This volume contains the papers read at the Leiden Conference on Canonization and Decanonization of 9-10 January 1997. The emphasis in this rich and wide-ranging contribution to the subject is on the processes of canonization and decanonization in several religions and on the phenomenon of religious canons as well.
It has two sections: (De)canonization and the History of Religions, and (De)canonization and Modern Society. In the first section processes out of which canons eventually emerge are highlighted in contributions devoted to particular religions, viz. African religions, Judaism and Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. The articles of the second section are of particular relevance to the contemporary situation in the western world, dealing with aspects such as forms of the survival of a canon in processes of modernization, canonization and the challenge of plurality, and canonization and hermeneutics. The reader may benefit even more from this volume as it contains also "An Annotated Bibliography on the subject.

In this unique collection, some thirty Hopi elders reveal for the first time in written form the Hopi world-view.

Quest for Harmony provides a basic understanding of the cultures and spiritual teachings of four Native American nations--Lenape (Delaware), Ani'-Yun'-wiya (Cherokee), Lakota (Sioux), and Dine (Navajo). The text is always sympathetic, respectful, and, when possible, presented in the voices of Native Americans. Each nation is described in terms of its name, traditional location(s), present population, language, and traditional social organization. At least one story of origin is provided for each nation, followed by a survey of its history from earliest documented times until recent times. At the heart of each chapter, the spiritual worldview and rituals of the nation being discussed are introduced, with sections on cosmology, gods and spirits, rituals, and other issues particular to that nation. Critical issues common to Native Americans such as the pannational spiritual movements and the environment are also covered. Quest for Harmony makes clear that not only are Native American spiritual traditions very much alive, they are also in the midst of a dramatic revival.

Addressing problems of objectivity and authenticity, Sabine MacCormack reconstructs how Andean religion was understood by the Spanish in light of seventeenth-century European theological and philosophical movements, and by Andean writers trying to find in it antecedents to their new Christian faith.

"Nelson spent a year among the Koyukon people of western Alaska, studying
their intimate relationship with animals and the land. His chronicle of
that visit represents a thorough and elegant account of the mystical
connection between Native Americans and the natural world."--"Outside"
"This admirable reflection on the natural history of the Koyukon River
drainage in Alaska is founded on knowledge the author gained as a student
of the Koyukon culture, indigenous to that region. He presents these
Athapascan views of the land--principally of its animals and Koyukon
relationships with those creatures--together with a measured account of his
own experiences and doubts. . . . For someone in search of a native
American expression of 'ecology' and natural history, I can think of no
better place to begin than with this work."--Barry Lopez, "Orion Nature "
"Quarterly"
"Far from being a romantic attempt to pass on the spiritual lore of Native
Americans for a quick fix by others, this is a very serious ethnographic
study of some Alaskan Indians in the Northern Forest area. . . . He has
painstakingly regarded their views of earth, sky, water, mammals and every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. He does admire their love of
nature and spirit. Those who see the world through his eyes using their
eyes will likely come away with new respect for the boreal forest and those
who live with it and in it, not against it."--"The Christian Century"
"In "Make Prayers to the Raven" Nelson reveals to us the Koyukon
beliefs and attitudes toward the fauna that surround them in their forested
habitat close to thelower Yukon. . . . Nelson's presentation also gives
rich insights into the Koyukon subsistence cycle through the year and into
the hardships of life in this northern region. The book is written with
both brain and heart. . . . This book represents a landmark: never before
has the integration of American Indians with their environment been so well
spelled out."--Ake Hultkrantz, "Journal of Forest History"

This book provides an introduction Native American religious traditions, placing them within their historical, social, and political contexts. The book focuses on three diverse indigenous traditions: the Lakota of the Northern Plains, the Dine (Navajo) of the Southwest, and Coast Salish of the Pacific Northwest. This book highlights their distinct oral traditions, ceremonial practices, the impact of colonialism on Native religious life, and the ways in which indigenous communities of North America have responded, and continue to respond, to colonialism and Euroamerican cultural hegemony. For people interested in the study of Native American Religious Traditions.

Joel Martin draws his narrative from folk stories, rituals, and even landscapes to trace the development of Native American religion from ancient burial mounds, through interactions with European conquerors and missionaries, and on to the modern-day rebirth of ancient rites and beliefs.

"Spirit Wars" is an exploration of the ways in which the destruction of spiritual practices and beliefs of native peoples in North America has led to conditions of collective suffering--a process sometimes referred to as cultural genocide. Ronald Niezen approaches this topic through wide-ranging case studies involving different colonial powers and state governments: the seventeenth-century Spanish occupation of the Southwest, the colonization of the Northeast by the French and British, nineteenth-century westward expansion and nationalism in the swelling United States and Canada, and twentieth-century struggles for native people's spiritual integrity and freedom. Each chapter deals with a specific dimension of the relationship between native peoples and non-native institutions, and together these topics yield a new understanding of the forces directed against the underpinnings of native cultures.

A compilation from years of teachings on angels. It treats "walking with angels" as something we can make an aspect of our path, like meditation or healing. Topics include the qualities needed to see and make contact with the angels; the parallel life-streams of humanity and the angels; the chakras and the angels associated with them; feeling the angelic presence in nature; how to work with the angels for healing; the great angels of the sun and the planets; angelic guidance; ritual and ceremony; and the archangel Michael.

The Zuni have traditionally used small stone carvings of animal figures as power objects and mediators between themselves and the spirit world. Any object that has special meaning can be used as a fetish. In this fascinating, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the fetishes of the Zuni people of New Mexico, Hal Zina Bennett explores key principles of Native American spirituality and how early Zuni teachings can benefit us all today. He provides an excellent guide to Zuni traditions and an intriguing picture of their early life, along with detailed instructions for using fetishes for mediation, reflection, and insight in modern life. He describes key fetish figures, including the Guardian of the Six Regions, their legendary meanings, and the personal qualities each figure can support and help its owner develop.

In explaining the nature of fetishes and the psychological and spiritual benefits that we can gain from their use, Bennett provides illuminating cross-cultural comparisons, stimulating exercises, and journaling opportunities.

This revealing work introduces readers to the mythologies of Native Americans from the United States to the Arctic Circle-a rich, complex, and diverse body of lore, which remains less widely known than mythologies of other peoples and places.
In thematic chapters and encyclopedia-style entries, Handbook of Native American Mythology examines the characters and deities, rituals, sacred locations and objects, concepts, and stories that define mythological cultures of various indigenous peoples. By tracing the traditions as far back as possible and following their evolution from generation to generation, Handbook of Native American Mythology offers a unique perspective on Native American history, culture, and values. It also shows how central these traditions are to contemporary Native American life, including the continuing struggle for land rights, economic parity, and repatriation of cultural property.
With more than 40 photographs, illustrations, and maps, here is the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to the mythological heritage of Native North Americans available in one volume.

In this in-depth exploration of the symbols found in Navaho legend and ritual, Gladys Reichard discusses the attitude of the tribe members toward their place in the universe, their obligation toward humankind and their gods, and their conception of the supernatural, as well as how the Navaho achieve a harmony within their world through symbolic ceremonial practice. Originally published in 1963. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Quest for Harmony provides a basic understanding of the cultures and spiritual teachings of four Native American nations--Lenape (Delaware), Ani'-Yun'-wiya (Cherokee), Lakota (Sioux), and Dine (Navajo). The text is always sympathetic, respectful, and, when possible, presented in the voices of Native Americans. Each nation is described in terms of its name, traditional location(s), present population, language, and traditional social organization. At least one story of origin is provided for each nation, followed by a survey of its history from earliest documented times until recent times. At the heart of each chapter, the spiritual worldview and rituals of the nation being discussed are introduced, with sections on cosmology, gods and spirits, rituals, and other issues particular to that nation. Critical issues common to Native Americans such as the pannational spiritual movements and the environment are also covered. Quest for Harmony makes clear that not only are Native American spiritual traditions very much alive, they are also in the midst of a dramatic revival.

For the past thirty years, adherents of a millenarian cult in Papua New Guinea, known as the Pomio Kivung, have been awaiting the establishment of a period of supernatural bliss, heralded by the return of their ancestors bearing "cargo." The author of this book, Harvey Whitehouse, was taken for a reincarnated ancestor, and was able to observe the dynamics of the cult from within. From the stable mainstream of the cult, localized splinter groups periodically emerge, hoping to expedite the millennium; the core of this volume concerns the close study of one such group in two Baining villages.
The two aspects of the cult studied here--on the one hand a large, uniform, and stable mainstream organization with a well-defined hierarchy demanding orthodoxy of views, and on the other hand a small-scale and temporary movement, emotional and innovatieve in its views--stand in sharp contrast one to the other, but are here seen as divergent manifestations of the same relifious ideology, implemented in differing ways. This original theory of "modes of religiosity" which Whitehouse develops draws on recent findings in cognitive psychology to link styles of codification and cultural transmission to the political scale, structure, and ethos of religious communities.

Research of Mongolion folk-religion has been the subject of special attention in recent years. Editions and translations of extant texts have appeared, providing detailed descriptions of the rituals. This book examines a very special ritual of folk-religion, the ceremony of calling back the soul of the dead. Among the Mongols it was commonly believed that illness and death were caused by the absence of the soul, so a special ritual was required to call back the wandering soul. The research for this volume has been based on texts preserved in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. A background is given by observations of researchers who have visited the relevant areas and personal communications of Mongols. These rituals are still living and carried out by Mongolians and their neighbouring peoples. The very old ceremony, must have belonged to an early layer of folk-religion. It has now become a ritual of the Lamaist church. Influence of Tibetan Buddhism is found. A special chapter is devoted to evil spirits. The volume is richly illustrated.

Scholarly attention to Indigenous religions has grown massively in the last twenty years. Within varied forms of Indigenous Studies (e.g. Native American Studies, Maori Studies), as a field itself, and within ethnological disciplines such as Anthropology and Religious Studies, issues related to Indigenous peoples have become increasingly important. Indigenous Religions brings together significant journal articles from the last fifteen years to provoke further discussion and to underpin improved teaching and up-to-date research. Some of the selected articles have already played significant roles in shaping debates in diverse areas, but bringing them together, combined with lesser known yet equally significant ones, enhances their significance and gives them a greater value to researchers and students. This collection is intended to provide an unrivalled resource for future developments in the disciplines that touch on Indigenous religions and current issues as they unfold in the twenty-first century.

The earth is my mother, and on her bosom I shall repose.
Attributed to Tecumseh in the early 1800s, this statement is frequently cited to uphold the view, long and widely proclaimed in scholarly and popular literature, that Mother Earth is an ancient and central Native American figure. In this radical and comprehensive rethinking, Sam D. Gill traces the evolution of female earth imagery in North America from the sixteenth century to the present and reveals how the evolution of the current Mother Earth figure was influenced by prevailing European-American imagery of America and the Indians as well as by the rapidly changing Indian identity.
Gill also analyzes the influential role of scholars in creating and establishing the imagery that underlay the recent origins of Mother Earth and, upon reflection, he raises serious questions about the nature of scholarship.
Mother Earth might be modern, stressing the supposed biological ground of native life and its rich mythic tradition, but it hardly frees the native people from their long, lamentable involvement with the white man. For making this point clear, Gill deserves high praise.--Bernard W. Sheehan, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
In one of the finest studies of recent years we have an ambitious attempt to satisfy scholar, Native American, popular reader, and truth.--Thomas McElwain, Western Folklore

This is the first volume of a projected three-volume work on the little-known South Indian folk cult of the goddess Draupadi and on the classical epic, the "Mahabharata," that the cult brings to life in mythic, ritual, and dramatic forms. Draupadi, the chief heroine of the Sanskrit "Mahabharata," takes on many unexpected guises in her Tamil cult, but her dimensions as a folk goddess remain rooted in a rich interpretive vision of the great epic. By examining the ways that the cult of Draupadi commingles traditions about the goddess and the epic, Alf Hiltebeitel shows the cult to be singularly representative of the inner tensions and working dynamics of popular devotional Hinduism.

Valeri presents an overview of Hawaiian religious culture, in which hierarchies of social beings and their actions are mirrored by the cosmological hierarchy of the gods. As the sacrifice is performed, the worshipper is incorporated into the god of his class. Thus he draws on divine power to sustain the social order of which his action is a part, and in which his own place is determined by the degree of his resemblance to his god. The key to Hawaiian society--and a central focus for Valeri--is the complex and encompassing sacrificial ritual that is the responsibility of the king, for it displays in concrete actions all the concepts of pre-Western Hawaiian society. By interpreting and understanding this ritual cycle, Valeri contends, we can interpret all of Hawaiian religious culture.

Chieftaincy in Ghana is an extensive account of the many roles of chiefs in modern society. A. Kodzo Paaku Kludze provides detailed accounts and analyses of the law practices, rituals, and customs of chieftaincy. Kludze begins his study with a historical account bringing his analyses to the present, and speculates on the future of chieftaincy in its formal and informal roles in the changing social milieu. The author's close personal background and association with chieftaincy allows him to shed light on the mysterious practices and supernatural connections. Kludze offers an authoritative and comprehensive study of chieftaincy in the context of the modern social, political, and legal institutions of Ghana.

A definitive compendium of African myth and folktale, retold in rich, vibrant prose, Indaba, My Children is a stunning literary and ethnographic achievement. As a young man, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, a Zulu from the South African province of Natal, was determined to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and become a tribal historian in order to keep the rich oral tradition of his culture alive. In this book, begun in response to the injustices against Africans and their culture, he sets these legends down in writing. He begins with the creation myth, when Ninavanhu-Ma, the Great Mother, created the human race. From there, an epic unfolds, an intricate and vivid cultural tapestry populated by gods and mortals, cattle herders and supreme kings, witch doctors, lovers, grave diggers, warriors, and handmaidens. The story continues all the way up to the colonial era, when a Portuguese Kapitanoh and his crew arrive on the African shore. Indaba, My Children is a classic and indispensable resource for anyone interested in the cultural life of Africa and the human experience as it is filtered into myth.