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Cannibalism and infertility among the Lillooet, Thompson and Shuswap : the shaman as a sexual mediatorCalkowski, Marcia Stephanie January 1974 (has links)
This thesis attempts to demonstrate that the symbolic significance of food gathering among the Lillooet, Thompson, and Shuswap generates two major paradoxes, cannibalism and infertility, which arise from a sexual imbalance revealed by certain myths related to food gathering, and that the shaman is a potential mediator of these paradoxes. Initially, I suggest that an analysis of the symbol system of a culture affords an excellent access to native perspective if the analyst is able to avoid the influences of his ethnocentrism with respect to his methodology and selection of data. Thus, analytical methods must possess universal applicability, and the data (native categories of thought) might be selected from native solutions to problems occurring to all humans--e.g., cultural solutions and conceptions of those solutions to food gathering.
The second chapter considers some definitions of symbols
proposed by Geertz, Langer, and others and suggests a "working definition" of a symbol as a locus of logical operations.
It is then possible to apply structural methods of analysis (metaphor, binary opposition, transformation, et al) to a symbol system as structuralism professes to consider the universal structure of cognition.
In the third chapter, I provide some ethnographic notes concerning the manifestation of one underlying Plateau cultural principle, equality, to the general social structure of the Lillooet, Thompson, and Shuswap with respect to political
organization, food gathering, and the sexual division of labor. Although men and women are considered to be generally
equal, a strict distinction is maintained between sexual roles. Hence, I suggest that this balance plus necessary distinction might be termed a "sexual balance." Also, the chapter briefly considers the unusual capacities of shamans and suggests that, as shamans are not subject to restrictions imposed upon the normative group, they may be able to manipulate
the rigid sexual distinction if the sexual balance is upset.
The fourth and fifth chapters discuss the symbolic significance of food gathering. In the fourth chapter, I suggest that women maintain a metaphorical sexual relationship
with the roots they gather. As this relationship is strictly metaphorical, however, serious problems accrue when the relationship becomes literal and when men gather roots. Another myth succinctly states the ultimate results of a violation of a woman's metaphorical relationship with food. This violation generates an excessive cultural union or marriage between two men (necessarily infertile) and an excessive
natural union (between woman and tree) whose issue, blood transformed into blackberries, poses the problem of cannibalism to the people.
The fifth chapter suggests that women who hunt also pose a threat to the cognitive system as men appear to have a metaphorical sexual relationship with deer and other game animals. Two myths suggest a former intimate relationship between women and deer. Menstrual blood appears to function as a differentiator of women from deer. The chapter focuses on the logical implications of the hunting ventures of a cannibal woman. This woman not only opposes the role of women by hunting, but also possesses a snake-like vagina which offers death as opposed to life (as in childbirth).
The sixth chapter examines shamans (with respect to myths and ritual actions) as mediators of the two paradoxes, cannibalism and infertility. First, I discuss two myths relating the drilling and sucking practices of mosquitoes to those of thunder. These practices echo shamanic curative techniques. Also, the symbolic significance of the earth people's spiral ascent to the sky world parallels the significance
of the spiral in other contexts. Finally, some rituals and myths concerning shamanic performance consider certain problems (including improper sexual distinction, excessive sibling intimacy, and lack of potential spouses) which generate infertility.
The concluding chapter reviews the strategy for analysis and the logical implications of the symbolism of food gathering as well as the potential of the shaman to mediate paradoxes emerging from the logical implications. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
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Navajo ritual poetryLink, Margaret Erwin Schevill January 1942 (has links)
No description available.
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The structure of Jesuit-Guaraní relations in Paraguay, 1585-1641 : an ethnohistorical study of the "spiritual conquest"Blaker, Mark. January 1975 (has links)
No description available.
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The structure of Jesuit-Guaraní relations in Paraguay, 1585-1641 : an ethnohistorical study of the "spiritual conquest"Blaker, Mark. January 1975 (has links)
No description available.
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The primitive religion of the Southwest; an interpretationRussell, Luella Haney, Russell, Luella Haney January 1930 (has links)
No description available.
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The covenant chain of peace : metaphor and religious thought in seventeenth century Haudenosaunee council oratoryJohnston, Louise January 2004 (has links)
The phrase 'Covenant Chain' is unique in the English language and along with its antecedents---'linked arms', 'the rope', and the 'iron chain'---the Haudenosaunee established relationships with the Europeans. The 'Covenant Chain' has been the subject of extensive discussion since the mid-1980s when a group of scholars in Iroquois Studies published several volumes on the diplomacy of the Haudenosaunee during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most studies focus on the political aspects of the Covenant Chain and the role it played in creating and sustaining alliances. This study examines the meaning of the word 'covenant' and related ideas in the context of Haudenosaunee cosmology, history, culture and religious traditions. The numerous metaphors employed by the Haudenosaunee in council oratory and the many meanings associated with these different metaphors are discussed with a view to better understanding the Covenant Chain in relation to what Mohawk scholar Deborah Doxtator calls 'history as an additive process'. / In order to facilitate this discussion, the religious dimensions of covenant in European thought during this period are examined. While the basis of post-Reformation covenant theology differs radically from Haudenosaunee ideas of covenant, points of convergence do exist particularly in the area of political theory making. Johannes Althusius' (1557-1638) concept of 'symbiosis' is one such example. Surprisingly, Europeans who were involved in or who had knowledge of the Covenant Chain provide no theological discourse on it. Philosophical and theological discussions of the chain come from the Haudenosaunee themselves. / These relationships went well beyond contractual obligations and along with the idea of the 'middle line' which separates people and at the same time joins them together. Contrary to the widely accepted scholarly view that the chain---either the 'Covenant Chain' or the 'Iron Chain'---was associated only with alliances between the Haudenosaunee and the British, this study shows that the Haudenosaunee used the same expressions in their alliances with the French as well.
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The covenant chain of peace : metaphor and religious thought in seventeenth century Haudenosaunee council oratoryJohnston, Louise January 2004 (has links)
No description available.
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Interaction of myth and social contect in the village of Cape Mudge the myths of a people are bound into the total system of social relationsInglis, Joyce Gloria January 1965 (has links)
The problem around which this thesis is written
concerns the relation of myth to social organization in a
small society. The society chosen for intensive study is
Cape Madge, British Columbia, a Kwakiutl village of the
Southern Lekwiltok group on the Northwest coast of North
America.
That myth and social organization are bound in
together in a total system of social relations has been
demonstrated for primitive societies by such eminent
anthropologists as Raymond Firth, Bronislaw Malinowski, and
Sir Peter Buck for the Oceanic area. The material gathered
by Boas for the Kwakiutl of the Northwest coast of North
America implies the same for traditional Kwakiutl society.
Myths interact with all other elements of social structure
and organization, so that the total system of social relations
in the society is not to be understood without an understanding
of the role of myth in providing a wide frame of reference
within which the total social behavior of the members of the
society becomes significant. This proposition has been
accepted into the body of generalizations about primitive
society built up In the field of anthropology. It does not
Imply a conception of society as an apparatus maintaining the
culture as it is, since all cultures are changing by the
stresses inherent in social interaction and by the choices open to individuals. The empirical data brought forward in
this thesis to support the assumption that myth and social
organisation are bound together in a system of social
relationships demonstrate that such a system is not closed,
but open to adjustment without apparent opposition.
This thesis is an attempt to give fuller meaning
to the generalisation that the myths of a people are bound
into the total system of social relations. The proposition
advanced here is that even under conditions of advanced acculturation (to Western European culture) in a small once tribal society, myth will play a part. Where the old myths
fade, new ones will arise to take their places in the, changing social context. The alteration of social structure,
of social organisation, and of the roles played by
individuals will create the need for maintaining some ancient
myths that underwrite the worthiness of the individual and
group. New myths will arise to justify rapidly changing
patterns of behavior under the impact of Euro-American
culture. This proposition has been tested and supported by
the data derived from field work.
Upon the basis of the affirmation of this proposition
by data derived in a small society in the process of
rapid change, the above hypothesis may be generalised to
suggest that in all tribal societies moving rapidly into the
orbit of advanced ones, myth will not be lost. Just as social structure, social organization and the roles of individuals
will change feat be fitted into new configurations, so myth
will not disappear but be transfigured or newly created in
order to meet the needs of people for an understanding of
their changing existence.
The operation of myth and social context In Cape
Hudge society today is discussed in this thesis by reference
to the operation of myths in two important areas of social
organizations social control and values. The exploration
of myth in these areas touches upon most aspects of life in
the village.
Intensive field work was of one month's duration
in the summer of 1963 when I lived with my husband and three
children in the village but casual contacts and interest in
the village had extended over a ten-year period prior to the
formal study. The contacts made by my husband, two teen-age
children and on pre-school child extended the range of
social contacts very considerably. The definition of my
position as wife and mother was of prime importance to my
ready acceptance. The villagers had happily been introduced
to anthropologists through Helen Codere who left behind an
atmosphere of admiration and trust. The villagers expressed
the opinion that other villages were getting anthropologists
interested in them and they thought it was high time for
someone from the University to come again. The field work situation could not have been more propitious I wish to
express my sincere regard for the great achievements of
these people and my thanks for their generosity and
hospitality. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
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The Tlingit land otter complex : coherence in the social and shamanic orderBarazzuol, Richard A. January 1988 (has links)
This thesis deals with Tlingit notions about death, spirits, land otters and shamans. The linkage between these categories and their relationship to the social order are explored by examining Tlingit mythology. Particular myths are analyzed that embody the concepts and beliefs which the Tlingit used to deal with the unanswerable question: What happens when someone dies? Socially, there was a set pattern of ritual practices and a series of memorial feasts to dispense with the body and spirit of someone who died a normal death. Yet, there was an anomalous situation associated with death by drowning or being lost in the woods. The Tlingit indicated that people who died in this manner were taken by land otter spirits and could become shamans if certain conditions were met. This thesis contends that this
explanatory scenario was an important aspect of Tlingit cosmology, since it provided a means of illustrating the source of shamanic power, and also of how that power was related to the social aspects of Tlingit culture. The myths dealing with land otter possession offer information about how shamanic power was attained and also provide a glimpse into the importance of the role of the Tlingit shaman as a mediator between the social and the spiritual domains. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
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Original Sioux folk-loreHeinz, Elizabeth Allen. January 1941 (has links)
LD2668 .T4 1941 H41 / Master of Science
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