2.8

Terms in Animism and Culture
Animism – giving life to inanimate objects, everything is interconnected, Mother Earth, Father Moon, defines each indiv group within the sphere in Native Amer. Society

Medicine Society – would include aspects of Shaman’s and sand paintings, society of faces, Reinforce maintain, balance and order, A society through ritual restores order and balance.

Origin Tale/ Emergence Story
Vision Quest – through meditation, contact with Spiritual beings etc.., most often applied to Native American, in order to learn who and why you are and what your place is

Shaman – born and not made (unlike priests), not witch doctors
Dualism (visible v Invisible Natures) – visible and invisible world = mass and energy


Overcoming the popular myth of the Indians/ Native Americans – corruption via popular culture, years & years of not understanding and romanticizing the Native American culture. (men are strong and wise, women are sex objects)
All jewelry and pots were viewed with an aniministic view

Black Elk – refers to “the great circle of the world”
Circular world, no beginning and no end
Drums are circular
Medicine wheel is circular
Circle of the Sun Dance
Axis Mundi = center of the world *columns often form an axis mundi
Most art creates a microcosmic version of the a macrocosm world, a way for us to perceive a larger vision


Kachina/Katsina (*2 diff spellings)
More than 500 diff Kachina
A spiritual being made tangible through dance
Represent the invisible world made visible
There are both male and female
There is male rain (violent) and female rain (gentle)
Come down for 6 months of the year and then go back
Starts in December
Tihu = a doll representation of a kachina, helping to identify, help girls to understand since men are the only ones that are permitted to dance
Pueblo Bauneto – rounded, have a solar alignment, squares were houses, circles were sacred spaces
Kiva – solar alignment, windows were in most, light would filter though and light particular niches, a giant sundial or giant clock/calendar, has in it’s center a protective opening (sipapu – birth hole) – people believe they emerged from the emergence stories, (this is where we were born), makes is sacred and the axis mundi
Prior to the raid by the Spanish, Kiva had a dome over the top
Decision was made to drop the kiva underground so that they couldn’t be seen and maintain the validity of culture, their covenant in the face of a larger culture that didn’t want them to do so

Navaho Sand Painting = gateway, liminal, threshhold
More about the process of ritual
Are directional
Deal with color and form
Geologic typography
Deal with world above and world below (father night and mother earth) earth has the 3 most vital crops = the 3 sisters ->corn, squash, beans, tobacco
Long process of ritual purification, of collecting earth in various colors, grinding the paint and setting up
*very fine grains are necessary
opens in the east for the sunrise, are directional for N, S, E and W
cosmic diagram (mandala) to bring in the powers of the ritual world
white represents the dawn sky
black “ the night sky (black means danger)