Need to say this from the start.
Unfortunately I was wise enough to manage to erase the scans I had with the research sketchbook, that also had spontaneous sketches in it...but it's ok, I still have all the info with the things that got into that sketchbook.
TOTEMS
A totem is a being, object, or symbol representing
an animal or plant that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family,
clan, group, lineage, or tribe, reminding them of their ancestry (or mythic
past).
In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it
is called a totem.
Normally this belief is accompanied by a totemic myth. They
have been around for many years.
They are usually in the shape of an animal,
and every animal has a certain personality, e.g Owl:
The Owl - Wisdom, silent and swift and wise.
Although the term is of Ojibwe origin in North
America, totemistic
beliefs are not limited to Native Americans and Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Similar
totem-like beliefs have been historically present in societies throughout much
of the world, including Africa, Arabia, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, Western
Europe, and the Arctic polar region.
In modern times, some single individuals, not otherwise
involved in the practice of a tribal religion, have chosen to adopt a personal spirit
animal helper, which has special meaning to them, and may refer to this as
a totem.
This non-traditional usage of the term is prevalent in the New Age
movement and the mythopoetic men's movement.
Native
North American totems:
The word totem comes from the
Ojibway word dodaem and means "brother/sister kin".
It is the
archetypal symbol, animal or plant of hereditary clan affiliations.
People from
the same clan have the same clan totem and are considered immediate family.
It
is taboo to marry someone of the same clan.
The Ojibway scholar Basil H.
Johnston defines dodaem, or totem, as "that from which I draw my purpose,
meaning, and being," and states that "the bonds that united the
Ojibway-speaking people were the totems."
He further asserts that the
feeling of oneness among people that occupy a vast territory is based not on
political, economic, or religious considerations but on totemic symbols that
"made those born under the signs one in function, birth, and
purpose."
This means that men and women belonging to the same totem regarded
one another as brothers and sisters having kinship obligations to each other.
In North America, there is a certain
feeling of affinity between a kin group or clan and its totem.
There are taboos
against killing clan animals, as humans are kin to the animals whose totems
they represent. In some cases, totem spirits are clan protectors and the center
of religious activity.
North
American totem poles:
Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest of North America are monumental poles of heraldry;
the word totem is derived from the Ojibwe
word odoodem [oˈtuːtɛm], meaning "his kinship group".
They feature many different designs
(bears, birds, frogs, people, and various supernatural beings and aquatic
creatures) that function as crests of families or chiefs.
They recount stories
owned by those families or chiefs, and/or commemorate special occasions.
DREAMCATCHERS
In some Native American cultures, a dreamcatcher (or dream catcher; Lakota: iháŋbla gmunka,
Ojibwe: asabikeshiinh,
the inanimate form of the word for "spider" or Ojibwe: bawaajige
nagwaagan meaning "dream snare") is a handmade object based on a willow
hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web.
The dreamcatcher is then decorated with sacred items such
as feathers and beads.
Origin:
Dreamcatchers originated with the Ojibwe people and were later adopted by some
neighboring nations through intermarriage and trade. It wasn't until the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, that they
were adopted by Native Americans of a number of different nations. Some consider the
dreamcatcher a symbol of unity among the various Indian Nations, and a general
symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures. However, many other Native Americans have come to
see dreamcatchers as over-commercialized, offensively misappropriated and misused by non-Natives.
The Ojibwe people have an ancient legend as to the origin
of the dreamcatcher. Storytellers used to speak of the Spider Woman, known as
Asibikaashi, she took care of the children and the people on the land.
Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it was
difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children.
So, the mothers and
grandmothers would weaved magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and
sinew or cordage made from plants. The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad
dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind. Once the sun rises, all
bad dreams just disappear.
American ethnographer Frances Densmore writes in her book Chippewa Customs:
Even infants were provided with
protective charms. Examples of these are the "spiderwebs" hung on the
hoop of a cradle board. These articles consisted of wooden hoops about
3½ inches in diameter filled with an imitation of a spider's web made of
fine yarn, usually dyed red. In old times this netting was made of nettle
fiber. Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they
"caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and
holds whatever comes in contact with it."
Traditionally, the Ojibwe construct
dreamcatchers by tying sinew strands in a web around a small round or
tear-shaped frame of willow (in a way roughly similar to their method for
making snowshoe webbing). The resulting
"dream-catcher", hung above the bed, is used as a charm to protect
sleeping people, usually children, from nightmares.
The Ojibwe believe that a
dreamcatcher changes a person's dreams. According to Konrad J. Kaweczynski,
"Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through… Bad dreams would
stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day." Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers
to the sleeper.
Another explanation of Lakota
origin, "Nightmares pass through the holes and out of the window. The good
dreams are trapped in the web, and then slide down the feathers to the sleeping
person."
Dreamcatcher
Parts:
When dreamcatchers were originally
made, the Ojibwe people used willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from
plants.
The shape of the dreamcatcher is a circle because it represents how
giizis- the sun, moon, month- travel each day across the sky.
There is meaning to every part of the dreamcatcher from the
hoop to the beads embedded in the webbing. The strings, or sinews are tied at several points on the
circle, with the number of points on the dreamcatcher having different
meanings:
-13 points- the 13 phases of the moon
-8 points-the number of legs on
the spider woman of the dreamcatcher legend
-7 points- the seven prophecies of
the grandfathers
-6 points- an eagle or courage
-5 points-the star.
The feathers placed at the bottom of the dreamcatcher also
had meaning. It meant breath, or air, it is essential for life. If an owl
feather was used, it means wisdom, which was a woman's feather. IF an eagle's
feather was used it is meant for courage, and was a man's feather.
SHAMANISM AND MEDICINE MEN/WOMEN
Native
American and First Nations cultures have diverse religious
beliefs. There was never one universal Native American religion or spiritual
system.
Though many Native American cultures have traditional healers,
ritualists, singers, mystics,
lore-keepers and "Medicine People", none of them ever used, or use,
the term "shaman" to describe these religious leaders.
Rather, like
other indigenous cultures the world over, their spiritual functionaries are
described by words in their own languages, and in many cases are not taught to
outsiders.
Many of these indigenous religions
have been grossly misrepresented by outside observers and anthropologists, even
to the extent of superficial or seriously mistaken anthropological accounts
being taken as more authentic than the accounts of actual members of the
cultures and religions in question. Often these accounts suffer from "Noble Savage"-type romanticism and racism.
Some contribute to the fallacy that Native American cultures and religions are
something that only existed in the past, and which can be mined for data
despite the opinions of Native communities.
Not all Indigenous communities have
roles for specific individuals who mediate with the spirit world on behalf of
the community. Among those that do have this sort of religious structure,
spiritual methods and beliefs may have some commonalities, though many of these
commonalities are due to some nations being closely related, from the same
region, or through post-Colonial governmental policies leading to the combining
of formerly independent nations on reservations. This can sometimes lead to the
impression that there is more unity among belief systems than there was in antiquity.
Navajo
medicine men and women, known as "Hatałii", use several methods to diagnose the
patient's ailments. The Hatałii will select a specific healing song for
that type of ailment. Navajo healers must be able to correctly perform a
traditional healing ceremony from beginning to end. If they do not, the
ceremony will not work. Training a Hatałii to perform ceremonies is extensive,
arduous, and takes many years. The apprentice learns everything by watching his
teacher, and memorizes the words to all the songs. Many times, a medicine man
or woman cannot learn all sixty of the traditional ceremonies, so will opt to
specialize in a select few.
Extirpation
in North America:
With the arrival of European settlers
and colonial administration, the practice of
Native American traditional beliefs was discouraged and Christianity was
imposed upon the indigenous people. In most communities, the traditions were
not completely eradicated, but rather went underground, and were practiced
secretly until the prohibitive laws were repealed.
About 1888, a mass movement known as
the Ghost Dance started among the Paviotso (a branch
of the Pah-Utes in Nevada) and swept through many tribes of Native
Americans.
The
belief was that through practicing the Ghost Dance, a messiah
would come with rituals that would make the white man disappear and bring back
game and dead native Americans.
This spread to the Plains tribes, who were starving due to
the depletion of the buffalo. Some Sioux, the Arapahos, Cheyennes and Kiowas
accepted the doctrine.
This form of ceremony was brutally suppressed by the
United States military with the death of 128 Sioux at the massacre of Wounded Knee.
During the last hundred years,
thousands of Native American and First Nations children from many different communities were sent into Indian boarding schools in an effort to destroy tribal
languages, cultures and beliefs.
"Medicine man" or "medicine woman"
are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other
indigenous or aboriginal peoples. Anthropologists tend to prefer the term
"shaman,"
a specific term for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic
peoples of Siberia.
The medicine man and woman in
North America
Role in native society:
The primary function of these "medicine elders"
is to secure the help of the spirit world, including the Great
Spirit (Wakan Tanka in the language of the Lakota
Sioux), for the
benefit of the entire community.
Sometimes the help sought may be for the sake of healing disease,
sometimes it may be for the sake of healing the psyche, sometimes the goal is to promote
harmony between human groups or between humans & nature. So the term
"medicine man/woman" is not entirely inappropriate, but it greatly
oversimplifies and also skews the depiction of the people whose role in society
complements that of the chief. These people are not the Native American
equivalent of the Chinese "barefoot doctors", herbalists,
nor of the emergency medical technicians who ride rescue vehicles.
To be recognized as the one who performs this function of
bridging between the natural world and the spiritual world for the benefit of
the community, an individual must be validated in his role by that community.
Medicine men and women study through a medicine society or from a single
teacher.
Cultural context:
An Ojibwa Midew
("medicine man") preparing an herbal remedy.
The term "medicine people" is commonly used in
Native American communities, for example, when Arwen Nuttall (Cherokee) of
the National Museum of the American
Indian writes, "The knowledge possessed by medicine people is
privileged, and it often remains in particular families."
Native Americans tend to be quite reluctant to discuss
issues about medicine or medicine people with non-Indians.
In some cultures,
the people will not even discuss these matters with Indians from other tribes.
In most tribes medicine elders are not expected to advertise or introduce
themselves as such. As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to a Native person
about religious beliefs or ceremonies is often viewed with suspicion.
One example of this was the Apache medicine cord or Izze-kloth,
whose purpose and use by Apache medicine elders was a mystery to nineteenth century
ethnologists because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred
that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about
them."
The 1954 version of Webster's New World Dictionary of
the American Language, reflects the poorly grounded perceptions of the
people whose use of the term effectively defined it for the people of that
time: "a man supposed to have supernatural powers of curing disease and
controlling spirits." In effect, such definitions were not explanations of
what these "medicine people" were to their own communities, but
instead reported on the consensus of socially and psychologically remote
observers when they tried to categorize these individuals.
The term "medicine man/woman" like the term "shaman",
has been criticized by Native Americans, as well as other specialists in the
fields of religion and anthropology.
The term "medicine man/woman" was also frequently
used by Europeans to refer to African traditional healers, also known as "witch
doctors" or "fetish men/women".
RITUAL MASKS
Ritual masks occur throughout the world, and although they
tend to share many characteristics, highly distinctive forms have developed.
The function of the masks may be magical or religious; they may appear in rites
of passage or as a make-up for a form of theatre.
Equally masks may disguise a
penitent or preside over important ceremonies; they may help mediate with
spirits, or offer a protective role to the society who utilise their powers.
Biologist Jeremy Griffith has suggested that ritual masks, as
representations of the human face, are extremely revealing of the two
fundamental aspects of the human psychological condition: firstly, the
repression of a cooperative, instinctive self or soul; and secondly, the
extremely angry state of the unjustly condemned conscious thinking egocentric
intellect.
North
America:
Arctic Coastal groups have tended towards
rudimentary religious practice but a highly evolved and rich mythology,
especially concerning hunting.
In some areas annual shamanic
ceremonies involved masked dances and these strongly abstracted masks are
arguably the most striking artifacts produced in this region.
Inuit groups vary widely and do not
share a common mythology or language.
Not surprisingly their mask traditions
are also often different, although their masks are often made out of driftwood,
animal skins, bones and feathers.
Pacific Northwest Coastal indigenous groups were generally highly skilled woodworkers.
Their masks were often
master-pieces of carving, sometimes with movable jaws, or a mask within a mask,
and parts moved by pulling cords.
The carving of masks was an important feature
of wood craft, along with many other features that often combined the
utilitarian with the symbolic, such as shields, canoes, poles and houses
.
Woodland tribes, especially in the
North-East and around the Great Lakes, cross-fertilized culturally with one another.
The Iroquois
made spectacular wooden ‘false face’ masks, used in healing ceremonies
and carved from living trees.
These masks appear in a great variety of shapes,
depending on their precise function.
Pueblo craftsmen produced impressive work
for masked religious ritual, especially the Hopi and Zuni.
The kachinas, god/spirits, frequently take the
form of highly distinctive and elaborate masks that are used in ritual dances.
These are usually made of leather with appendages of fur, feathers or leaves.
Some cover the face, some the whole head and are often highly abstracted forms.
Navajo masks appear to be inspired by the
Pueblo prototypes.
In more recent times, masking is a
common feature of Mardi Gras traditions, most notably in New Orleans. Costumes and masks (originally
inspired by masquerade balls) are frequently worn by krewe members on Mardi Gras Day.
Laws
against concealing one's identity with a mask are suspended for the day.
FETISHISM
Since prehistoric times, Native
American sculptures have been very popular.
Archeologists have found many
carvings such as fetishes. Fetishes are the Native American sculptures or
carvings of animals that are often used in religious ceremonies.
The
Native Americans believe that these fetishes have supernatural energies.
Many times today, especially the Zuni still carve fetishes.
This beautiful art
form may be decorated with stones, shells, and feathers.
The earliest form of Native American
sculptures such as fetishes were what the Zuni tribe called Ahlashiwe.
The Zuni believe that these sculptures were real animals that had been turned
to stone by the sons of the Sun Father.
This meant their life force was
still inside the stone and these fetishes were treated as very powerful.
Fetishes were also seen as powerful because they connected us to our planet and
the Native Americans believed that everything had an invisible spirit and
therefore held powers.
These Ahlashiwe served as a connection for the
Zuni people to the spirit world.
The animal sculptures were believed
to have contained the spirit of the animal it represented.
The Zuni believe
there were six animals that represented the six directions.
The mountain
lion represents the north.
This fetish can be used to protect people
going on long journey or working on long term projects.
The wolf
represents the east.
This fetish helps one when searching for game, but
also when searching for answers to their destiny.
The badger represents
the south.
This fetish helps people find the correct herbs for healing
ailments.
The bear represents the west.
This fetish too involves
healing, but not only the body, but also the spirit.
The mole represents
the earth.
This fetish can be used to protect crops.
The eagle
represents the sky.
This fetish also involved healing, but it can take
one into the spirit world where they can seek answers to questions about
healing.
Some Native American sculptures will
have a coral heart line on both sides. This heart line usually runs from
the mouth or nose to where the heart lies.
An arrowhead may symbolize the heart
line or life force.
Some fetishes may also come with decorations such as
turquoise, coral, an arrowhead, or feathers. These are considered
offerings to evoke the spirit of the fetish.
The Native Americans view the
fetishes as many view saints or a sacred statue. It can be used when you
need to pray or meditate.
The animal fetish also reminds us that we all
need aid with challenges from time to time. In addition, we realize that
all things live are interconnected with each other.
