Content deleted Content added
Editor2020 (talk | contribs) →Wakan Tanka: link |
+italics startcode - fixing with linthint |
||
(11 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{short description|Supreme being in many Native American cultures}} |
|||
{{TAFI}} |
|||
{{other uses}} |
{{other uses}} |
||
{{Anthropology of religion|Basic|image=[[File:Appeal to the Great Spirit, Boston MFA - IMG 3401.JPG|center|220px]]|caption=''[[Appeal to the Great Spirit]]'', statue by [[Cyrus Edwin Dallin|Cyrus Dallin]] before the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]}} |
{{Anthropology of religion|Basic|image=[[File:Appeal to the Great Spirit, Boston MFA - IMG 3401.JPG|center|220px]]|caption=''[[Appeal to the Great Spirit]]'', statue by [[Cyrus Edwin Dallin|Cyrus Dallin]] before the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]}} |
||
The '''Great Spirit''', known as '''[[Wakan Tanka]]''' among the [[Sioux]],<ref name=Ostler>Ostler, Jeffry. ''The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee''. Cambridge University Press, Jul 5, 2004. {{ISBN|0521605903}}, pg 26.</ref> '''[[Gitche Manitou]]''' in [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]], and in many [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] and [[First Nations]] cultures as the divine or the sacred, is the supreme being, God, or a conception of universal spiritual force.<ref name=Thomas>Thomas, Robert Murray. Manitou and God: North-American Indian Religions and Christian Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. {{ISBN|0313347794}} pg 35.</ref>{{request quotation|date=July 2019}} According to [[Lakota people|Lakota]] activist [[Russell Means]], a |
The '''Great Spirit''', known as '''[[Wakan Tanka]]''' among the [[Sioux]],<ref name=Ostler>Ostler, Jeffry. ''The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee''. Cambridge University Press, Jul 5, 2004. {{ISBN|0521605903}}, pg 26.</ref> '''[[Gitche Manitou]]''' in [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]], and in many [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] and [[First Nations]] cultures as the divine or the sacred, is the supreme being, God, or a conception of universal spiritual force.<ref name=Thomas>Thomas, Robert Murray. Manitou and God: North-American Indian Religions and Christian Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. {{ISBN|0313347794}} pg 35.</ref>{{request quotation|date=July 2019}} According to [[Lakota people|Lakota]] activist [[Russell Means]], a more semantically accurate translation of Wakan Tanka is the '''Great Mystery'''.<ref name=Means>Means, Robert. ''Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means''. Macmillan, 1995. {{ISBN|0312147619}} pg 241.</ref> |
||
Due to perceived similarities between the Great Spirit and the Christian concept of [[God]], colonial European missionaries frequently used such existing beliefs as a means of introducing indigenous Americans to [[Christianity]] and encouraging [[Conversion_to_Christianity|conversion]].<ref>''References:'' Schoolcraft, Henry R. ''The Myth of Hiawatha and other oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric of the North American Indians.'' J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. Brehm, Victoria. ''Star Songs and Water Spirits, a Great Lakes Reader. Ladyslipper Press. 2011.''</ref> |
|||
==Conceptualization== |
==Conceptualization== |
||
The Great Spirit has at times been conceptualized as an "anthropomorphic celestial deity,"<ref name=Cave3>Cave, Alfred A. ''Prophets of the Great Spirit: Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America''. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. p.3.</ref> a God of creation, history and eternity,<ref name=":0">Cave, Alfred A. ''Prophets of the Great Spirit: Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America''. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. Web.</ref> who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.<ref name=Cave3/> |
The Great Spirit has at times been conceptualized as an "anthropomorphic celestial deity,"<ref name=Cave3>Cave, Alfred A. ''Prophets of the Great Spirit: Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America''. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. p.3.</ref> a God of creation, history and eternity,<ref name=":0">Cave, Alfred A. ''Prophets of the Great Spirit: Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America''. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2006. Google Books. 2006. Web.</ref> who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.<ref name=Cave3/> |
||
Numerous individuals are held to have been "speakers" for the Great Spirit; persons believed to serve as an earthly mediator responsible for facilitating communication between humans and the Spirit, or the [[supernatural]] more generally. Such a speaker is generally considered {{by whom|date=August 2019}} to have an obligation to preserve the spiritual traditions of their respective lineage.<ref name=":0" /> The Great Spirit, by way of spiritual leaders, is looked to for guidance by individuals as well as communities at large.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/Philosophy/god_theorem/god_theorem/node23.html|title=The Great Spirit|website=www.phy.duke.edu|access-date=2016-12-09}}</ref> While belief in an entity or entities known as the Great Spirit exists across numerous indigenous American peoples, individual tribes often demonstrate varying degrees of cultural divergence, which in turn correlates with several distinct beliefs regarding humankind's relationship with the Spirit. As such, a variety of stories, parables, fables, and messages exhibiting different, sometimes contradictory themes and plot elements have been attributed to the same figure by otherwise disparate cultures. |
|||
==Wakan Tanka== |
==Wakan Tanka== |
||
''[[Wakan Tanka|Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka]]'' can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some [[Animism|animistic]] and [[Pantheism|pantheistic]] beliefs. This term describes every creature and object as ''wakȟáŋ'' ("holy") or having aspects that are ''wakȟáŋ''.<ref name="Rice" /> The element ''Tanka'' or ''Tȟáŋka'' corresponds to "Great" or "large".<ref name=great>{{cite web|url=https://www.lakotadictionary.org/phpBB3/nldo.php |title=Great |publisher=New Lakota Dictionary Online |date= |accessdate=2019-07-11}}</ref> |
''[[Wakan Tanka|Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka]]'' can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some [[Animism|animistic]] and [[Pantheism|pantheistic]] beliefs. This term describes every creature and object as ''wakȟáŋ'' ("holy") or having aspects that are ''wakȟáŋ''.<ref name="Rice" /> The element ''Tanka'' or ''Tȟáŋka'' corresponds to "Great" or "large".<ref name=great>{{cite web|url=https://www.lakotadictionary.org/phpBB3/nldo.php |title=Great |publisher=New Lakota Dictionary Online |date= |accessdate=2019-07-11}}</ref> |
||
Prior to the [[Christianization]] [[Christianization#Colonial_era_(16th−19th_centuries)|of indigenous Americans]] by European settlers and missionaries, the Lakota used ''Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka'' to refer to an [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|organization]] or [[polytheism|group of sacred entities]] whose ways were considered mysterious and beyond human understanding. It was the elaboration on these beliefs that prompted scholarly debate suggesting that the term "Great Mystery" could be a more accurate translation of such a concept than "Great Spirit".<ref>Helen Wheeler Bassett, [[Frederick Starr]]. The International Folk-lore Congress of the [[World's Columbian Exposition]], Chicago, July, 1893. Charles H. Sergel Company, 1898. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cYTYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA221 p221]-226</ref> Activist [[Russell Means]] also promoted the translation "Great Mystery" and the view that Lakota spirituality is not originally [[monotheistic]].<ref name="Rice">{{cite book |title= Before the great spirit: the many faces of Sioux spirituality |last= Rice |first= Julian |year= 1998 |publisher= University of New Mexico Press |isbn= 0-8263-1868-1}}</ref> |
|||
==Manitou== |
==Manitou== |
||
{{Main|Manitou}} |
{{Main|Manitou}} |
||
Manitou, akin to the [[Iroquois]] ''[[orenda]]'', is the spiritual and fundamental life force |
Manitou, akin to the [[Iroquois]] ''[[orenda]]'', is perceived as the spiritual and fundamental life force by [[Algonquian people|Algonquian peoples]]. It is believed by practitioners to be omnipresent; manifesting in all things, including [[organism]]s, the environment, and events both human-induced and otherwise.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bragdon|first1=Kathleen J.|title=The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast|date=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|page=18}}</ref> Manifestations of Manitou are also believed to be dualistic, and such contrasting instances are known as ''aashaa monetoo'' ("good [[spirit]]") and ''otshee monetoo'' ("bad spirit") respectively. According to legend, when the world was created, the Great Spirit, ''Aasha Monetoo'', gave the land to the [[indigenous peoples]], the [[Shawnee]] in particular.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Life of Tecumseh}}</ref> |
||
==Gitche Manitou== |
==Gitche Manitou== |
||
In more recent [[Anishinaabe]] culture, the [[Anishinaabe language]] word ''Gichi-manidoo'' |
In more recent [[Anishinaabe]] culture, the [[Anishinaabe language]] word ''Gichi-manidoo'' is typically understood as Great Spirit, the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life, and is sometimes translated as the "Great Mystery". Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection. |
||
According to [[Anishinaabe |
According to [[Anishinaabe]] tradition, ''Michilimackinac'', later named by European settlers as [[Mackinac Island]], in Michigan, was the home of Gitche Manitou, and some Anishinaabeg tribes would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.<ref>[https://books.google.ca/books?id=zTL_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA349 The Americas: International Dictionary of Historic Places] ''The Americas: International Dictionary of Historic Places''; editors:Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson and Paul Schellinger. Routledge, Taylor & Francis; 1996; pg. 349.]</ref> |
||
Other Anishinaabe names for |
Other Anishinaabe names for such a figure, incorporated through the process of [[syncretism]], are ''Gizhe-manidoo'' ("venerable ''Manidoo''"), ''Wenizhishid-manidoo'' ("Fair ''Manidoo''") and ''Gichi-ojichaag'' ("Great Spirit"). While ''Gichi-manidoo'' and ''Gichi-ojichaag'' both mean "Great Spirit", ''Gichi-manidoo'' carried the idea of the greater spiritual connectivity while ''Gichi-ojichaag'' carried the idea of individual soul's connection to the ''Gichi-manidoo''. Consequently, Christian missionaries often used the term ''Gichi-ojichaag'' to refer to the Christian idea of a [[Holy Spirit]]. |
||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
* |
*[[Hail to the Sunrise Statue]] |
||
* |
*[[Native American religion]] |
||
==References== |
==References== |