Selkman. Fire ground

It all started long before that. Long ago, but not too long ago.

The land of fire. The lives of her people were a constant search for sustenance. They were interrupted only by birth and initiation festivals, weddings and funerals. Daily life was also enriched by ritual rites, when people invoked the spirits of nature.

She spoke the Chon language, hunted, gathered, and had great physical strength. She often dreamed that someday she could escape to the farthest corner of the earth so that she would not be afraid. Late one night, while stopping at a hut where young men were being led, she saw an attack by “spirits”-people dressed as supernatural beings. As a child, she had been taught to believe in and beware of spirits, and the children of her people were threatened by them if they misbehaved.

According to legends, in ancient times the power in the tribe belonged to women, whose power was supported by scary spirits who intimidated men during rituals. The leader was the moon woman Kra. Her sun-husband Krahn, a powerful shaman, discovered that the terrifying spirits were only women in disguise. The men revolted and killed many of them in a brutal battle, establishing a new order. From then on, men took on the guise of spirits and terrorized women.

Hain, an initiation ceremony from which women were excluded. It is a test of young men for bravery, resourcefulness, resistance to temptation, resistance to pain, and overcoming fear. The young men in this initiation rite had to unmask the spirits; when they saw that the spirits were men, they were told the story of the creation of the world related to the sun and moon.