Ritual in Native American Traditions Essay

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For example in her essay on "Pagans, Converts, and Backsliders" Mary Young argues that a dialogue did occur between white and native culture, not simply in terms of a trade of goods and land, but also of religious worldviews.

According to Young, to view 'the native mindset' as a monolith is an error. Natives took a multifaceted view of their own religion, often creating a synchronistic faith of Christianity and traditional native movements and there is no "single metaphysical outlook" that can be characterized as Indian (Young 79). This sense of cultural dialogue stands in profound contrast to Martin, who refers to what he calls "the scythe of Christianity" cutting out Native American religion entirely from the history books as well as history itself (Martin 218). Additionally, Vine Deloria's essay, also included in the collection, on "Revision and Reversion" cautions against Martin's view of Native American thinking as impenetrable, arguing that this makes it impossible to 'do' Native American history at all -- a great loss, Deloria writes, to both whites and natives. As it currently stands, the current academic literature of Indian studies tends to take Martin's view and replaces new myths about the purity and environmental integrity of Native culture with old ones about savageness. The actual data about the differences between tribes, about different religions and worldview is rendered into a homogeneous entity, and even to make reference to 'Native Americans' is somewhat of a misnomer, given the great diversity of rituals, religions, and worldview of the Native American tribes.

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It seems clear that Native American culture is never static. Ultimately, a true grappling with the complex interrelation of cultures that occurred, as embodied in Mary Young's essay, for example, is much more fruitful and edifying. Calvin Martin's view seems paradoxical, to some degree -- even self-hating. He is a white historian arguing the impossibility of 'doing' native history by whites, writing from a post at a university outside of the tribal nations. Even Fixico's position to some degree is paradoxical, as he argues the separateness of the Indian worldview, even though he is bicultural individual. If one accepts Martin's argument that native cultures are biologically oriented, these cultures must have differed, based upon their geographical locations in the Americas, and much as Martin may dislike the impact of European and Christian culture, native religion and ritual undeniably changed, through the exchange of new material goods as well as cultures. The way that natives saw themselves, saw the world around them, and ultimately perceived their history changed as their material environment changed. Martin tries to make himself more of an apologist and a defender of Native culture as 'pure' than even many a Native American, and his attitude ignores those individuals, like in the Young essay who have adopted Christian concepts and rituals in a synergistic but ultimately creative fashion.

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