Sedna is a goddess of the Eskimos who resides on the ocean floor and is the mistress of all the animals upon which the Eskimos depend for their livelihood. If these animals are absent, the shaman begins a magical song during which the men and women collectively engage in sexual intercourse to please Sedna and encourage her to release the animals. Such regeneration rituals, aimed at ensuring the change of seasons and thus fertility, are described by Duerr across all peoples during the time of hunters and gatherers. These rituals, often accompanied by coarse sexual acts, were on one hand a mimesis, meaning an imitation of nature, but at the same time an intervention in nature, with the goal of gently influencing the return of life. Their aim was not to impose anything on nature that it was not willing to provide on its own.