Raven Rattle Essay

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For this research paper, I have chose to focus on the Northwest Coast Native American culture and the ceremonial raven rattle. First, it is important to examine the belief system of the Northwest Coast inhabitants and the raven which serves as a central figure in their mythologies. The story of the raven states that the sun was brought to mankind by raven through transforming himself into a boy (through the impregnation of the sun keeper's daughter) in order to enchant his Grandfather into giving him the sun which had otherwise been locked away. The raven, afer receiving this precious gift, was scorched and sacrificed his beauty for the benefit of others via the sun. The inhabitants of the Northwest Coast carried on the myth of raven through …show more content…

It is also cosmically important because life is always in a state of flux meaning that nothing can stay the same, everything must transform over time and no body can keep wealth, beauty, food, and etc; it must all be given away. The responsibility of the Chief is to practice this belief system through sacrifice of what he has earned and gained over time to the benefit of others according to their status. From the previous paragraph where the Raven rattle is symbolic of the cycle of life and death, food is not obtained through hunting skill but through the sacrifice of the animal itself to mankind which in return, man must honor the carcass so that it may be reborn. Man, in due time, must give his life through death to the spirit …show more content…

However, the Raven rattle, whether it had been confiscated by authority or auctioned off, has ended up in museums and in the hands of people who have purchased it. The Raven rattle when it's publicly on display may lose it's original sacred intent of being in ceremony as a gateway into the spirit world but transforms into a work of art and through it's symbolic power gains the admiration and awe of people Ornelas Page 3 from various parts of the world who may or may not have knowledge of the original Northwest Coast scultors who created the Raven rattle. While doing research, I came across this art journal on Crosscut called “A Critics Favorite: The Raven Rattle at SAM” which the author describes the first time of coming across the Raven rattle at the Seattle Art Museum, “Above all else, the rattle is alive. The raven, with its upraised head is in flight, or ready to beat its wings above the earth. If the rattle is meant to be an intermediary between humans and the natural world then, even now, resting in a museum display case, it retains that power.” The Raven rattle surely retains it's significance despite being on public display; the

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