The first thing that came to my mind is the many Alaska Native people who are Christians. Many religious conversions occurred when Russian Orthodox (and later American) missionaries came to Alaska with the express goal of converting people. This was hardly a gentle process much of the time and in many cases wreaked havoc on traditional cultures with children being separated from parents and sent off to far away schools and forbade to speak their own language. I cannot help but admit that I consider the presence and impact of the missionaries to have had overall a very negative influence and in general am quite opposed to missionary work anywhere. It's also hardly an example of two cultures coexisting- more like one culture (the Christian one) steamrolling over the Alaska Native ones. That being said, I find it unbelievably presumptuous and callous to imply that modern day Alaska Native people who are Christians are in any way taken advantage of by their religion, should not be Christian, or are somehow less Christian because of the painful history of Christianity in Alaska. I think that Native Alaskan people today who are religious chose it on their own and are probably benefited by the loving community and hopefully the sense of spiritual peace that they get from their belief in Christianity. This is I think a prime example of how different cultures have shared traditions and values in Alaska.
One of the most beautiful expressions of this sharing to me is the practice of Selaviq, the primarily Yup'ik version of a Russian Orthodox Christmas tradition that is practiced in Western Alaska. Entire villages get in on the fun of Selaviq. When night falls, people carry a large star around to different houses in the village and sing songs about the birth of Jesus. The people in each house then invite the singers in, feed them and give out candy, then join them as they go to the next house. For more information about Selaviq, check out this article from Alaska Magazine. It would be foolish to say that the people participating in this now centuries old tradition are oppressed by their religion. They have taken a Russin Orthodox tradition and made it their own, which I think is magnificent. Religion aside, Selaviq sounds like a wonderful way to nurture peaceful and loving relationships within the community.
For an example from our readings, I immediately thought of the excerpt, "The Changing Times" from Frances Lackey Paul's book Katahnah. The excerpt is a short one and details how a young married Tlingit couple who are from the same clan seek shelter with the chief of their clan. In the traditional Tlingit culture, marrying someone from the same clan is taboo. One must find a person from a different Tlingit clan to marry because it is considered incestuous to marry someone from the same clan. A person is always the same clan as their mother and being in the same clan as someone does not necessarily mean that they are related genetically. It is cultural incest rather than biological incest. However, tradition was that if a couple from the same clan married, they would be put to death. In the excerpt, the clan chief decides not to put the couple to death. The chief of another clan argues with him that they should be killed because brothers and sisters should not marry, but the chief replies that the couple has no blood relationship and points out that if they killed the couple, it would bring them huge troubles from the white people. He says, "Perhaps the law of the white man is better than our law. We are willing to try the white man's way. The young people will have a home in my house." (page 660).
What sparked my interest with this story and why I think of it as an example of cultures mingling is certainly not the chief's line about the white people's laws perhaps being better. Issues of murdering the couple aside, I would be extremely reluctant to ever say anything like that. What interested me though is that the chief differentiated between the traditional Tlingit belief of what qualifies as incest and the white people's belief of what qualifies as incest, and that he seemed to believe that the white definition had some legitimacy when arguing with the other chief. I think this is a prime example of one culture's beliefs infiltrating another. If he did not really believe the white definition held water at all, he would not have used it as an arguing point and would have considered it ridiculous, like if someone said that it was incestuous for two people with curly hair to marry.
All in all, I find the sharing of cultural beliefs in Alaska to be a fascinating subject. While I deeply lament the huge loss of culture Alaska Native groups have had to endure, I have a difficult time casting aspersions on adopted beliefs that lead to love and harmony within the community.
Fireweed Girl,
ReplyDeleteThose words of the Chief stood out to me as well:
["Perhaps the law of the white man is better than our law. We are willing to try the white man's way. The young people will have a home in my house." (page 660).] It reveals a fairness and kindness--to the young couple and to the 'white' people's law; and shows an adaptability in the culture, a willingness to learn from one another, to try to see another perspective...that adaptability is a strength of cultural survivance. I, too, would disagree with the idea that one way is "better" than the other, but maybe the Chief felt it was the humane thing to do, and perhaps reading the signs of the times, knew that things were changing and the people could either fight or make a few concessions in order to maintain peace. The imposing of a religion on another culture is horrible; yet what you said about so many Alaska Natives being Christian and bringing out the good qualities of that faith, and of themselves...despite its being forced upon them, I think a lot of Natives also were agreeable to listen and connect the stories and traditions of the Christian traditions with their own. Now days, it is part of the Native culture.