A symbol is any “‘object, act, event, quality, or relation which serves as a vehicle for conception’” (230). Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians by Barbara Myerhoff is a very intricate text which involves numerous aspects of symbolism. Myerhoff not only applies a much deeper meaning to deer, maize, and peyote, but she also uses these objects as a representation of divine beings and spirits. The deer, maize, and peyote are very powerful entities but together they form the deer-maize-peyote complex, which is central to the Huichol life. The unification of these disparate objects can be easily understood once they are analyzed on three different levels: exegetical, operational, and positional. The exegetical level includes the interpretations and explicit declarations by the people using the symbol. The deer is considered to be a sacred animal and its blood is considered to be magical. The deer is a central part of the Huichol’s religion which derived from their recent past as deer hunters. The deer is also a major food source, but the women did not use any parts of it. Deer is also used in ritual ceremonies by smearing the blood on arrows to make them “strong enough to carry the desire and intentions of the Huichols to the gods” (200). Without this anointing the arrows are only poor weak sticks. The maize, on the other hand, is considered the central theme in Huichol religion. It is very mundane, unpredictable, mysterious, demanding and tedious. The agricultural aspect of maize is used as the great equalizer. Maize is the heartbeat and the spirit of the Huichols. Just like the deer and maize, peyote is considered sacred by the Huichols, but it differs because it cannot be purchased even though it is available in... ... middle of paper ... ...ity, the positional relationship among the symbols must be examined. The deer, maize, and peyote together constitute a single concept, and they are used by the Huichols to signify their entire lives. The unity of these three symbols helps the Huichols “achieve their highest religious goals—continuity and unity on all levels, societal, historical, temporal, ecological, and ideological” (222). The deer is associated with the past when the Huichols were marked by masculine dominance. Maize, the central symbol of the complex, represents the present reality. Peyote represents the unforeseen future and the things to come. “This combination of deer, maize, and peyote represents a remarkable completeness” (227). “The deer as the past life of perfection, the maize as the mundane, human dimension, and the peyote as the spiritual, private, and free part of life merge” (262).
Further, prayer and medicine interplay to paint a classical image of the Native’s creed, yet, for many obsolete or preposterous existences of the shaman. To re-install beliefs present in the world for thousands of years, but have been disappearing, writers such as Neidhardt introduce the element of the
Scholars, who study these things, notice a duality in the culture, i.e. good and bad, men, and women, and so on and so forth. This book also discusses things such as who are their descendants and the use of treasure maps to discover new things. Concepts such as who the descendants are and using treasure maps to discover new things. This book was an easy read, in fact, the chapters flew by pretty quick, because they flew by quickly, I often had to re-read some sections. By making this book an easy read, Pauketat does a good job of not assuming that anyone knows about the Cahokian culture. He does however, does an excellent job of explaining things in detail. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about a Native American culture.
Hämäläinen goes on to explain that his purpose is to trace and analyze the contradictions of the Plains Indians’ horse culture, rather than just condemning it as something baleful, which many historians tend to do. Hämäläinen also refutes the common eastern farmer-western nomad manner of analyzing Plains equestrianism, in which there is “a tendency to cast the villagers as cultural reactionaries who failed to embrace the liberating powers of equestrianism and, locked in space and time, were crushed by the double invasion of the aggressive nomads and the encroaching Americans,” (Hämäläinen, 2) and instead proposes that Plains horse culture is understood from a latitudinal --rather than longitudinal-- viewpoint, since horse culture spread from the south, northwards. It is also explained that the latitudinal spread of equestrianism gave rise to the creation of markedly diverse horse cultures, vary...
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the area of Sonqo.
John Farella. The Main Stalk: A synthesis of Navajo Philosophy. Navajo Religion. (Tuschon: University of Arizona Press, 1984)
The Warka Vase is a special view into the daily practices of the Inana cult and the structure of their life and the importance of the various materials, animals and people who makeup the cult of Inana. The Vase honors all aspects of their life. The irrigated water is the basis of their life, without the irrigation no crops would grow. The cattle used in the temples wouldn’t stand without the crops to feed them. Without the cattle neither would the men exist to provide for the cult of Inana. Each register is important to the way of life in the cult of Inana, even the the simple irrigation of their plants.
In Sun Chief particularly the chapter called “the Making of a Man” we can see that food is very important spiritually to the Hopi people. In the Wowochim ceremony each boy is given their manhood name over a “mother-corn ear” (159). In each of a dozen or more ceremonies we see that certain practices such as the sprinkling of corn (159, 160, 162, etc.), or the eating of unsalted foods as a form of fasting (158, 161, 165, etc.), is a major theme. This notion of giving foods back to the Gods, likely stems from the location of the Hopi nation in the desert region of the American southwest. Because food is scarce here, the Hopi people look upon it as the chief gift of the Gods, and therefore the offering of food back to the Gods makes sense. It also makes sense that in certain times of exceptional spiritual devotion, the giving up of food would be necessary to show an intense piety and strength.
This story shows all the aspects of Native American religious and social beliefs. Firstly, the aspect of the "circle of life", which is probably the most important part of Native American religion, is not directly mentioned in the story. I have come to the conclusion, after much reflection to symbolism in the that the "animals with their skin off" that look like humans, are probably dead people who were reincarnated as animals, or were somehow spiritually connected to each other through the earth and the environment. Other than that, the Circle of Life is not an important part of "Wikiash and the First Totem Pole".
Quapaw, Osage, and Caddo have many similarities as well as differences. For example: their religion, food acquisition, food production, and social structure. In this essay, there will be comparisons between the tribes as well as distinctive differences in each tribe. In this paper, information about these tribes will be further explored.
Holism is present and the importance of nature and the maintenance of a traditional life-style (stick four). Through McLeod’s (2007) work we see a bond between landscape and other beings. “Through ceremonies, prayers, and songs, the Nehiyawak were able to communicate with other beings and the powers of the land around them, the Atayohkanak, the spiritual grandfathers and grandmothers” (p. 26). McLeod goes on to state that the power of ceremonies in a relationship is not limited to a human-to-human relationship. For example, “[t]he pipe stem is significant for the Nehiiyawak, the Dene and other Indigenous nations as a way of concluding arrangements… [it] was more than… a way of sealing political arrangements… it was a way of making and affirming relationships with the land, of honouring the spiritual powers who dwelt where the people were living.” (McLeod, 2007, p. 27) As well, language is a reoccurring theme. McLeod (2007) attributes much of the continuity of the Cree people to maintaining language which is often through the elders (in his instance, his
A single group of indigenous people or single Native American group does not exist but many. Early America had many groups of Native Americans that can be organized by regions: Eastern Woodlands, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, and Great Basin. This analysis will focus on the Southwest Native Americas. The Southwest refers to modern day Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Northern Mexico. This region consisted of three major cultures, the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi people. In the Southwest, all three groups engaged in extensive farming more than groups in the Eastern Woodlands. This extensive farming proved that these Native Americans were settlers created pueblo villages complete with dwellings. The Hohokam peoples constructed canals as an irrigation system in now modern Arizona. This differed from several other groups of Native Americans usually in the Great Basin that were nomadic, following their food, the bison. Specialization in sophisticated crafts such as ceramics, pottery, and basket weaving emerged in the Southwest. Especially important and distinctive to Southwest Native Americans was maize, co...
The final reading ill be evaluating is “The Peyote Way” written by Slotkin. Peyote has remained a sacred and historical plant for the pre-colonial Indians of central and northern Mexico till this very day. It is perceived in a very spiritual and also medicinal way. Peyote religion can be comparable to that of “Indian Christianity,” as said by many Peyotists, themselfs. Peyote is also to be used in the sense of a rite of passage, that last from dusk to dawn, and occurs in a plains type tipi. In 1918 the Peyotists created the Native American Church in which is composed of multiple groups of independent churches, all stemming from he head church known as the “Native American Church of North America. Peyote has a prominent use spiritually and religiously
The stories by Winona LaDuke in her novel, Recovering the Sacred, The Power of Naming and Claiming, present some of the many challenges faced by indigenous cultures in a colonial society. Particularly, one of great interest to LaDuke, large corporations, and the government, to name a few, is that of wild rice, otherwise known as Manoomin, of the Anishinaabeg tribe. The problems affecting the Anishinaabeg’s rightful ownership of this wild rice comes from an act of biopiracy; which is basically stealing something biologically sacred to a person or a group, with the intent of pecuniary gain. This paper will address how wild race relates to the four elements of place with in White Earth Reservation: site and situation, tangible built environment, social context, and personal and collective meaning; and how these relationships are sacred to the Anishinaabeg, which makes them victims of biopiracy by the US government.
The hoop dance is a story-telling ritual, universally adopted by the tribes of Native Americans. This spiritual dance originated as a custom of the Puebloan people in New Mexico. “ In its earliest form, the dance is believed to have been part of a healing ceremony designed to restore balance and harmony in the world”( Weiser 2). The practice of hoop dancing varies tribally, incorporating the indigenous culture of each clan. Symbolism is an essential part of the performance because of the meaning it gives to the dance. Native American ideology contains a prominent connection with the nature of life’s vitality.
What it is a symbol? A symbol is most understandably defined by The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy as “something that represents or suggests something else… often takes the form of words, visual images, or gestures that are used to convey ideas and beliefs”. This definition is pretty self explanatory, it not only emphasizes the functional purpose of a symbol, that of being solely representative of something else, but also suggests that a symbol is not complete in itself - it makes a comparison by pointing to something else. Symbols are metaphors; they help us to better understand those things that humans can quite put into words, in doing this they serve as life guides, as they help us to express and shape world views (Christ 139).