepts depend on experience with Protestant Christian teachings since the end of the nineteenth century. Together, these concepts center on several related and articulated systems of religious thought and behavior. At the base are the enduring principles and practices known informally as “respect for the elders.” Both Christian tradition and Yupik tradition rest on a reverence for the elder. This includes elder thought, elder persons, and that which is metaphorically elder, that is, Apa or God.2 Spiritual and physical kinship join in religious concept and practice here. As the most important members of the physical community in Gambell today, elders are celebrated in the dance songs and praise songs to which women dance when the voices of men and drums blend together, recalling songs once “given” to a father, grandfather, or great-grandfather. They are celebrated in the birthday parties prepared for elders to honor the return and rebirth into the community of a name whose presence 1. Portions of this chapter appeared originally in Jolles 1989 and 1990. 2. The long form of Apa is Apaghllak or possibly Apaghyughluq, the great-grandfather . A Religious World View 203 7.1 Women dance at one of many community celebrations, 1997. A Religious World View 204 evokes the history and memories of all those who once bore the name. They are celebrated in quiet summer picnics when families travel to the top of Sivuqaq Mountain to repair the coffins of the deceased, to place new memorial wreaths, and to pray together in remembrance of the departed ; they are celebrated through traditional dance festivals held in their honor in the high school gymnasium, Qerngughvik, and the City Building. Elders themselves offer thankful prayers when the community takes a whale, and they supervise the important distribution of whale meat and mangtak in the festival atmosphere that prevails on the beach once a whale has been brought to shore. When marriage ceremonies begin, elders most often deliver the speeches. They invoke Apa, the most powerful elder of all, God, the grandfather, the Creator, whose presence is at the core of respect for elders and the honoring of ancestors who once graced the community and whose name and spiritual being remain. Ultimately, the religious system rests on Apa, once personified in two separate spiritual forms. Apaghllak is described as unreachable, remote, judgmental, generous, and unknowable, while Kiyaghneq3 is identified as the master of weather and creator of the world and of men. Possibly, in traditional thought, God, in his Kiyaghneq aspect, was the creator of animals —walrus, whales, and seals. As I noted in Chapter 3, ancient stories handed on from Ungaziq on the eastern shore of Siberia suggest that Kiyaghneq was once thought of as a giant, colossal figure, who created the island from the squeezed-out sediments of the sea’s bottom grounds and, through his absentminded loss of his mittens, created humans—two men. Later, in response to the pleas of these first humans, he created female companions. Today, under the multiple titles of Apaghllak, Kiyaghneq, Ulimaghista, and Ataneq, Apa is both God as described in the Bible and as described by elders, whose stories knit together older and newer understanding. It is clear, however, that Apa is ultimately a father, whose generosity in allowing his son to give his life for humans is overwhelmingly appreciated here, in a world where the deeds of men on the ice provide food for families and the loss of a hunter-son is an immeasurable loss. Out of respect and awe, 3. See C. Hughes (1959) for a translation of Voblov’s descriptions of Kiyaghneq in Siberian Yupik society. Apa is addressed humbly and in purity of thought. Much ceremonial life was directed toward Apa in the past; today, in the conventional prefabricated buildings where most Gambell folk now live, people continue to speak to Apa...