Name-soul beliefs maintain that, through a process of reincarnation, spirits of the deceased return into the bodies of newborn members of the same society. When this is recognized, the newborn or very young child is then named for the previously known ancestor or close kin relation believed to be returning (e.g., a grandfather, or an aunt). Name-soul spiritual beliefs among traditional indigenous societies residing in circumpolar regions are pervasive. These correlate with livelihoods earned through hunting, gathering, and fishing in freezing cold expanses of extreme landscape, presenting great physical challenges for traditional families over many generations. A neo-functionalist argument is proposed here, with two aspects. First, that kin ties are strongly reinforced between generations through this close association of affinity and identity, providing important emotional bonds that vitally facilitate physical survival. Second, that the sharpened spiritual power of a soul with the wherewithal to journey back offered powerful protection to the young. Drawing on detailed readings of qualitative ethnographic literature on 11 discrete societies across the region as evidence, this article compares and contrasts name-soul beliefs to better understand the extent to which very similar beliefs might have emerged independently of each other, and how these might have solved similar problems.

中文翻译：

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任何其他名称的灵魂：环绕极视角中的名称-灵魂概念

名魂信仰认为，通过轮回的过程，死者的灵魂会回到同一社会的新生成员的身体中。认识到这一点后，新生儿或非常年幼的孩子就会以之前已知的祖先或据信将返回的近亲亲属（例如，祖父或阿姨）命名。居住在极地地区的传统土著社会中的名魂精神信仰很普遍。这些与通过在寒冷寒冷的极端景观中狩猎、采集和捕鱼获得的生计相关，这对几代人的传统家庭带来了巨大的身体挑战。这里提出了一个新功能主义的论点，有两个方面。首先，通过亲和力和身份的这种密切联系，代际之间的亲属关系得到了强烈的加强，提供重要的情感纽带，极大地促进身体生存。其次，一个有能力返回的灵魂的锐化精神力量为年轻人提供了强大的保护。本文以对该地区 11 个离散社会的定性民族志文献的详细阅读作为证据，比较和对比了名称-灵魂信念，以更好地了解非常相似的信念可能独立出现的程度，以及这些可能如何产生解决了类似的问题。