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Juniper as Tool

Juniper as Tool. Juniper. The juniper plant has been used world wide, and in many different cultures. The main thing to realize about juniper is that it has been used ritually (as a tool) in each different culture. Juniper in America.

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Juniper as Tool

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  1. Juniper as Tool

  2. Juniper • The juniper plant has been used world wide, and in many different cultures. • The main thing to realize about juniper is that it has been used ritually (as a tool) in each different culture.

  3. Juniper in America • An example of the importance of Juniper was for the Yavapai people. • It was, according to Morris (1976), “an invaluable resource for the Yavapai” (251). It formed an important year-round source of fuel. • In the story, the Juniper stump helps the hero trick the bears (his wife’s relatives) and allows him to kill them (Morris, 1976). This juniper stump gives him important protection against the attack of the wild! • In this story, the Juniper tree helps domesticate and purify the hero’s wife…an important use of juniper as a civilizing and protecting force against wildness (the bears).

  4. Juniper in America (2) • The Apache used Juniper as a way to stave of fear. • As Opler (1960) points out, “The needles of juniper, and especially the one-seeded juniper, are burned by themselves or with other plants, in incensing against ghosts and fright” (152).

  5. Juniper as Tool • Juniper here was an important aspect of everyday life for the Yavapai, used as firewood and sustenance for both humans and bears. • It shows that it was used to help purify the home of any wild influences. • This story helps support the concept that Juniper was not a “worshipped” tree and that it’s use as purification tool survived through the ages. • For the Apache, it was a tool against the supernatural elements in their world.

  6. Juniper in The Middle East (1) • Juniper was also important in the mid-east. In Assyria they used it for medicine and purification. • They used it specifically for “when a pregnant woman has colic” (Lambert, 30). The Assyrians pointed out that “these are all the healing drugs” (Lambert, 30).

  7. Juniper in the Middle East (2) • In the ancient stories of Lugalbanda (Gilgamesh’s father), Juniper was used as a purification tool before speaking with the gods. • He used it to capture sacrifices. As Larson (2005) points out, Lugalbanda “fashions a halter for it [the oxen] from a juniper tree, which he uproots and trims with his knife. In the same way he captures two wild goats and tethers them” (2).

  8. Juniper as Tool • This showed that in the middle east, Juniper was used as a tool. • It was used as medicine for women in this Assyrian medical text dated like other texts in about 1100 BC (Lambert, 1969). • This shows that juniper was used was not religious, more as a tool in this era. It helped purify pregnant women of colic. • It was also shown to be a tool used to ready sacrifices made for the gods.

  9. Juniper in Other Cultures • It is known to fumigate to please the dead spirits in Zoroastrianism (Drower, 1937, 231) • It was a charm to return stolen goods in the early American colonies (Brown, Hohman, Hohman, 1904, 141). • It protects against the evil eye in Mesopotamia (Thomsen, 1992, 27) • It is used for purification in Siberian Shamanism (Mikhailovskii and Wardrop, 1895, 88)

  10. Juniper • The importance of Juniper lasted through the centuries because it was always used as a tool to get something done. It was not, based on the research done, ever venerated in and of itself in any religious sense. • The closest it came was perhaps in the figure of Baldr, but that requires more study that is available.

  11. References • Brown, C. Hohman, John, Hohman, Johann. (1904). The long hidden friend. The Journal of American Folklore, 17 (65), 89-152. • Clipart from Microsoft (2010). • Drower, E. (1937). The ritual meal. Folkore, 48 (3). 226-244. • Lambert, W. (1969). A middle Assyrian medical text. Iraq, 31 (1), 28-39. • Larson, J. (2005, January). Lugalbanda and Hermes. Classical Philology, 100 (1), 1-16. • Mikhailovskii, V, and Wardrop, O. (1895). Shamanism in Siberia and European Russia, Being the second part of “Shamanstvo.” The Journal of Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 24, 62-100. • Morris, C. (1976, August 3). Bears, juniper trees and deer, the metaphors of domestic life, an analysis of a Yavapai variant of the bear maiden story. Journal of Anthropological Research, 32 (3), 246-254. • Opler, M. (1960). Myth and practice in Jicarilla Apache eschatology. The Journal of American Folklore, 73(288), 133-153. • Thomsen, M. (1992, Jan). The evil eye in Mesopotamia. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 51 (1), 19-32. • Vukanovic, T. (1989). Witchcraft in the central Balkans 1: Characteristics of witches. Folkore, 100 (1), 9-24.

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