Suzanne J. Crawford – American Indian Religious Traditions

Автор: Suzanne J. Crawford
Название книги: American Indian Religious Traditions
Формат: PDF
Жанр: История Америки, Австралии, Океании
Страницы: 1340
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

Welcome to American Indian Religious
Traditions: An Encyclopedia. These volumes
are the culmination of an enormous
amount of effort from many different
corners of both academia and Indian
Country. Our goal in creating this reference
work was to compile a set of articles
that would help to define the academic
study of American Indian religious traditions
as it is undertaken at the beginning
of the twenty-first century and to create a
reference work both sensitive to and reflective
of the political and ethical concerns
of the Native communities upon
which these volumes depend. The entries
in these volumes, therefore, do not
approach religion as an isolated experience
but as an integral part of cultural,
political, economic, and social lives,
placing their individual topics within the
wider social and political context. These
volumes are made up of entries by Native
academics and community members, as
well as non-Native scholars who have
demonstrated themselves sensitive to
the concerns of Native communities and
aware of the political implications of
their work. We are proud to present entries
written by the top scholars in the
field, whose scholarly endeavors are a
testimony to their ethical commitment
to Native cultural survival. We have
worked to ensure that Native voices are
respected in these volumes, encouraging
our authors to consult with elders, community
leaders, and tribal cultural resource
managers whenever possible.
And we are encouraged that more than
half of the entries in these volumes are
written by scholars who are themselves
of Native descent.
For much of its early history, scholarship
on Native communities was done by
non-Native authors who had little
knowledge of the internal workings of
Native communities and cultures. Interpreted
from the perspective of outsiders,
much of this early work misrepresented
Native religious life. This encyclopedia
seeks to rectify this problem by presenting
Native spiritual traditions as they are
understood by people within the communities
themselves.
This project stands apart from other
reference works in a number of ways.
The authors in these volumes have been
allowed to maintain their own voice, perspective,
and position. We have not dictated
the focus, content, or style of entries,
but provided guidelines within
which our authors have creatively
worked. The reader may therefore notice
the use of the first person and the citation
of individual Native elders as authoritative
sources, methods not often
found in reference works. Rather than a series of brief, definitional paragraphs,
defining specific ceremonies or individuals,
readers will find more general entries
that place the specific within a
broader context.
In an era when much of Native religious
life is at risk because of threats to
sacred land, repressive laws, or misappropriation
by New Age religious groups,
it is extremely important that these traditions
be presented to the wider public in
a way that both informs them of the true
nature and context of Native religious life
and is simultaneously respectful of Native
privacy and intellectual property
rights. Our overall intention for this project
is to provide students with research
and learning resources that are both reliable
and respectful. The entries and suggestions
for further reading set their topics
within a historical context as well as a
contemporary setting; it is our hope that
students, as well as interested individuals
in the wider population, will find this
a valuable resource as they begin their
own research into American Indian cultural
life.
Rather than brief dictionary-style entries
we have chosen to include longer
entries that demonstrate the complexity
and context of the issues involved. To
lead the reader through the complex web
of culture, experience, and history that
makes up American Indian religious life,
the entries are intentionally linked, via
cross-references. Longer, chapter-length
entries are devoted to broad topics such
as Dance, Ritual and Ceremony, and Religious
Leadership.
How to Use These Volumes
If you have a specific term, ceremony, individual,
or tribal nation in mind that
you would like to study, we recommend
that you first turn to the index. At the end
of the book you will find an index of
tribal nations and key terms that will
lead you to relevant entries. Keep in
mind that some tribal nations are known
by more than one name: for instance,
many people think of the Native nation
living in the four corners area of the
Southwest as the Navajo. They refer to
themselves, however, as the Diné. In this
project, we have chosen to use the
names for Native nations that they themselves
prefer to use. The index will help
readers find the nations that might be
listed in the volumes using an unfamiliar
name.
Each entry is followed by suggestions
for further reading and research. These include
scholarly works cited within the
entry and other works that the contributor
recommends as reliable resources. Many
students undertaking the study of American
Indian religious traditions are confronted
by the difficult task of weeding
through reliable and unreliable sources. It
is our hope that these references will help
to point students toward solid scholarship
that has been conducted with careful sensitivity
to the concerns and needs of the
Native communities.
A Brief Word on Terminology
As many people from within Native
American communities can confirm, the
language that is used with regard to American Indian culture is contested
and highly politicized. Mainstream culture
and New Age writing frequently
refer to “The Indian,” suggesting that
there is a single identity and experience
that defines the Native people of this
country. With over 500 federally recognized
tribes (not to mention the hundreds
of tribes recognized at only the
state level), this is clearly not the case.
Each nation possesses a unique culture,
language, history, and sense of identity.
The tendency in the dominant culture to
take these multiple and complex topics
as parts of a single whole has added to
the kind of rhetoric against which Native
people now find themselves struggling.
At the outset, these volumes set themselves
apart from such homogenizing by
reference to the plurality of American Indian
religious traditions. The entries in
this volume avoid broad generalizations
and focus on specific, grounded examples
of individual Nations. Throughout
these volumes the reader will find names
and terminologies in their original indigenous
language. This is done in an effort
to demonstrate tribally specific phenomena
as they are perceived from
within the indigenous community. It will
therefore be necessary for the reader to
contend with terms presented in their
appropriate indigenous language as well
as with the creative use of English terms
that come closer to the communities’
own understanding than other more
commonly-used words. One important
example of the latter is the use of the
word “shaman.” In many non-Native
publications, the term “shaman” refers
to any and all spiritual leaders among
any and all indigenous populations. We
have worked to avoid the use of the
“shaman” label in these volumes, as we
feel it negates the distinct differences existing
among indigenous spiritual leaders,
healers, and counselors. To introduce
readers to these distinctions, these
volumes offer extensive entries on spiritual
and ceremonial practitioners, providing
examples from throughout Indian
Country of many distinct and unique religious
practitioners. Some contributors
may choose to keep the problematic
term “shaman,” but they do so in a way
that situates them locally.
Many readers will be familiar with the
debate over the use of the words “Indian,”
“Native,” and “First Peoples” to
refer to the indigenous people of this
hemisphere. The term “Indian” is the familiar
self-reference that most Native
communities use among themselves and
its use here is intended to convey the internal-
community-to-external-audience
nature of this work. The use of the term
“Indian” here is reflective of the intimate
relationship with Native communities
within which the entries were created
and therefore does not advocate its
broad use among non-Native people—it
is a recognition of its use and importance
among indigenous communities.
What’s Here and What’s Not
Perhaps the most difficult part of a project
such as this is deciding what will be
included and what will be excluded. Given a limited amount of space, we
quickly realized that much would necessarily
be left out. We have tried to include
those topics that are most likely familiar
to students and that they are most likely
to be researching in a reference work. Although
we recognize the impossibility of
including every tribal nation and every
tradition, we have done our best to give
students a sense of the vast diversity of
American Indian cultures. We encouraged
our authors to provide general
overviews, along with a few detailed,
grounded examples of the traditions that
they were discussing. We decided that offering
a few specific examples dealt with
carefully and at length, would better
serve our student readers than entries
that discussed large numbers of traditions
without nuanced descriptions or
adequate contextualization. The volumes
thus address broader topics and
ideas, rather than specific minutia. The
entries include tribally specific examples
of these broader ideas and hopefully
succeed in demonstrating the diversity
of traditions. Still, we must readily admit
that these entries are nowhere near exhaustive.
They are meant to provide a
brief introduction to the complexity and
diversity of experience and to point our
readers in the direction of more detailed
information.
Because of the limited space and our
desire to adequately cover those areas we
did include, we made the difficult decision
that we would not seek to extensively
discuss tribal nations in Hawaii,
Mexico, or Canada. However, we drew
these national boundaries with extreme
flexibility. We worked to construct these
boundaries as Native nations do: nations
and cultures oftentimes transgress political
borders. For this reason, we encouraged
authors whose topics crossed political
borders to do so as well. Entries
discussing nations from the Pacific
Northwest Coast thus include nations
from British Columbia, and entries on
northern Alaska include information on
Inuit and Northern Athabaskan communities
in Canada. Entries on Native cultures
from the Great Lakes and New England
likewise cross the Canadian divide.
And, some entries discussing the American
Southwest freely cross over into
northern Mexico. We knew we could not
possibly do justice to the complex tribal
and cultural diversities within Canada,
the Pacific, and Mexico. And yet, we also
did not want to laboriously draw our
borders along these political lines.
Hence, the contributors were encouraged
to make reference to communities
in these areas when appropriate.
And finally, many subjects were intentionally
left out. Many religious traditions
for Native communities are extremely
private and not meant to be discussed in
print. Some people may argue that we
have gone too far with what we did include.
Some might insist that it is never
appropriate to discuss religion in print.
We hope that the entries represented
here demonstrate our concern to respect
the values and wishes of the Native communities
they discuss. Some traditions,
such as detailed information regarding secret societies, details of ritual activity,
sacred songs and prayers, and images of
sacred objects are not meant to be represented
outside of their specific ritual and
ceremonial context. Although much has
been published about these subjects
elsewhere, we chose not to do so. By way
of example, the Huadenasaunne (or Iroquois)
Six-Nation Confederation has requested
that no reproductions or images
of False Face masks be publicly available.
For this reason, no images of False Face
masks appear in these volumes.
The editorial board and we volume
editors have made every effort to produce
this work with honor and any
shortcomings will hopefully be tempered
by the knowledge that these efforts
guided this project.
We would like to thank our editorial
board for their gracious support and
guidance. Each member of the editorial
board assisted with overall editorial guidance
of the book, and each also offered
guidance with materials covering the
specific regions with which they had particular
expertise. Inés Talamantez
(Mescalero Apache), University of California,
Santa Barbara, advised us on traditions
in the Southwest; Inés Hernandez
Avila (Nez Perce/Chicana), University of
California, Davis, advised us regarding
Native traditions in Southwest and
Plateau regions; George Charles (Yup’iq),
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, advised
us on traditions of Native Alaskans; Lee
Irwin, College of Charleston, advised us
on traditions of the Great Plains; Joel
Martin, University of California, Riverside,
advised us on traditions in the
Southeast and on historical approaches
overall; Ken Mello (Pasamaquoddy), University
of Vermont, advised us on entries
for the Northeast region of the country;
and Michelene Pesantubbee (Choctaw),
University of Colorado, Boulder, advised
us regarding entries on the Southeast and
on contemporary issues relating to gender,
sovereignty, and intellectual property
rights.
We would also like to thank our families
and loved ones for their patient support
through what has been a long and
difficult project. Suzanne Crawford
thanks Michael T. O’Brien for his faith,
encouragement, and affection. And
Dennis Kelley extends his thanks to his
wife, Kate, and their son, Seamus, for
their love, patience, and inspiration.
Suzanne J. Crawford