With this text, the reader becomes aware of how the autochthonous nature of Diné spirituality influences every aspect of their belief system. We see this involvement with nature through several different analytical lenses including sacred narratives, ceremonies and rituals, religious specialists and power. Through sacred narrative ad ceremony and ritual in the novel, we see connection with place and nature during the K-Tag ceremony in the poem entitled “K-Tag Ceremony”. Ceremonies and rituals with ties to nature are also seen in the chapter entitled “Tune Up”. In “Tune Up” we also see the important role of the Medicine Men in Native American spirituality which would be classified under the analytical lens of religious specialists as well as power. Finally, we see the connection with the analytical lens of integration through nature in the poem “The Canyon was Serene”.
In the poem “K-Tag”, we see the use of sacred narrative, or rather, the reference to sacred narrative in the body of the poem. Tapahonso makes references to the Holy Ones or ancestors in the poem. “The Holy Ones named our grandbabies as we presented them to the sun, our father their little arms extended to the south and north…” (Tapahonso 83). It is difficult to pick just one cultural lens to analyze anything in Native American spirituality because if the importance of interconnectedness with the earth and other creatures of the earth. While this poem reflects ceremony, it also reflects the importance of place. In ceremonies, it seems direction plays an important role, especially east, the direction of the rising sun. The child in the K-Tag ceremony being described is facing East and would have to be because its arms are “extended to the south and north” (Tapahons...
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...he power itself is woven into rugs and kept in daily prayers.
It is difficult to choose just one lens to analyze different aspects of Diné spirituality because of the importance of integration and interconnectedness with the earth and all its creatures. They have a profound respect for each other as human beings as well as respect for nature. They feel responsible to care for the earth and its creatures because we all depend on one another for survival. Kinship and community is not just between humans but it is also with the land, with the animals and with the insects. Tapahonso illustrates all of these aspects of Diné spirituality beautifully in her collection of poems and short stories through her personal experiences in everyday life as a Diné woman.
Works Cited
Tapahonso, Luci. A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories. Tucson: University of Arizona, 2008. Print.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
These illustrate the embodiment of the challenges one has to encounter when associated with the practice of Santeria. Santerians lack the freedom of complete self-expression, and they have to deal with the secrecy of their rituals, values, and beliefs to be acknowledged in colonial society. Their real identity is suffering and can only be grasped by those who share similar religious values. This lack of complete self-expression touches my heart because I am proud to express my values, my belief without restrictions. It is indeed disturbing to see Santerians have to embody this types of challenges in their lives. One should be proud and feel free to express their belief without restrictions. The book and the article indicate, that even though they face challenges as practitioners of Santeria they are devoted and are willing to balance their life while separating their social life and their religious
Professor and poet Deborah A. Miranda, pieces together the past and uncovers and presents us with a story--a Californian story--in her memoir, “Bad Indians.” Her use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates the irony of using the form of her oppressors as a call out for help, not to God, but to her past ancestors. We tend to think of religion as a form of salvation and redemption of our lives here on Earth, in which we bare down and ask for forgiveness. But by challenging this common discourse using theological allegories and satirical terminology, Miranda turns her attention away from a Deity to call the reader out for help. It is crucial to recognize the struggles that the Native community currently face. Californian Indians are often not given recognition for their identity and their heritage, and are also repeatedly stereotyped as abusive, alcoholic, uncivilized, and “freeloaders” of the United States government. Such generalizations root back from European colonization, nevertheless still linger in our contemporary society. Miranda has taken the first step forward in characterizing few of these stereotypes in her Novena, but she’s given her story. Now what are we going to do with ours? It’s up to us to create our
In Momaday's work, the reader is on a journey through myth, past and present, as the author draws on oral traditions of Native American storytelling to align-in-parallel a personal journey for understanding of himself, and perhaps the nature of man. Through an inventive technique, Rainy Mountain serves as a way to collect, preserve and disseminate the oral storytelling traditions of Native American storytellers. Momaday has attempted to bridge the oral traditions to written form by weaving three continual strands as a single long braid throughout the text.
Scientists have recently discovered links to the Kiowa and Aztec religions. For example both tribes worshiped a stone image, Taimay, and both tribes followed a pictographic calendar. The language that the Kiowa spoke can be traced back to the Uto-Aztecan language like Latin and English. The Kiowa languages also have connections to the Bannocks, Comanche’s, Paragons, Paiutes, Pima, Shoshones, and Utes. The Kiowa and Aztec preformed many dances of praise including the Sun Dance. However, the Kiowa also had many unique dances including the Scalp, Corning, Feather, and Ghost praising nature and life. Each dance was preformed to celebrate different achievements. For example, the scalp dance was preformed when men returned ...
Throughout ancient history, many indigenous tribes and cultures have shown a common trait of being hunter/gatherer societies, relying solely on what nature had to offer. The geographical location influenced all aspects of tribal life including, spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices. Despite vast differences in the geographical location, reports show various similarities relating to the spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices of indigenous tribal cultures.
In the article “Body Ritual Among the Nacerima” by Horace Miner wee see the framework for social construction of the Nacerima culture. The Nacerima fundamental belief is to avert their bodies debilitating characteristics with powerful
It is equated to day as it, is refulgent with deathless light, and as Savitri can stay and enjoy the supernal ecstasy as long as she pleases. The Canto describes the occult experienced that come to a saint who has reached the higher, even the highest plane of transcendence. The greatness of Sri Aurobindo lies in the concretization of the ecstasy. The most abstract is made the most concrete. Sri Aurobindo’s poetry progresses through polarities. The extreme opposite of Death is the Everlasting Day. And just as Savitri discards the Everlasting Night- the abode of Death, she also refuses the tempting offers of the everlasting day, howsoever divinely and luring they might be: “I climb not to thy everlasting Day, / Even as I have shunned thy eternal Night” (11.1.541-542). For, she is earth- abound, committed to the cause of the earth. The Canto is a justification and glorification of the importance of the earth which eventually helps the poet in pointing out how Matter is the seedbed of spirit and how, in the last count, the real transformation is the transform action in the unit, in the
The Impression of Life on her Works’ Leslie Marmon Silko for more than two decades has been enriching Native American literature through her poetry, novels, short stories, and essays. Her fertile imagination and vivid writing continues to impress both critics and readers alike. Influences in Silko's life are abundant in her work. She includes childhood memories, experiences with racism, Pueblo beliefs, family history, and traditional storytelling. Prominent in many of her works is the perspective of her mixed ethnicity. She explores ethnic identity and cultural values through her literature. Often the reader is taught about the lessons, values, and heritage of early cultures. Leslie Marmon grew up attaching herself, in memory and imagination, to the village and then to the land around it; and because this is Laguna land, many of the stories she grew up with were stories from the Keresan oral tradition, the stories of her father's people and their shared history. In her art as in her life, Silko has continued to maintain her identity with the story of the people of Kawaika, the People of the Beautiful Lake. The story of Laguna, like the biography of Silko and the fictional lives of her novels' protagonists, has always been a story of contact, departure, and recovery. “My father had wandered over all the hills and mesas around Laguna when he was a child; I started roaming those same mesas and hills when I was nine years old. At eleven I rode away on my horse, and explored places my father and uncle could not have reached on foot. I carried with me the feeling I'd acquired from listening to the old stories, that the land all around me was teeming with creatures that were related to human beings and to me.” ("Interior and Exterior Lan...
He describes the American health system and many aspects of the an American’s personal health as inhuman and uncivilized. Simply changing the way a word is spelled makes this culture seem far away and distant but in reality it is the culture in which we live every day. The article, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner makes the readers think about what they know to be true and evaluate how strange the many aspects of their lives
The novel's opening poem describes the Incredible powers that language, stories, and rituals have in Native American cultures: ceremonies are the only cure for human and cultural ailments, and stories and language have the power to create worlds As the novel progresses, it demonstrates this power by showing how rituals are more effective than anything else in helping Tayo heal.
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
The article equips the reader with the tools needed to better understand other cultures, in terms of their own beliefs and rituals. Miner’s original approach does create a certain level of confusion that forces the reader to critically evaluate his purpose. “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” by Horace Miner ultimately brings people together, by illuminating the eccentricities present in all
The book “The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion”, written by Mircea Eliade, investigates four aspects of the sacred universe: space, time, nature, and self. Eliade splits each aspect into two forms of perception, the sacred and profane. Religious men, specifically the ancient, traditional men, view the universe as sacred. In other words, they acknowledge a distinct qualitative difference between a sacred and profane (non-sacred) universe; whereas, nonreligious, specifically modern men, are unable to understand such differences in the world. This claim rests on the on the concept of heirophanies or manifestations of the sacred. A hierophany is the religious man’s source of absolute reality and it illuminates the glory and power of God. This manifestation of divine glory charges a site with special significance, thereby losing a sense of homogeneity throughout the universe. Eliade’s underlying thesis is that due to the human experience of both the sacred and profane in day to day life, the transitional zones between the two are exceptionally illuminated and charged with the divine glory of the sacred.
In “The Beach of Falesa,” the protagonist Wiltshire asserts that the native Kanakas have a natural predisposition for superstitious beliefs. As he explores Case’s “devil’s bush,” Wiltshire tells the reader, “Any poor Kanaka brought up here in the dark, with the harp...