The White Buffalo Wom Anthropological Insights

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In this essay, I will be discussing the three different types of insights that stood out to me the most in the reading this term thus far. The first type of insight is Anthropological Insight, which is talking to the values of an individual culture. Which I find in helps us see what impact the past’s values has had on us in the present. The Vagina Girls illustrated this well, it showed the values of the Apache people in regards to their woman. It showed that they preferred their woman silent and submissive, and they saw them as more of a prize to be conquered than people. For Aetiological Insight, which explains the origin of a custom handed down by an individual society, The White Buffalo Woman stood to me, and it answered the question of …show more content…

It walks us through how the Lakota Sioux got the ritual that gave them food every year. The White Buffalo Woman to the Lakota Sioux was a goddess of sorts, someone that taught them how to live right and what is and isn’t morally right. The White Buffalo Woman shows the Sioux tribe how to start the ritual. “She told the people to set up an altar of red earth within the medicine tent” (World of Myth, 133) She showed them the intricacies of the ritual. “She showed the people how to grasp the stem with the left hand and to hold the bowl with the right.” (World of Myth, 133) Then she showed them how to honor the Earth for its sacrifice. “The ritual of the pipe will please Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit.” (World of Myth, 133) Because she told them she would be back every season the Sioux repeated this ritual for generations. “But promised to come back in every cycle of ages.” This clearly lays out the origin of this ritual which the Sioux took place, thus fits the Aetiological Insight to the letter. However, I think there is more to this story than just how they got their customs. In this story, I think the White Buffalo Woman represents mother nature, while the tribe represents the populous of the world. It shows man's lust to conquer Mother Nature instead of live peacefully with it. “One reached out for her with lust in his heart.” (World of Myth, 132) Then after it shows that lusting over Mother …show more content…

This short story talks about violence being man's true nature, which is laid out perfectly in this sentence.” The United States will be destroyed, land and people, by atomic bombs and radioactivity.” (World of Myth, 80) For what is more poetic than for man to be destroyed by its greatest creation? It certainly is a poetic justice that man would be destroyed when left alone by its own devices because only man would be selfish enough to destroy all humanity for the casual reason of material gain. It tells us that only the holy and the just will survive this apocalypse, and that this is the fate of the world if we do not learn how to live as one people. “There is no shelter for evil.” “Those who take no part in the making or division by ideology are ready to resume life in another world, be they of Black, White, Red, or Yellow race.” (World of Myth, 80) However, it also shows us a light at the end of the tunnel, a utopia if you will. “It is being made by the humble people of the little nations, tribes, and racial minorities.” It shows us a place where people of all races live

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