The introduction presents the context of the book as a comparative study of saunas and sweat lodges in selected cultures of the world. It introduces the multidimensional motivation for the book as mental health problems and the ecological crises among other current issues demand innovative time-tested solutions. The book addresses topics that have so far not been studied in detail or in a truly comparative spirit: notions, definitions, beliefs, and practices related to the sacred and the spiritual in the context of sweat ceremonies and rituals. What have earlier sauna studies focused on and what is the contribution of this one? What gaps in sauna and sweat house research does it fill? The sauna has been an institution of peace building, generational and even human-animal interconnectedness, and linked with many deep philosophical issues of life. If one decides to look upon the North American Delaware sweat lodge and Big House as all but the prototype of a sacred space for world renewal and healing, how is this and other wisdom traditions reflected in the sauna cultures elsewhere? This study compares the North American inípi, sweat lodge with the Finnish, Iberian, Castro, Irish, Lenape Delaware Indian, and a few selected other sauna cultures with an eye to delving into their most ancient spiritual practices, beliefs, and rituals, both in a gender-sensitive and ethnocultural way. This comparative approach allows us to speculate on the links the sauna initiation rites have with a woman-centered, archaic matristic worldview rooted in rebirth, regeneration, a cyclical worldview and complex symbolism of the Great Bear in Heaven and the Bear’s den on Earth. This book, then, fills a gap in the field of more hegemonic sauna research that tends to focus on the external aspects of sauna culture, e.g., tips on the best sweats, on how to build a sauna, and numerous books on the sauna’s physiological and medical dimensions. I speculate that people huddled in front of a sacred fire in bear dens/caves perhaps already manifested notions of spiritual healing and the practice of “mindfulness.” The book’s contribution, then, is to focus on sauna studies as a gendered interpretation of the sacred, where the matriversal approach represents a corrective to patriarchal science and its often reductive methods and assumptions. One of the reasons for the focus on healing is that the worldview of the Great Mother, so closely linked with the maternal aspects of the sauna rituals, is allied with rituals relating to life, death, and healing—the three major areas traditionally within women’s purview. The section clarifies the aim of the book and its relevance to a wide readership beyond the mere confines of Finland. How far and deep into misty prehistory, archaic antiquity can the sauna institution take us, and how central has it been not just in the life of Finns but most cultures in the world at large? The book sets out by defining the key concepts of spirituality and the sacred from first a general, then a patriarchal religious point of view, and finally a feminist and Indigenous perspective. This allows us to realize how differently the sacred and the spiritual have been circumscribed.

Introduction

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发表日期：

2025年

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Kaarina Kailo

摘要

The introduction presents the context of the book as a comparative study of saunas and sweat lodges in selected cultures of the world. It introduces the multidimensional motivation for the book as mental health problems and the ecological crises among other current issues demand innovative time-tested solutions. The book addresses topics that have so far not been studied in detail or in a truly comparative spirit: notions, definitions, beliefs, and practices related to the sacred and the spiritual in the context of sweat ceremonies and rituals. What have earlier sauna studies focused on and what is the contribution of this one? What gaps in sauna and sweat house research does it fill? The sauna has been an institution of peace building, generational and even human-animal interconnectedness, and linked with many deep philosophical issues of life. If one decides to look upon the North American Delaware sweat lodge and Big House as all but the prototype of a sacred space for world renewal and healing, how is this and other wisdom traditions reflected in the sauna cultures elsewhere? This study compares the North American inípi, sweat lodge with the Finnish, Iberian, Castro, Irish, Lenape Delaware Indian, and a few selected other sauna cultures with an eye to delving into their most ancient spiritual practices, beliefs, and rituals, both in a gender-sensitive and ethnocultural way. This comparative approach allows us to speculate on the links the sauna initiation rites have with a woman-centered, archaic matristic worldview rooted in rebirth, regeneration, a cyclical worldview and complex symbolism of the Great Bear in Heaven and the Bear’s den on Earth. This book, then, fills a gap in the field of more hegemonic sauna research that tends to focus on the external aspects of sauna culture, e.g., tips on the best sweats, on how to build a sauna, and numerous books on the sauna’s physiological and medical dimensions. I speculate that people huddled in front of a sacred fire in bear dens/caves perhaps already manifested notions of spiritual healing and the practice of “mindfulness.” The book’s contribution, then, is to focus on sauna studies as a gendered interpretation of the sacred, where the matriversal approach represents a corrective to patriarchal science and its often reductive methods and assumptions. One of the reasons for the focus on healing is that the worldview of the Great Mother, so closely linked with the maternal aspects of the sauna rituals, is allied with rituals relating to life, death, and healing—the three major areas traditionally within women’s purview. The section clarifies the aim of the book and its relevance to a wide readership beyond the mere confines of Finland. How far and deep into misty prehistory, archaic antiquity can the sauna institution take us, and how central has it been not just in the life of Finns but most cultures in the world at large? The book sets out by defining the key concepts of spirituality and the sacred from first a general, then a patriarchal religious point of view, and finally a feminist and Indigenous perspective. This allows us to realize how differently the sacred and the spiritual have been circumscribed.