Abstract
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 312-336 |
| Journal | Journal of American Folklore |
| Volume | 119 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
Bibliographical note
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015.The record was previously connected to the following departments: Centre for Theology and Religious Studies (015017000)
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- History of Religions
Free keywords
- cosmological deixis
- Mi’kmaq tales
- shamanism
- traditional ecological knowledge
- interworlds journeys
- perspectivism