Nature in the Kalasha perception of life. II (original) (raw)

1995, Asian Perceptions of Nature: A CRITICAL APPROACH Edited by Ole Bruun & Arne Kalland Copyright: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Curzon Press 1995

In this paper we shall look at Nature and the Man-Nature relationship from the perspective of the Kalasha people for whom myths and legends have always played important roles. Not every Kalasha knows all the mythical explanations but there are elders who serve as a kind of communal reference library, like Khrosh Nawaz who told the myth which opened this essay. To most Kalasha, though, the basis of the myths is true. To them God, spirits, fairies and demons exist and their existence has a great impact on their lives, not least as the rightful owners of natural resources. From the very beginning until the present, supernatural beings have told the Kalasha how to behave by sending messages through shamans (dehârs) who are brought into a trance mostly through the aromatic smell of purifying juniper smoke. Basic to the Kalasha worldview are the concepts of ‘purity’ (onjesta) and ‘impurity’ (pragata) concepts that appear frequently in myths and legends as well as in daily conversations. They structure the world spatially, temporally and socially. They form a central pair in a set of binary oppositions providing metaphors for man and woman, mountain and valley, goat and cow, pasture and field, summer and winter and so on. Natural disasters – e.g. earthquakes, floods and epidemics – and, as we shall see towards the end of this paper, man-made environmental degradation, are interpreted in terms of purity and impurity, or by greed.