Native Americans (chapter 2) Flashcards
What is Mother Earth?
The female earth spirit, personification of nature.
Heart of nature.
What is peyote? What was it used for?
Peyote is a small cactus from Rio Grande Vally.
Used to produce sensory and psychic experiences. Produced hallucinations and visions.
Lasted 24 hours. Used religiously.
When did the people identified as native Americans arrive on the continent?
15000 to 20000 years ago. They have lived in nearly every section of America since.
What is our primary source of Native American knowledge prior to European arrival come from?
Archaeology.
What is Animism?
Belief that trees, rocks, rivers, plants, and animals are spiritually alive.
Hunting
Hunter prayed for spirit before hunt, asked animal for forgiveness after.
Only animals that were needed were killed
Nothing was wasted. Used every part.
Also a religion pursuit. Animals had similar spirits.
Sun Dance
Summer celebration preformed by Native Americans of the Great Plains. Done to achieve visions.They gather in a lodge built for this. At the center of lodge is a special chosen sacred pole. Dance last for 3 days and nights. Dancers fast and dance.
Medicine Bundles.
Made from the hides of bones, plants, and minerals,
A source of spiritual power.
Greatly valued by those who made them and next generations who treated them as living beings.
What are Taboos?
Actions, circumstances, persons, objects etc which owing to their dangerousness fall outside the normal everyday categories of existence
Examples of Taboos
Menstruation in women
Avoidance of the dead. Spirits of the dead could haunt living, cause bad dreams. Buried far away
What is the Vision Quest?
Young people at the time of puberty would go into the woods alone, usually with several days of fasting. Done to try to see spirits, often seen are animals. The animal seem becomes the guardian of the person. After the vision, the person is welcomed back as an adult. A rite of passage.
Medicine man.
Special is connected with NA. specialized in healing. Though that sickness was an invasion of the body by a foreign object, job of the healer to remove object. Spirits would appear after rituals and assist in healing process.
What are the 2 souls?
When someone dies, one soul is the life or breath of the body. This one dies. The second soul wanders about during dreams or leaves after sickness. After death this soul goes to the land of the dead.
Land of the dead.
Sometimes considered a happy place, or place of sadness. Seems to be a continuation of the current life on another plane of existence. All dead go here. Some help the dead get here by burying them with food and water.
What was the first act settlers?
Convert native Americans to Christianity.
