Insects, Monsters and Spirits
Northern Athapaskan people use the same terms, translated as “bug”, to designate insects, worms and snake-like animals, giant beings, night monsters, ghosts and spirits of various kinds and “bushmen or brushmen” (wild beings known throughout the subarctic forest). It is difficult to find a common ground justifying putting all these creatures in the same class, even while taking into account the particularities of Athapaskan taxonomy. Comparing these various creatures reveals connections that allow us a new hypothesis: These creatures share a direct connection with the shamanic and mythical space (ink’on), including the insects as they already belong to that space as a result of their presence in the earliest mythical times ruled by oneiric and creative powers before the existence of human beings. Linguistic studies could confirm the semantic link between ink’on and insects.