Customer Reviews (1)

Well worth the read........
This book is well worth the time it takes
to read and you will learn much from it.
I recommend it to all seeking knowledge. ... Read more

Book Description
In Mesoamerican Ritual Economy, scholars examine the extent to which economic processes were driven by and integrated with religious ritual in ancient Mesoamerica. The contributors explore how traditional rituals--human blood sacrifice and self-mutilation, "flowery wars" and battling butterfly warriors, sumptuous feasting with chocolate and tamales, and fantastic funerary rites--intertwined with all sectors of the economy. Examining the interplay between well-established religious rites and market forces of raw material acquisition, production, circulation, and consumption, this volume effectively questions the idea that materialism alone motivates the production, exchange, and use of objects.

Exploring the intersection of spirituality and materiality, Mesoamerican Ritual Economy will be of interest to all scholars studying how worldview and belief motivate economic behavior. The authors consider a diverse set of Mesoamerican cultural patterns in order to investigate the ways in which ritual and economic practices influenced each other in the operation of communities, small-scale societies, and state-level polities. ... Read more

Book Description
Long regarded as quaint curiosities or exotic pagan rites, the religious practices of Native Americans make up a rich, enduring legacy deserving of a place among the great spiritual traditions. The volume features a foreword written by Walter R. Echo-Hawk, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, whose legal experience includes cases involving religious freedom and reburial rights. This volume is available in paperback for the first time. Featuring more than 1,200 cross-referenced entries, this encyclopedia is a fascinating guide to the spiritual traditions of Native Americans in the United States and Canada, including coverage of beliefs about the afterlife, symbolism, creation myths, and vision quests; important ceremonies and dances; prominent American Indian religious figures; and events, legislation, and tribal court cases that have shaped the development of Native American religions.

Reviews:
Praise for the hardcover edition:
"...recommended." -Booklist ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Encyclopedis of Native American Religions
In a time of considerable misunderstanding, ignorance, and confusion with regard to the historica religions of Native Americans, this book supplies a much-needed resource for information and correction.I teach a course onNative American History and Culture and will use this book a requiredreading for my students.

It addresses an area of interest to them.Thebook will help the reader not only understand traditional beliefs andpractices but, also, the impact and consequences of contact with Europeansand other groups who were not Native American upon Native Americanreligions.

This book is a must-read for all serious students of NativeAmerican History and Culture. ... Read more

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Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

A beautiful book to be treasured and shared.
The Book Of Ceremonies is an intensely sensitive, reverent collection of Native American sacred songs, poems, stories, observations, and ceremonies.It's prayerful tone is beautifully underlined by the delicate, perfect black and white art work by the author's son, Carises Horn.Drawing from a variety of sources, The Book Of Ceremonies unifies and presents thoughts onPreparing, Greeting and Gratitude, Love, Marriage and Divorce, Birth and Death, Dreams and Visions, and Seasons and Healing.An additional list of recommended reading includes Native Heart: An American Indian Odyssey by Gabriel Horn, and other selected books by Kent Nerburn, Jason Gardner, and Loree Boyd.The Book Of Ceremonies is a beautiful book to be treasured and shared.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

Sacred and Mysterious Connections
The essays and poems in this collection, which would make a good gift book, are meaningful, and the American Indian tone is meditative and enriching. Even the cover, in dark colors and smooth to the hand, encourages contemplation.

Kinship with all beings
The primal wisdom that emanates from these ancient teachings lifts up the spiritual practice of reverence-one that is often lacking in modern times. Horn demonstrates a kind of radical amazement, a deep feeling tinged with both awe and wonder as he sees the sacred in all things. These ceremonies touch the heart because they arise out of a felt sense of participation in the universe, a kinship with all beings and with matter.

Ceremonial Richness
Anyone wanting ceremonial richness in their own lives will cherish this book and will feel emboldened to start where they are right now-even in the middle of a city, far from the kind of natural surroundings available to the ancients. "It is the spirit of the ceremony that is most important," reassures a grandmother. This is treasure to own and consult, a treasure to give.-SA

Excellent
This book is a beautiful collection of stories and references to ceremonies, a good addition to any library of books on native ways or shamanism.It is not a "cookbook" of rituals or ceremonies, but a book that honors the beliefs and energies behind the ceremonies as important. ... Read more

Book Description
On the Bloody Road to Jesus is a study of the rich religious legacy of the Chiricahua Apaches and its inevitable collision with Christianity. Beginning with Apache creation stories, H. Henrietta Stockel describes Chiricahua beliefs and ceremonies before going on to recount the conditions of the Spanish colonial frontier at the moment of conquest. Subsequent chapters trace events that culminated in the surrender of the Chiricahua Apaches in 1886, the twenty-seven years of incarceration as American prisoners of war in Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma, and the life-changing consequences of the children’s education in government-sponsored boarding schools.

Stockel portrays an unbroken sequence of economic motivations on the part of the Spanish, Mexican, and American governments, each eager to expand their respective territories. Equally unbroken was the resistance of the Apaches to indoctrination. According to Stockel, the Chiricahua Apaches never completely surrendered their traditional religion to Christianity. Like other syncretistic religions, their beliefs incorporated aspects of Christian dogma even while they protected their own religion from outsiders.

This is a complicated story rich in cross-cultural encounters on the battlefield, in mission churches, and in the classroom. Stockel’s research and writing bring to life the fierce resistance of a heroic people.

On the Bloody Road to Jesus is a study of the rich religious legacy of the Chiricahua Apaches and its inevitable collision with Christianity. ... Read more

Book Description
The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Their Ways of Life is a classic ethnography, originally published in 1928, that grew out of George Bird Grinnell's long acquaintance with the Cheyennes. In Volume I he wrote about the tribe's early history and migrations, customs, domestic life, social organization, hunting, amusements, and government. Volume II looks at its warmaking and warrior societies, healing practices and responses to European diseases, religious beliefs and rituals, and legends and prophecies surrounding the culture hero Sweet Medicine. Included are appendixes on early Cheyenne village sites, the formation of the Quilling Society, and notes on Cheyenne songs.George Bird Grinnell was a zoologist by training and an anthropologist by inclination. He accompanied Custer's Black Hills expedition as a naturalist in 1874 and from that time until his death in 1938 was closely associated with the Cheyennes and other Plains tribes. Other books by Grinnell available in Bison Book editions are Blackfoot Lodge Tales, Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales, By Cheyenne Campfires, and The Punishment of the Stingy and Other Indian Stories. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
As current interest surrounding Native American studies continues to grow, attention has often been given to the various religious beliefs, rituals, and customs of the diverse traditions across the country. But most treatments of the subject are cursory and encyclopedic and do not provide readers with the flavor of the living, modern traditions. Here, representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors--geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)--analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis. Covering such diverse ceremonies as the Muskogee (Creek) Busk, the Northwest Coast Potlatch, the Navajo and Apache menarche rituals, and the Anishnabe (Great Lakes area) Midewiwin seasonal gatherings, Paper takes a comparative approach, based on the study of human religion in general, and the special place of Native American religions within it. His book is informed by perspective gained through nearly fifty years of formal study and several decades of personal involvement, treating readers to a glimpse of the living religious traditions of Native American communities across the country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Covers spiritual realities, insights on human relationships, and the meanings behind various sacred ceremonies and rituals
Circle Of Life: Traditional Teachings Of Native American Elders is for any who would understand Native sacred teachings, bringing James David Audlin (Distant Eagle)'s lifetime study of oral traditions and ceremonies to general-interest audiences. From songs and ceremonies to visions, healings, and Native methods of worship, Circle Of Life covers spiritual realities, insights on human relationships, and the meanings behind various sacred ceremonies and rituals.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Special Book About the Cheyenne
Father Peter J. Powell's work with the Cheyenne is in a class by itself. His telling of stories in the mythic past of the Cheyenne have a depth of understanding worthy of Campbell, Zimmer and Eliade. So many books on the Native Americans are not satisfying because the authors do not know enough to ask the right questions and they merely repeat what other authors have written. Father Powell lived among the Cheyenne, became a very trusted informant and tells the stories with an uncommon grasp of the subject. His list of primary sources is impressive, more so as we learn who many of these people are and who their fathers, mothers and grandparents were. The way he moves from present to near past to distant past to mythic past and back to present reinforces Cheyenne belief that the distance between them is much shorter than our culture thinks. A wonderful source book, it fills in so many gaps between Grinnell, Hyde, Bent and Lavender--and takes us deeper than any of them.

An Exceptional Work
One way of regarding what Father Powell accomplished in his epic treatise on Northern Cheyenne history is look at Vine Deloria's appraisal in "God Is Red."Deloria states: "Powell's work, particularly his style of exposition, was based primarily on conversations with reservation people and reflected their language.An Anglican priest who operated St. Augustine's Indian Center in Chicago, Powell viewed all religious expressions as sacred and consequently treated the Cheyenne tradition with respect.His book did not take the superficial approach of listing the quaint beliefs of the Cheyennes as if the reader and the author were beyond such superstitions.'Sweet Medicine' impressed Indians with the validity of their own traditions."Deloria's comments on Powell's work deserve serious consideration.After all, Deloria set the tone in Chpt. 4 of "Custer Died For Your Sins" for criticizing the historical relationship between anthropology (be it of the professional or self-taught variety) and American Indian communities.The fact that Deloria points to "Sweet Medicine" as an exceptional work is an indication that the study of American Indian culture and history is possible--even by non-Indians--when the resulting discourse is driven by indigenous sources of knowledge, as opposed to forcing research to fit the expectations of a largely non-Indian Academy.

Authoritative work
Some people don't like the idea of a priest writing a book about Cheyenne myth and ritual. Too bad for them. Who better to understand it than one who is completely accepted by the Cheyenne people and, indeed, one of the holders of the sacred regalia of the Arrows and Medicine Hat? Peter Powell has done the world an undying favor by meticulously recording, with the utmost exactitude, in both words and pictures the sacred rites (and their meaning!) of the Cheyenne people? Ignore the reviews of those who just don't -or can't- get the point of this magistral work and instead buy it and enter into a magical world.

A "don't buy this book" kinda Book
when I saw it's non-authenticity, I returned it for full credit.Fr. Powell has been duped!

Sweet Medicine is beautiful, sensitive, and scholarly
Father Peter J. Powell (who, contrary to the misinformation passed in another reader's review, is an Episcopalian priest) is the premium scholar of Cheyenne culture and religion.A Sun Dance priest himself, adopted bythe Cheyenne, Father Powell renders the beautiful story of Sweet Medicinein evocative prose.After reading his work, I was privileged to meetFather Powell on a sad, but touching occasion, when he presided over thefuneral of the great Cheyenne educator Bill Tall Bull in Lame Deer, Montanaseveral years ago.Father Powell is held in great reverence by theNorthern Cheyenne people, and on that day was sought out after the serviceby countless members of the tribe with greetings, hugs, and thanks.Icanrecommend SWEET MEDICINE without reservation to anyone with interest inPlains Indian culture. ... Read more

Book Description
Shamanism is part of the spiritual life of nearly all Native North Americans. This bibliography gives the reader access to a wealth of information on shamanism from the Bering Strait to the Mexican border and from Maine to Florida. It includes articles and books focusing on the spiritual connections of Native Americans to the world through shamans. The books covered compare practices from tribe to tribe, make distinctions between witchcraft or sorcery and shamanism, and discuss the artifacts and tools of the trade. Many are well illustrated, including collections from the nineteenth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Lesson in SpiritualGrowth
The Seven Visions of Bull Lodge is one of a very limited literary source or documentation of the Gros Ventre (Grow-Von) American Indain Tribe of Northern Montana.Known to themselves as the White Clay People, Bull Lodge was a powerful spiritual healer and warrior, being one of the last fully authorized Keepers of the White Clay People's sacred Feathered Pipe.The information comes from the Depression Era (1930) as told by Bull Lodge's daughter, Garter Snake.Fred Gone translates the story of her father's spiritual and leadership journey.George Horse Capture, Sr. ed. the text to introduce the reader to the issues and worldviews of the White Clay People.

Anyone interested in authentic tradtional culture and an understanding of the sacred lands of Montana will find the book of interest.Anyone seeking to learn more about the Great Plains Cultures will find this book insightfull. ... Read more

Book Description
The Hopi Snake dance was first described in 1884 and through many articles over the last 100 years has become one of the best known of all aboriginal American Indian ceremonies. Yet, despite its notoriety, it was, and continues to be, little understood by those who are not Hopi Indians. Visitors to the Hopi’s remote reservation in the Arizona desert watch in amazement as members of the Hopi Snake Society, males of all ages, dance with living rattlesnakes clenched between their teeth.

The ceremony ensures plenty of spring water and abundant rain for the maturing crops, and dramatizes the legend of the Snake Clan as the Snake Priests wash the snakes ritually, and carry them in their teeth during the public dance.

This revised edition of the classic Bureau of American Ethnology reports from 1894-98 includes a new preface from the publisher, and additional period photographs of the ceremony.

This revised edition of the classic Bureau of American Ethnology reports from 1894-98 includes a new preface from the publisher, and additional period photographs of the ceremony. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful reference guide!
This is a wonderful book to pick if you are looking for a great selection of symbols, from a variety of tribes and regions.The pictures are intricate and rich in detail.Included next to each symbol are an explanation, a story, or legend for a more informative reading.There is also a section on totem animals with a brief explanation on how to find your own totems.And in case you don't know which particular region a tribe is from, the author has included a rough map in the back for this purpose.I would also recommend "Authentic Indian Designs", edited by Maria Naylor. ... Read more

Book Description
Pathways of Memory and Power crosses the disciplinary boundary where anthropology and history meet, exploring the cultural frontier of the colonial and postcolonial Andes. Thomas A. Abercrombie uses his fieldwork in the Aymara community of Santa Barbara de Culta, Bolivia, as a starting point for his ambitious examination of the relations between European forms of historical consciousness and indigenous Andean ways of understanding the past. Writing in an inviting first-person narrative style, Abercrombie confronts the ethics of fieldwork by comparing ethnographic experience to the power-laden contexts that produce historical sources.
Making clear the early and deep intermingling of practices and world views among Spaniards and Andeans, Christians and non-Christians, Abercrombie critiques both the romanticist tendency to regard Andean culture as still separate from and resistant to European influences, and the melodramatic view that all indigenous practices have been obliterated by colonial and national elites. He challenges prejudices that, from colonial days to the present, have seen Andean historical knowledge only in mythic narratives or narratives of personal experience. Bringing an ethnographer’s approach to historiography, he shows how complex Andean rituals that hybridize European and indigenous traditions—such as libation dedications and llama sacrifices held on saints’ day festivals—are in fact potent evidence of social memory in the community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent read on indigenous world-views
Two important elements of social "habit memory" processes strike me in Pathways of Memory and Power.The first is the apparent ease with which the colonial power asserted its program for "social amnesia" through a physical restructuring of social space (rectilinear, functional living spatial constructions) and time (the marking of Church calendrical and daily time, basically obliterating indigenous conceptions of time).The second is the reinterpretation of public and private to suit a colonial "moral code" based on the ritual performances of excessive drinking and bloodletting.These systematic, institutionalized policies effectively dismantled the indians' social habit-memories-replacing them with new ones modeled on Castilian life.

The long-standing issue of religious syncretism is (thankfully) questioned, through an understanding of how the indigenous people create distinctions between the "more Christian" and "more Andean" aspects of their deities and religions.The quipu system of knotting preserves a physical remembering which was transformed, but not destroyed, by Christianity. As Abercrombie states, "the techniques may have remained the same, but the content, the memories, were changing" (p. 260).The "imagenes de bulto," which were introduced by colonial priests, replaced the indigenous idols with Catholic saints, and initiated a long process of revisionist iconography for the indians from one source to another.The llama, as an animal that closely (to the indians) resembled humans in their social interactions, acted as a replacement for the human sacrificial victim; this helped ease the sacrificial rituals into a more acceptable Christian realm of possibilities.The origin myth, with its "multiple, not unique" origins was contentious; although re-reading and appropriating the Christ-like image of Tunupa, and the "great flood" and "tower of Babel" stories, led to a deeper understanding by colonial powers in the religion of their subjugated workers.

The historical grounding in colonial documents led to a deeper, richer, fuller picture of present-day ethnography.I think this method serves to illuminate so many elements in everyday life that seem otherwise "meaningless" or where pre-literate peoples have not developed a "linear" sense of history, as their colonizers encouraged.The ability to recreate, from historical documents, a more complete view of indigenous concepts about space, time, self, and history, is invaluable.It strikes me as a process of reading "through" (not between) the lines of the colonial texts-into the minds of the colonizers-in a way that is instructive in both the development of colonial systems for creation of dominant ideologies, and how the indigenous people actual recreated their colonizers through an adaptation of their habit-memories into a new (world) context. ... Read more

Book Description
With abundant photographs, more than 150 in color, NATIVE NORTH AMERICA illustrates tribal life, sacred arenas, spiritual traditions, and artifacts of the indigenous peoples of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Navajo of the American southwest.

Beginning with a brief history of Native Americans, Larry Zimmerman and Brian Molyneaux explore individual culture areas, region by region. They discuss Native American spiritual observances, including personal and communal rituals, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. Through descriptions of the powwow, rites of passage, plant rituals, oral storytelling, dreams, the ghost dance, and the drum, the authors provide a sensitive introduction to Native American spiritual traditions and examines issues that face Native Americans today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Vividly illustrated, very highly recommended
Larry Zimmerman and Brian Molyneaux successfully collaborate in Native North America to illustrate tribal life, sacred arenas, spiritual traditions, and artifacts of the indigenous peoples of North America, from the Inuit of the Canadian north to the Navajo of the American southwest. After a brief introductory history of Native Americans, individual aboriginal cultures are explored, region by region. The informative surveys include Native American spiritual observances, personal and communal rituals, initiation rites, and curing ceremonies. The reader is provided informative descriptions of the powwow, rites of passage, planting rituals, oral storytelling, dreams, the ghost dance, and the drum. Of special note is an examination of issues facing Native Americans today. A very highly recommended title for students of Native American studies and history, Native North America is vividly illustrated with more than 160 color photographs.

Native North America Review
Great overall introduction to the indigeneous peoples of North America.Author succintly covers the basics.Have used this book in American Indian World Views class for a number of years as a required text.Highly reccommended as an introductory overview of topics fom identity through creation stories to current issues, etc. Gerri Parker, Chair American Indian StudiesDe Anza College ... Read more