Bears are big. Even the smallest adult black bear weighs much more than most humans. Brown bears are larger, and Kodiak bears, a large form of grizzly bear can be over 11 feet tall when they stand up on their hind legs. Cave bears were even larger.

Like humans, bears are omnivorous. Bears know what plants are safe to eat. Usually whatever bears eat, humans can eat safely, too. Like humans, bears can stand on two legs, and when they do, indigenous peoples often see them as looking eerily human.

Bears and Animists

One of the two oldest archeological sites that show evidence of religious practices is a cave bear shrine from 40,000 years ago. Several cave bear shrines have been found. Bears have been revered by animist cultures in the northern hemisphere ever since. Until recently archeologists believed that Bear was the first deity.

Bear Fetish

For the indigenous gathering-hunting people of Japan, the Ainu, the bear was an important part of their religious belief system. The Aino would capture, honor, and feed a young bear for a year, then kill it (send it to the spirit world) to represent them. They would feast on the body of the bear, speaking of the bear as their host and themselves as its guests for the feast.

Bears and Shamans

Bear is one of the shaman's oldest teachers. Bears have been associated with shamans in the Northern Hemisphere from Greenland to Alaska, from Japan to Scandinavia. In dreams and visions, bears show shamans which plants can be eaten or used as medicines.

In the group of Siberian tribes where shamanism was first studied by anthropologists, the root word from which all the tribes got their word for a female shaman means bear.

Much more information on bear spirits is coming soon!

Bear Woman Art Print
Boulet, Susan...
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