Bear worship
[5] The existence of an ancient bear cult among Neanderthals in Western Eurasia in the Middle Paleolithic has been a subject of conjecture due to contentious archaeological findings.
[6] Emil Bächler, a proponent of the bear-cult hypothesis, found bear remains in Switzerland and at Morn Cave (Mornova zijalka) in Slovenia.
[6] The discovery of patterns such as those found by Leroi-Gourhan suggests that these bear remains were placed in this arrangement intentionally, an act which can only be attributed to Neandertals due to the dating of the site and is interpreted as ritual.
[6] While these findings have been taken to indicate an ancient bear-cult, other interpretations of remains have led others to conclude that the bear bones' presence in these contexts are a natural phenomenon.
Ina Wunn, based on the information archaeologists have about early hominins, contends that if Neandertals did worship bears there would be evidence of it in their settlements and camps.
Some scholars argue that bear worship not only holds significant cultural and spiritual value but also played a foundational role in shaping subsequent religious practices among Siberian peoples.
[16]: 23 Similarly, the Ul’chi people of the Amur region opt for a longer period, typically three to four years, before they perform the ritual sacrifice.
Importantly, bear ceremonialism is one of the few practices in indigenous cultures in Siberia that discourage and subvert the central role that shamans generally play in pagan societies in the northern hemisphere.
[20][19] Before the sacrificial ritual, the people of the village generally invest a lot of effort into traditions that serve the purpose of “amusing” the bear.
It is common for indigenous peoples to use euphemisms such as “I obtained a child” to convey killing a bear, as using direct language can offend the sacred animal, as well as the gods and spirits presiding over the environment.
[19] Some scholarly records additionally indicate that the bear head is often separated from the rest of the body and used as a protective ornament in the home of the family hosting the celebratory feast.
As a pagan practice, tsarist Christianizing efforts often sought to suppress bear ceremonialism in Siberia due to it undermining Russian Orthodox hegemony at the time.
Similarly, Soviet control of the Russian state also led to repressive attitudes toward bear worship among indigenous Siberian peoples.
Bear worship, and paganism more generally, was also perceived as a threat to Marxist-Leninist ideology with regards to humans’ relationship with their surrounding natural environment.
On a practical level feasting was blamed for distracting workers in the newly created state-controlled enterprises from disciplined work (Slezkine 1994)".
Notably, the Russian oil and gas extraction industry has greatly undermined the state of bears’ natural habitats in the Siberian taiga, leading to the animals’ increased wandering into human villages and potentially attacking the inhabitants.
Where are the principles of government policy toward Native peoples?”[33] Centuries-long state repression of cultural traditions and spiritualism has led to an overall decline in bear worship among indigenous populations in Siberia.
[24] The Ob-Ugrian intelligentsia began the revival process for bear worship in the 1980s and 1990s, when state repression measures of indigenous cultures had been relieved.
As a result of governmental support, bear worship across various cultures in the northern hemisphere has seemed to “account for both some convergence of forms and some variations (Moldanova 2016; Wiget and Balalaeva 2004a) ….
Believing that everything has a soul, bear worship thus represents a spiritual worldview, wherein humans are meant to live in harmony with the natural environment around them, rather than attempt to conquer it.
The bear ceremony is a heavily and strictly gendered practice, as men and women play distinct roles throughout the entire process.
The women dance the part of the bear.”[35] Additionally, the bear ceremony holds a special significance for men, who are the designated hunters of the village, as the practice is a means of ensuring future success in hunting.
After sacrificing the bear in the forest, each male hunter in the Ul’chi culture must touch the skin of the dead animal in order to obtain the taiga’s blessing for a fruitful hunting season.
But according to the testimony of someone who remembered the olden days before that, the festival that at Prats de Molló involved elaborate staging, much like the version in Arles.
[40] The Arles version (Festa de l'os d'Arles [fr; ca]) involves a female character named Rosetta (Roseta) who gets abducted by the "bear".
The "bear" would bring the Rosetta to a hut raised on the center square of town (where the victim would be fed sausages, cake, and white wine).
[40] Andorra, in an entirely different Pyrenean valley, has some festivals dedicated to the she-bear, known collectively as Festes de l'ossa [ca].
A Nivkh shaman (чам, ch'am) would preside over the Bear Festival, which was celebrated in the winter between January and February, depending on the clan.
During the Festival, the bear is dressed in a specially made ceremonial costume and offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans.
[51] The villagers would shoot it with both normal and ceremonial arrows, make offerings, dance, and pour wine on top of the cub corpse.
