Litooma research
Shaman Angatkok
Alaska Native shamanism and ritual
Central to the Alaskan Eskimo theatre tradition were the elders and the angatkok. The elders were the holders and conveyers of tradition in every aspect of Eskimo life. It was the elders that kept their orally transmitted theatre tradition alive; it was a tradition that could lead back several centuries. From generation to generation performance stories, songs, dances, acting, props, costumes and mask traditions were passed on with adjustments and evolutions taking place over time.
In most theatre performances the elders worked in conjunction with the angatkok, the shaman, the healer, the medicine man or woman, the keeper of the community's spiritual well-being. The angatkok was a person either chosen, trained or called into his or her position because of special expressed attributes which generally included the ability of spiritual vision. The calling of the angatkok was a gift, something that came to a person naturally or something a person sought to obtain and to develop because with it came power and responsibility: a responsibility to the very survival of the community and a power to effect physical and spiritual well-being.
The angatkok was responsible for improving the weather, healing the sick, procuring game, foretelling the future, contending with evil spirits. All of the angtakok's activities were performed in public and with the community's interaction, for the role of the angatkok was, at its core, that of a performance artist. The performance of the angatkok reassured the community by demonstrating that there was indeed interaction between the human and spirit world and that decisive action was being taken.
To the community, the angtakok's performance, trance, dance, vocalizations or ritual, was a bridge to a mysterious and ineffable world. Like the secular theatre artist of the Western tradition, the angatkok gave form and feeling to the intangible ideas and spirits that surround and live with the community.
The role of the angtakok in the community's theatre performance was that of master of ceremony cum stage director, choreographer, musical director, actor, priest, prop, light and scene designer. Although each community was familiar with virtually all of the songs, stories and dances of a theatre performance, it was the domain of the angatkok to make sure it happened in a way concomitant with sacred practice for nearly all community performances. Even the secular comic and entertainment aspects were in manifestation and/or propitiation of the spirit world.
Specifically spirit world connecting actions were the exclusive realm of the angatkok, whereas other aspects of the performance were entrusted to elders or community sanctioned performers.
excerpt from
Re-Inventing Alaska Native Performance
