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

Joseph Booth penned his appeal in 1897 in protest of the racist stereotpying of the Africans by the colonisers; and witnessing the unjust and inhumane exploitation of the native peoples, for the sole benefit of the Europeans. He drew his ideas from the social and political messages he inferred from the Gospel and his appeal was published only thirteen years after European leaders met in Berlin to divide up the African continent. This now seminal text was republished in its centenary year and has continual relevance to debates about race and development in Africa. It is edited to include explanations of local and contemporary political references, biblical references and the sources of the author's citations.

The Agwu is the Igbo patron deity of health and divination, and one of the basic Igbo theological concepts employed to explain good and evil, health and sickness, wealth and poverty, and fortune and misfortune. Belief in the Agwu was widespread in thepast. Most communities had some Agwu people, who were considered victims of its malignant powers or recipients of its positive influences, such as priest-diviners and physicians. This books analyses this belief system in past and present times, and posits the view that it still exists but to a lesser degree or in a modified forms. The author conducted his research through personal interviews and observer-participant methods. Themes range from beliefs about the Agwu deity through the rites and initiation into Agwu cult, to the guild of diviners and traditional healers. The six chapters cover: supernaturalism and disease causation; the anthropocentricity of Agwu; art and symbol in the Agwu cult; the rites of Dibia initiation; significance and consequences of Dibia initiation; and Agwu therapeutic forces in a time perspective.

Walking in the Sacred Manner is an exploration of the myths and culture of the Plains Indians, for whom the everyday and the spiritual are intertwined and women play a strong and important role in the spiritual and religious life of the community.

Based on extensive first-person interviews by an established expert on Plains Indian women, Walking in the Sacred Manner is a singular and authentic record of the participation of women in the sacred traditions of Northern Plains tribes, including Lakota, Cheyenne, Crow, and Assiniboine.

Through interviews with holy women and the families of women healers, Mark St. Pierre and Tilda Long Soldier paint a rich and varied portrait of a society and its traditions. Stereotypical images of the Native American drop away as the voices, dreams, and experiences of these women (both healers and healed) present insight into a culture about which little is known. It is a journey into the past, an exploration of the present, and a view full of hope for the future.

Annemarie Anrod Shimony's classic work clearly shows the contemporary cultural and religious crises that face the Longhouse Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario. Shimony presents a lucid and eloquent account of the survival of the Native American tradition, which is struggling to maintain political and cultural autonomy in an ever-changing modern world. Based on original field work dating from 1953 to 1961, and supplemented by new material describing changes during the last thirty years, Shimony's work is once again the most comprehensive ethnography of the largest extant traditional Iroquoian community. Some of the material discussed includes the social organization, the system of hereditary chiefs, the beliefs and practices of the Longhouse religion, the events of the Iroquoian life cycle, and the extensive medicinal and witchcraft aspects of the culture. Additional areas of focus include the rituals of the agricultural calendar and Iroquois conceptions of death and burial rituals. As Elizabeth Tooker wrote in Indians of the Northeast, Shimony's monograph is, "next to Morgan's League, the most important general description of the Iroquois". With its new material added, Conservatism among the Iroquois is once again required reading for anyone interested in Native American culture.

New, startling, and extraordinary revelations in religious history, which disclose the oriental origin of all the doctrines, principles, precepts, and miracles of the Christian New Testament and furnishing a key for unlocking many of its sacred mysteries, besides comprising the history of 16 heathen crucified gods. Partial Contents: Rival claims of the Saviors, Messianic Prophecies; Prophecies by the Figure of a Serpent; Miraculous and immaculate Conception of the Gods; Virgin Mothers and Virgin-born Gods; Stars Point out the Time and the Saviors' Birthplace; Angels, Shepherds, and Magi Visit the Infant Saviors; Twenty-fifth of December the Birthday of the Gods; Saviors of Royal Descent, but Humble Birth; Christ's Genealogy; Saviors Exhibit Early Proofs of Divinity; Saviors' Kingdoms not of the World; Saviors are Real Personages; Sixteen Saviors Crucified; Aphanasia, or Darkness, at the Crucifixion; Descent Into Hell; Resurrection; Reappearance and Ascension; Atonement: Its Oriental or Heathen Origin; Holy Ghost of Oriental Origin; Divine "Word" of Oriental Origin; The Trinity; Absolution; Origin of Baptism by Water, Fire, Blood, and the Holy Ghost; Sacrament or Eucharist of Heathen Origin; Anointing with Oil; How Men, Including Jesus Christ, Came to be Worshiped as Gods; Sacred Cycles Explaining the advent of the Gods; Christianity Derived from Heathen and Oriental Systems; Three Hundred and forty-six Striking Analogies between Christ and Chrishna; Appolonius, Osiris, and Magus as Gods; Three Pillars of the Christian Faith; Philosophical Absurdities of the Doctrine of the Divine Incarnation; A Historical View of the divinity of Jesus Christ; Scriptural View of Christ's Divinity;Precepts and practical Life of Jesus Christ; Christ as a Spiritual Medium; Conversion, Repentance, and "Getting Religion" of Heathen Origin; Moral Lessons of Religious History.

Vodou, the folk religion of Haiti, is a by-product of the contact between Roman Catholicism and African and Amerindian traditional religions. In this book, Leslie Desmangles analyzes the mythology and rituals of Vodou, focusing particularly on the inclusion of West African and European elements in Vodouisants' beliefs and practices. Desmangles sees Vodou not simply as a grafting of European religious traditions onto African stock, but as a true creole phenomenon, born out of the oppressive conditions of slavery and the necessary adaptation of slaves to a New World environment. Many observers have referred to such New World religions as fusions of religious practices. Desmangles instead uses the concept of symbiosis, which he defines as the juxtaposition of diverse religious traditions, coexisting without fusing. Desmangles uses Haitian history to explain this symbiosis, paying particular attention to the role of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century maroon communities in preserving African traditions and the attempt by the Catholic, educated elite to suppress African-based "superstitions". The result is a society in which one religion, Catholicism, is visible and official; the other, Vodou, is unofficial and largely secretive. Both religions continue to play a part in Haitian politics, and Desmangles chronicles the role of Vodou and Catholicism in the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier and the rise of Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Individuals of all persuasions have become deeply interested in contemporary Sioux religious practices. These essays by tribal religious leaders, scholars, and other members of the Sioux communities in North and South Dakota deal with the more important questions about Sioux ritual and belief in relation to history, tradition, and the mainstream of American life.

Contents:

(1) "Lakota Belief and Ritual in the Nineteenth Century," by Raymond J. DeMallie;

(2) "Lakota Genesis: The Oral Tradition," by Elaine A. Jahner;

(3) "The Sacred Pipe in Modern Life," by Arval Looking Horse;

(4) "The Lakota Sun Dance: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives," by Arthur Amiotte;

(5) "The Establishment of Christianity Among the Sioux," by Vine V. Deloria, Sr.;

(6) "Catholic Mission and the Sioux: A Crisis in the Early Paradigm," by Harvey Markowitz;

(7) "Contemporary Catholic Mission Work Among the Sioux," by Robert Hilbert, S.}.;

(8) "Christian Life Fellowship Church," by Mercy Poor Man;

(9) "Indian Women and the Renaissance of Traditional Religion," by Beatrice Medicine;

(10) "The Contemporary "Yuwipi," "by Thomas H. Lewis, M.D.;

(11) "The Native American Church of Jesus Christ," by Emerson Spider, Sr.;

(12) "Traditional Lakota Religion in Modern Life," by Robert Stead, with an Introduction by Kenneth Oliver; Suggestions for Further Reading; Bibliography.

"Quite an interesting book... " -- Religious StudiesReview

"It is by far superior to anything else on demons wehave seen in the past few years." -- The AmericanRationalist

..". Goodman is to be commended for a stimulatingand wide-reaching treatment of a compelling and much-debated subject." --Journal of Folklore Research

Rich in detail derived from theauthor's fieldwork and the anthropological literature, this work paints a picture ofpossession as one of the usually positive and most widespread of human religiousexperiences. It also details the ritual of exorcism, which is applied when things gowrong.

A fascinating Castaneda-like spiritual journey into the wilderness of Manitoba, where Lynn Andrews meets Agnes Whistling Elk, the Native American "heyoehkah," or shaman, who will change her life.

"Levi-Strauss is a French savant par excellence, a man of extraordinary sensitivity and human wisdom . . . a deliberate stylist with profound convictions and convincing arguments. . . . ["The Raw and the Cooked"] adds yet another chapter to the tireless quest for a scientifically accurate, esthetically viable, and philosophically relevant cultural anthropology. . . . [It is] indispensable reading."--"Natural History "

Studies the culture and religion of the Chamba, Duru, Gula, and Gbaya of Cameroon. Discusses attempts of expatriates and Africans to ask questions, to learn, and to interpret what is important in the lives and traditions of African societies in the light of the Christian Church.

Coming Full Circle is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationships between spirituality and health among Coast Salish and Chinook communities in western Washington from 1805 to 2005. Suzanne Crawford O'Brien examines how these communities define what it means to be healthy and how recent tribal community-based health programs have applied this understanding to their missions and activities. She also explores how contemporary definitions, goals, and activities relating to health and healing are informed by Coast Salish history and also by indigenous spiritual views of the body. These views, she argues, are based on an understanding of the relationship between self, ecology, and community. Coming Full Circle draws on a historical framework in reflecting on contemporary tribal health-care efforts and the ways in which they engage indigenous healing traditions alongside twenty-first-century biomedicine. The book makes a strong case for the current shift toward tribally controlled care, arguing that local, culturally distinct ways of healing and understanding illness must be a part of Native health care. Combining in-depth archival research, extensive ethnographic participant-based field work, and skillful scholarship on theories of religion and embodiment, Crawford O'Brien offers an original and masterful analysis of Coast Salish and Chinook traditions and worldviews, and the intersection of religion and healing.

In Walking to Magdalena, Seth Schermerhorn explores a question that is central to the interface of religious studies and Native American and indigenous studies: What have Native peoples made of Christianity? By focusing on the annual pilgrimage of the Tohono O'odham to Magdalena in Sonora, Mexico, Schermerhorn examines how these indigenous people of southern Arizona have made Christianity their own. This walk serves as the entry point for larger questions about what the Tohono O'odham have made of Christianity. With scholarly rigor and passionate empathy, Schermerhorn offers a deep understanding of Tohono O'odham Christian traditions as practiced in everyday life and in the words of the O'odham themselves. The author's rich ethnographic description and analyses are also drawn from his experiences accompanying a group of O'odham walkers on their pilgrimage to Saint Francis in Magdalena. For many years scholars have agreed that the journey to Magdalena is the largest and most significant event in the annual cycle of Tohono O'odham Christianity. Never before, however, has it been the subject of sustained scholarly inquiry. Walking to Magdalena offers insight into religious life and expressive culture, relying on extensive field study, videotaped and transcribed oral histories of the O'odham, and archival research. The book illuminates indigenous theories of personhood and place in the everyday life, narratives, songs, and material culture of the Tohono O'odham.

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

Wakinyan is an excellent overview of Lakota religious thought and practice, introducing readers to its essential components. Through finely detailed descriptions of rituals and various types of religious figures, Stephen E. Feraca explains the significance of such practices as the Sun Dance, sweat lodge ritual, vision quest, Yuwipi ritual, and peyote use. He also discusses the significance of herbs and religious artifacts and objects and explains the roles and responsibilities of medicine men and other religious practitioners. First written as a report for the Department of the Interior in 1963, Wakinyan has long been recognized as a classic study of Lakota religion. This edition retains most of the original text, with its first-rate ethnographic descriptions of religious practices. The author's new endnotes bring the reader up to date on changes in Lakota religion during the last three decades. Stephen E. Feraca worked for the Department of the Interior for a quarter of a century before retiring in 1985. He is the author of Why Don't They Give Them Guns? The Great American Indian Myth.

Weaving together a wide array of historical sources with oral accounts gathered from fieldwork, this classic study provides a valuable overview of traditional Creek (Muskogee) religion and medicine. John R. Swanton visited the Creek Nation in the early twentieth century and learned about many important aspects of Creek religious life and medicine. Subjects covered in this book include Creek conceptions of the cosmos; religious stories; death and the afterlife; spiritual forces and beings; various rituals, including the Busk ceremony; prohibitions; the power and skills of different religious practitioners; the cultural force of witchcraft; and herbal and spiritual remedies. Many of these beliefs and practices have been present throughout Creek history and persist today. "Creek Religion and Medicine" showcases the vibrant culture of an enduring southeastern Native people.

Rich ethnographic studies expanding the understanding of ngoma in Africa. The indigenous African healing system of music, dance, possession and trance is perhaps best known through John Janzen's book Ngoma: Discourse of Healing in Central and Southern Africa. This collection engages with Janzen'sanalysis and examines ngoma in its culturally diverse manifestations. North America: Ohio U Press

The Nso' Concept of Time explores cosmology among the Nso' people of north-western Cameroon. It examines the concept of time within the Nso' world view, along with its implications for culture and traditional religion. The author addresses a wide range of metaphysical, ethical, anthropological, existential, and epistemological issues not only in relation to wider African philosophy, but also in relation to Western conceptions of time. The book is an important new contribution to African philosophy, cultural anthropology, African traditional religion, cosmology, and African metaphysics. It will appeal to scholars and students in a wide range of related disciplines. "This book is most certainly a first in the study of the Nso concept of time. Remi Prospero Fonka has excavated, carefully analyzed, and presented in readable form, a complex metaphysics of time within the Nso worldview. Students and researchers in African cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology will find this book a useful resource. Those interested in comparative philosophy will also find in this book a cross-cultural phenomenological confrontation with Western cosmo-metaphysical models."-Nelson Shang, Lecturer of Philosophy, The University of Bamenda and The Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda "By highlighting the importance of always considering the concept of time alongside aspects of the universe or cosmos, Remi Prospero Fonka succinctly and with meticulous methodology, avails the opportunity for an understanding of the measurement of African time. The cross-cultural confrontations especially with phenomenological existentialists makes this book a necessary tool for students and researchers in multicultural studies, African philosophy, cosmology, African traditional religion, and African metaphysics."-Valentine Banfegha Ngalim, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The University of Bamenda, Cameroon

Divining the Self weaves elements of personal narrative, myth, history, and interpretive analysis into a vibrant tapestry that reflects the textured, embodied, and performative nature of scripture and scripturalizing practices. Velma Love examines the Odu--the Yoruba sacred scriptures--along with the accompanying mythology, philosophy, and ritual technologies engaged by African Americans. Drawing from the personal narratives of African American Ifa practitioners along with additional ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Oyotunji African Village, South Carolina, and New York City, Love's work explores the ways in which an ancient worldview survives in modern times.

Divining the Self also takes up the challenge of determining what it means for the scholar of religion to study scripture as both text and performance. This work provides an excellent case study of the sociocultural phenomenon of scripturalizing practices.

La religion yoruba tiene sus origenes en la tribu del mismo nombre, que duro aproximadamente doce siglos. El trafico de esclavos permitio que sus habitantes fueran transportados a America, a donde llevaron su religion, que se fundio con el catolicismo para dar lugar a otro de sus nombres: santeria.. Actualmente es un credo con un gran numero de devotos, por lo cual surge este libro, que presenta un glosario de terminos yoruba, con cientos de palabras y frases religiosas y folcloricas.

"This is a startling, stunning, and fascinating book about the blend of music, religion, and politics in Haitian culture. McAlister's mastery of many different ways of knowing makes this study an endless source of insight, intrigue, and inspiration. "Rara! succeeds magnificently as an exploration into Rara rituals and Haitian music, but it also presents original and generative insights into every aspect of Haiti's past, present, and future."--George Lipsitz, author of "Dangerous Crossroads

"This is a major contribution to the literature on Vodou, Haiti, popular culture, Caribbean culture and music, transnational immigrant practices, and the corpus of black religions in the Americas. It is an extremely well-written, well researched and argued, and highly readable book."--Lawrence H. Mamiya, co-author of "The Black Church in the African American Experience

"This is a smart and thoughtful book by a very talented ethnographer. Anyone interested in Haiti will appreciate the work of Elizabeth McAlister."--Karen Brown, author of "Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn

"A rare in-depth look at an extremely popular, yet often misunderstood phenomenon. With this book and CD, Elizabeth McAlister, an involved observer, makes an incalculable contribution to our musical and cultural literature."--Edwidge Danticat, author of "The Farming of Bones: A Novel