II. Main Cultural products 6. Arts and Crafts Section 6.1: Lappish Arts and Crafts

6.1.2. Shamanism

Shamanism was not really a religion, but the northern people's cultural way of life. The Shaman was the helper and the healer, the Shaman was the gatherer of valuable information that was needed in healing and in helping the people.

The Shamanistic world is divided into three parts: the under-world, the upper world and the terrestrial plain. The Shaman made fact-finding missions usually to the underworld, where he could be assisted by the spirits in the shape of animals.

The bear figure plays an important role in Shamanism. The bear has been pictured on the shaman drums both living on the earth as a bear and in the Northern sky in the form of the Great Bear constellation.

Shamans used different trance techniques to enter the spirit world, either drumming, or narcotics, or mushrooms helped the shaman to pass into the world of the gods and spirits. Also the human being was believed to be divided into three parts like everything else.

In Finnish Lapland, all visible signs of Shamanism disappeared in the 17^th century, as the cult was almost completely destroyed by the mainstream religion and the Lutheran church, by associating the Shamanistic culture with devil worshipping and the drums with the Devil's Bible.

Interest in Shamanism was reestablished in the 1800’s as part of the northern peoples study in Siberia, where the original cultures of the Northern tribes had survived. Famous Finnish explorers involved in these studies were, for example, M.A.Castren and Kai Donner.

Today Shamanism, as well as many other types of ancient beliefs are again back in fashion. The same life guidelines as in Shamanism are found in many modern life guidelines in the forms of doctrines and relaxation techniques. Tourism has taken from Shamanism a number of useful "customer-oriented" features for marketing, product development and programming services.

6.1.1. The Sami Culture

6.1.3. Is Lapland Open Today?