FALL 2013 COURSE SYLLABUS

REL 5385 NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGION

Contact and Course Information

Professor: Dr. Andrea Mantell Seidel Course number: REL 5385 Sec. 01 Credits: 3 credits Semester: Fall 2013 Course Time: MWF 2:00-2:50 and Mondays 3:00-3:50 Room: Green Library, 100 B; seminar DM 323

Office Hours: 9:00-9:50 MW, Weds. 2:00-3:00 or by appointment Office: DM 320C Phone: 305 -348-4293

Required Class Materials: Text Books FIU e-mail account

Email: [email protected]

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT "Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas, and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook." Academic dishonesty policy Cheating is defined as the attempt, successful or not, to give or obtain aid and/or information by illicit means in meeting any academic requirements, including examinations. Cheating includes falsifying reports and documents.

1 Plagiarism is defined as the use, without proper acknowledgements, of the ideas, phrases, sentences, or larger units of discourse from another writer or speaker. Plagiarism includes the unauthorized copying of software and the violation of copyright laws. Plagiarism may result in an F in the assignment, an F for the entire class, or expulsion from the university.

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course provides an advanced study of Native American religion and spirituality, focusing on the sacred ecology, mythology, cosmology, ritual and dance complexes of a number of diverse tribes within North, Central, and South America. Native American religion is addressed within the larger historical and contemporary social, political, and cultural contexts.

COURSE OBJECTIVES  To gain understanding of the diversity of cultures and religious traditions of the indigenous Americas;  To gain insight into and understanding of the significance and meaning of spirituality within Native American cultures;  To understand Native American religion within the larger social, cultural, and environmental context of selected tribal communities;  To learn fundamental methodological concepts utilized in the study and analysis of Native American religion;  To gain an understanding of the economic, political, environmental and legal restrictions that have been placed upon the practice of Native American religions and culture.

LEARNING OUTCOMES/COMPETENCIES  Students will gain an understanding of several predominant theories and methodological concerns in the analysis and description of religious ritual in Native American society.  Students will develop an understanding of the role of key participants in Native American sacred rituals, including tricksters/clowns, shamans, and priests.  Students will gain an understanding of the relationship of Native American religion to the predominant social, political, and cultural structures of the society in which it is a part, both historical and contemporary.  Students will be introduced to a variety of tribal religious and ritual complexes to include Pueblo, Maya, Quecha, Mescalero Apache, and Oglala Sioux among others and gain an understanding of cultural specificities among Native American tribes.  Students will be able to comprehensively define key terms related to religion and ritual in American Indian society (myth, sacred symbols, rites of passage, ritual).

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SELECTED READING ASSIGNMENTS Students are required to read the books listed below during the course of the semester. Readings and class lectures should provide source material for writing the mid-term and final take-home essay. Students are encouraged to read the optional listings as well.

Required Texts

1. Reader in Native American Religion 2 University Readers, Inc.Student Purchasing Instructions Students order online at www.universityreaders.com and follow these exact steps: Please direct all ordering questions to [email protected] or call 800.200.3908. Thanks!

2. Smith, Huston. A Seat at the Table: Huston Smith in Conversation with Native Americans on Religious Freedom, ed. Phil Cousineau, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2006 ISBN 0-520-24439-7 or ISBN 13: 978-0-520- 24439-9

WEB-ASSISTED COURSE MATERIALS: BLACKBOARD LEARN This is a web-assisted course. Important information is posted on Blackboard, so be sure to consult it regularly. Please note the following menu items:

Student Resources: Helpful books, websites, links, and other resources Announcements: Instructor may communicate with students via announcements Assignments Course Content: Contains important course information Email: Send email to selected individuals using the drop down list. Email instructor via messages or email. Discussions/forums: Here you can send your comments to everyone in the class for discussion. Compose your item within a specific topic or for a new item post it in “Main.” Messages: within Blackboard only Turnitin (use for written assignments)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION

Grading Scale

A = 95 - 100 C = 70 -72 A- = 90 – 94 C- = 67 - 69 B+ = 85 – 89 D+ = 63 – 66 B = 80 – 84 D- = 60 - 62 B- = 77 - 79 F = 59 or less C+ = 73 – 76

GRADING EVALUATION AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS

30% Mid term essay exam 20% Attendance and mentoring of undergraduate projects (10%), preparation for seminar discussions to include notes and outlines (10%) 20% Short critical essay papers (10% each) 30% Research paper and oral presentation

EXCELLENT ATTENDANCE/TARDIES After the first two classes, class will begin promptly. Attendance will be taken at that time, and all who are not present will be marked absent. Attendance at all classes is a requirement.

3 Students who know in advance that they will be late or absent must discuss their tardiness or absence with Professor Seidel.

Students are expected to attend every class session unless very ill or family emergency. Each absence, no matter what the reason, affects the continuity of learning, and therefore will affect the student’s grade. Three late arrivals and three early departures will result in one absence. FIVE POINTS DEDUCTED FOR EACH ABSENCE (out of weighted attendance and mentoring grade).

Students who register late will not be penalized during the drop-add period; however your late registration must appear on the official University role received each week by the faculty. Special arrangements can be made with the instructor in the event of illness, injury, or life commitments. If a sustained injury or illness prevents you from participating in class, a letter from your physician must be presented in order to be excused. An incomplete is only given if circumstances beyond your control prevent you from completing course requirements. An incomplete must be completed within two terms.

UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING Graduate students will serve as mentors to undergraduate groups who will work on oral presentations. The role of the mentor will be to assist undergraduates in the development and presentation of their work during scheduled class sessions. Ideally, graduates will be paired with a group whose research interests and topics overlap.

EXAMS The mid-term essay exam will consist of take-home essay topics based on class readings, as well as in-class instruction. Essays should demonstrate the student's skills in analysis and writing. All papers must be typed and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. Essays should integrate course readings, discussions, independent creative thinking, and presentations and include in-text citations for assigned articles and “References Cited” at the end of the text.

RESEARCH PAPER AND ORAL PRESENTATION Term Paper Proposal: Topics must be determined through consultation with Professor Seidel. A two page proposal with preliminary bibliographies is due 4-5 weeks after the beginning of the term. Topics may be thematic or focus on a particular tribal religious tradition.

Term Paper: The term paper will entail analyzing and discussing a topic based on course material. The length of the term paper should be between 15-20 pages. It should be submitted to Turnitin and double-spaced. Margins should be one inch all around. The style of your paper should be consistent and conform to either that of The Chicago Manual of Style, or MLA style (see http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/citations.html and follow the link to the proper style). The term paper should follow the proposal submitted earlier in the semester with revised and complete bibliographies. The term paper is due on the first day of the last week of class. The term paper should include a minimum of 4 scholarly sources, in addition to required class readings.

4 Research topics will be presented informally to the class orally during the last month as the thesis topic is developed to solicit class feedback. A synopsis of final research findings will be presented at the end of term.

CRITICAL ESSAY PAPERS (suggested 3-4 pages)

Two short critical essay papers will be assigned. You will have a choice of selecting two out of three possible topics/assignments. Essays should follow research paper format with citations of scholarly sources. See Discussion Topics course outline.

IMPORTANT GENERAL CLASS INFORMATION AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Late Work: All late work, without prior approval by the professor, will lose 10 points for each day that it is late until the grade of 0 is reached. When the assignment is graded, the grading will start at the late grade.

Communicate with the Professor:

Tips for Success  Keep up with readings and assignments and actively engage in discussions and prepare notes for class discussions as indicated.  Talk to me if you have problems or questions. If you are having personal difficulties, come talk to me BEFORE an assignment is due or if you have excessive absences. I cannot help you after you have turned in an assignment or have been chronically absent or tardy, but I can and will help you before the problems develop.

E-mail and Messages I check e-mail often. It is reasonable to expect a return message within 72 hours. Generally I return e-mail in a much shorter amount of time; however, sometimes life does not allow that. However, please review the syllabus, course outline and Blackboard often, as most of the answers can be found there.

Questions and comments should be sent to [email protected]

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COURSE OUTLINE FALL 2013

Required Book:

Smith, Huston. A Seat at the Table: Huston Smith in Conversation with Native Americans on Religious Freedom, ed. Phil Cousineau, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2006. ISBN 0-520-24439-7

Articles in Reader are excerpted from the following books:

Deloria, Vine. For This Land: Writings on Religion in America, edited by James Treat, New York and London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN0-4

Farrer, Claire. “Singing for Life: The Mescalero Apache Girls’ Puberty Ceremony.” In South Southwestern Indian Ritual Drama. Charlotte J. Frisbie, ed. Prospect Heights, IL : Waveland Press, Inc., 1989., pp.125-159. (Reissue of 1980a.)

Kicza, John E., ed. The Indian in Latin American History: Resistance, Resilience, and Acculturation. Scholarly Resources Inc. Imprint: Wilmington, Delaware.

Marzal, Manuel. “Religion of the Andean Quechua in Southern Peru.” The Indian Face of God in Latin America. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996.

Peterson, Anna and Vasquez, Manuel. Latin American Religions. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

Sullivan, Lawrence. Icanchu’s Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1988.

Sullivan, Lawrence E., Ed. Native Religions and Cultures of Central and South America. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002.

Sullivan, Lawrence E., Ed. Native Religions and Cultures of North America. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003.

Tedlock, Dennis and Barbara, Eds. Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy. New York: Liverright Publishing Corporation, l975.

ARTICLE ON RESERVE IN LIBRARY Kealiinohomoku, Joann. The Drama of the Hopi Ogres, Southwestern Indian ritual drama: 37- 69. Charlotte J. Frisbie (editor), A School of American Research Book, Advanced Seminar Series. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1980, pp. 37-69. On reserve in Green Library

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WEEK I: INTRODUCTION TO NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY Note: *Read ug and grad assignments

UG Reading

Deloria, Vine. "Native American Spirituality." For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 130-134.

Smith, Introduction: The Primal Religions, pp. 1-6

Deloria, Vine. "Religion and the Modern American Indian." For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 122-129.

View film: Temples into Churches- (approx. 30 minute film) E98.S67 .B44 1993 v.3 Green Library Sound and Image Video Collection - 5th Fl.

Graduate Peterson and Vasquez, Indigenous Religions, Latin American Religions, pp. 20-54.

WEEK II: SACRED SYMBOLS AND MYTH AND METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS IN STUDYING NATIVE AMERICAN RITUAL AND RELIGION

Sullivan. Chapter I: Introduction and Summary and Conclusion. Icanchu’s Drum. pp. 2-24; (Reader) Summary and Conclusion: 615-682

WEEK 3: TIME AND SPACE IN NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGION

Undergraduate Reading

Whorf, B.L. “An American Indian Model of the Universe in Tedlock, Dennis and Barbara, Eds. Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1992. pp. 121-129. . Graduate

Deloria, Vine. Civilization and Isolation, pp. 135-144

WEEK 4: NATIVE AMERICAN LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE

Undergraduate Reading

Lee, Dorothy. "Linguistic Reflection of Wintu Thought" in Tedlock, Dennis and Barbara Tedlock, Eds. Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy . Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1992. pp. 130-140.

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Smith, Huston and George-Kanentiio, Douglas. Native Language, Native Spirituality: From Crisis to Challenge, pp. 75-96.

Graduate Reading:

Smith, Huston. Stealing Our Spirit, pp. 130-145.

Smith, Huston. Healing of Indian Country, pp. 184-201.

Ortiz, Alfonso, Tewa World, in Tedlock, Teachings pp. 179-190

WEEK 5: LAKOTA RELIGION: THE VISION QUEST, GUARDIAN SPIRITS, SUN DANCE, SACRIFICE AND SHIPIBO VISIONS

Undergraduate Reading

Deloria, Vine. "Introduction to Black Elk." For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 232-234.

Deloria, Vine. "Introduction to the Vision Quest." For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 269-272.

Powers, William. "Wiping the Tears: Lakota Religion in the 21st Century." Sullivan, Lawrence, Ed. Native Religions and Cultures of North America: Anthropology of the Sacred . Continuum International, 2003. pp. 104-120.

Charing, Howard. Communion with the Infinite: The Visual Music of the Shipibo people of the Amazon.

Graduate:

Grim, John A. Traditional Ways and Contemporary Vitality: Absaroke/Crow in Sullivan, pp. 53-84.

Deloria, Vine. Vision and Community. For This Land, pp. 108-117.

Deloria, Vine. The Coming of the People, pp. 235-242.

WEEK 6: RITUAL SPECIALISTS: TRICKSTERS, CLOWNS, AND SHAMANS

Undergraduate Reading: Tedlock, Barbara. "Clown’s Way." Tedlock, Dennis and Barbara Tedlock, Eds. Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy . Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1992. pp. 105-121.

8 Napewastewiñ Schützer, Marjorie Anne. Winyanktehca: Two Souls Person. Paper presented to the European Network of Professionals in Transsexualism. August 1994.

Graduate Reading: Kealiinohomoku, Joann. The Drama of the Hopi Ogres, Southwestern Indian ritual drama: 37- 69. Charlotte J. Frisbie (editor), A School of American Research Book, Advanced Seminar Series. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1980, pp. 37-69. On reserve in Green Library Reference Desk

WEEK 7: ECOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, AND SACRED LANDS

Undergraduate Reading

Smith, Huston and LaDuke, Winona. Ecology and Spirituality, pp. 39-57

Smith, Huston and Charlotte Black Elk. Homelands of Religion, pp. 58-74.

Graduate:

Deloria, Vine. Reflection and Revelation: Knowing Land, Places, and Ourselves, pp. 250-260

WEEK 8: ECOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, AND SACRED LANDS

Undergraduate:

Deloria, Vine. "Sacred Lands and Religious Freedom." For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 203-213.

Graduate:

Smith, Huston and Lopez, Anthony Guy. Fight for Mt. Graham, pp. 147-161

Smith, Huston. Triumph of the Native American Church, pp. 97-112.

WEEK 9: NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LAW, JUSTICE, AND THE FUTURE

Smith, Huston and Echo-Hawk, Walter. Five Hundred Nations Within One, pp. 24-38.

Deloria, Vine. Secularism, Civil Religion, and Religious Freedom of the American Indian. For This Land: Writings on Religion in America . New York: Routledge, 1999. pp. 218-228.

Smith and Chief Oren Lyons, Redeeming the Future: The Traditional Instruction of Spiritual Law, pp. 163-183.

Graduate

9 Smith, Huston and Deloria, Vine. The Spiritual Malaise in America: The Confluence of Religion, Law, and Community in The Seat at the Table, pp. 6-23.

Smith, Huston. Fight for Native American Prisoners Rights, pp. 113-129.

Deloria, Vine. Out of Chaos, pp. 243-249.

WEEK 10: NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LAW, JUSTICE, AND THE FUTURE

Graduate Reading:

Weidman, Dennis. “Upholding Indigenous Freedoms of Religion and Medicine: Peyotists at the l906-l908 Oklahoma Constitutional and First Legislature.” American Indian Quarterly, 36 (2): 215-246.

Pavlik,Steve. “The U.S.Supreme Decision on Peyote in Employment Division v Smith: A Case Study in the Suppression of Native American Religious Freedom.” Wicazo Sa Review, Vol. 8(2), Autumn, l992: 30-39.

WEEK 11: RITES OF PASSAGE: MESCALERO APACHE PUBERTY CEREMONY

Undergraduate Reading:

Talamantez, Ines. "In the Space between Earth and Sky: Contemporary Mescalero Apache Ceremony." Sullivan, Lawrence, Ed. Native Religions and Cultures of North America: Anthropology of the Sacred . Continuum International, 2003. pp. 142-160.

Graduate:

Farrer, Claire. Singing for Life: The Mescalero Apache Girls Puberty Ceremony, pp. 125-159.

WEEK 12: QUICHE MAYA OF GUATEMALA and MEXICO

Undergraduate Reading:

De la Garza, Mercedes. Sacred Forces of the Mayan Universe. Sullivan, Lawrence, Ed. Native Religions and Cultures of Central and South America: Anthropology of the Sacred Continuum International, 2002. pp. 92-176.

Graduate: Farris, Nancy, Persistent Maya Resistance and Cultural Retention in the Yucatan in The Indian in Latin America, John E. Kicza, Ed, pp. 51-68.

Vogt, Evon. The Maintenance of Mayan Distinctiveness in The Indian in Latin America, John E. Kicza, Ed. pp. pp. 215-227.

WEEK 13: DANCE AND NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGION

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Undergraduate and Grad Reading: Buckley, Renewal as Discourse and Discourse as Renewal in Native Northwestern California in Native Religions and Cultures of North America in Lawrence Sullivan, Ed. pp. 33-52.

WEEK 14: ANDEAN QUECHUA AND ORAL REPORTS

Marzal, Manuel. The Religion of the Andean Quecha in Southern Peru, pp. 67-118

WEEK 15: ORAL PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION OF RESEARCH PROJECTS

Reading (review for discussion if time): Smith, Stealing Our Spirit

Smith, Healing of Indian Country

WEEK 16: ORAL PRESENTATIONS AND RESEARCH REPORTS

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