Indigenous Religions This page intentionally left blank Indigenous Religions A Companion Edited by Graham Harvey T CASSELL LONDON and NEW YORK Cassell Wellington House, 125 Strand, London WC2R OBB 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6550 First published 2000 © Graham Harvey and contributors 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-304-70447-4 (hardback) 0-304-70448-2 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Indigenous religions: a companion/edited by Graham Harvey. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-304-70447-4 (hardcover)—ISBN 0-304-70448-2 (pbk.) 1. Indigenous peoples—Religion. I. Harvey, Graham. BL380.I56 2000 299-dc21 99-41462 CIP Typeset by Paston PrePress Ltd, Beccles, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd That the people might live This page intentionally left blank Contents Contributors ix Preface xi Introduction 1 Graham Harvey Part I Persons 1. The cosmos as intersubjective: Native American other-than- human persons 23 Kenneth M. Morrison 2. Native Womanism: Exemplars of indigenism in sacred traditions of kinship 37 M. A. Jaimes Guerrero 3. Shamanism 55 Piers Vitebsky 4. Witchcraft and healing among the Bangwa of Cameroon 68 Fiona Bowie 5. Rattray's request: Spirit possession among the Bono of West Africa 80 Jan G. Platvoet Part II Powers 6. Mana and tapu: Sacred knowledge, sacred boundaries 99 Peter ]. Mataira 7. Magic, religion and secularity among the Azande and Nuer 113 Berel Dov Lerner 8. The Dreaming in contemporary Aboriginal Australia 125 Lynne Hume 9. Ecology and religion in Karuk orientations toward the land 139 Sean M. Connors CONTENTS Part III Gifts 10. Art works in Aotearoa 155 Graham Harvey 11. Music, art and movement among the Yoruba 173 Olu Taiwo 12. The unwieldy promise of ceremonies: The case of the Jakalteko Maya's Dance of the Conquest 190 Charles D. Thompson, Jr. 13. Rites of passage among the Lohorung Rai of East Nepal 204 Charlotte E. Hardman 14. Gifts for the sky people: Animal sacrifice, head hunting and power among the Naga of Burma and Assam 219 Mark R. Woodward 15. Characteristics of African indigenous religions in contemporary Zimbabwe 230 James L. Cox 16. Spirituality, values and boundaries in the revitalization of a Mi'kmaq community 243 Raoul R. Andersen, John K. Crellin and Misel Joe 17. Touching the past, teaching ways forward: The American Indian powwow 255 Teri Brewer Bibliography 269 Index of Subjects 291 Index of Authors 297 Index of Nations, Peoples and Groups 301 VIII Contributors Dr Raoul R. Andersen, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Dr Fiona Bowie, University of Wales Lampeter, UK Dr Teri Brewer, University of Wales Glamorgan, UK Sean M. Connors, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA Dr James L. Cox, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, UK Dr John K. Crellin, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Dr M. A. Jaimes Guerrero, San Francisco State University, USA Dr Charlotte E. Hardman, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Dr Graham Harvey, King Alfred's College, Winchester, UK Dr Lynne Hume, University of Queensland, Australia Misel Joe, Saqamaw, Conne River band, Mi'kmaq Nation, Canada Berel Dov Lerner, University of Tel Aviv, Israel Peter J. Mataira, Massey University, New Zealand Dr Kenneth M. Morrison, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA Dr Jan Platvoet, Leiden University, The Netherlands Olu Taiwo, King Alfred's College, Winchester, UK Dr Charles D. Thompson, Jr., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA Dr Piers Vitebsky, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK Dr Mark R. Woodward, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA IX This page intentionally left blank Preface Indigenous religions are co-operative activities in which individuals often have considerable freedom. In theory at least, academia is also a communal activity which values individual effort, interpretation and maybe even vision. There are many differences as well as many similarities between these two domains - as is true of all human activities. The position and authority of elders is but one of these differences, demanding great care from researchers moulded by their tradition to question, challenge, refute and always 'improve'. All but one of the contributors to this volume work within the privileges and stresses of contemporary academia - as profes- sors, postgraduate research students or somewhere in between. Several contributors, including the only non-academically employed contributor, are members of the indigenous nations about which they write here. Other contributors have engaged with particular people(s) in various ways, as will be clear in what they write. Many of us are honoured to participate in continuing conversation and dialogue with the people whose lifeways are of vital interest and inspiration to us. It has been an additional privilege for me to edit the work of this team of friendly and expert collaborators. Several potential contributors had to drop out of the project for one reason or another, their absence is deeply regretted. Publishing is also a collaborative enterprise and I am grateful to Janet Joyce and the team at Cassell Academic for their enthusiasm and expertise in producing this Companion. The intention of this Companion is to aid and abet the collaborative engagement in dialogue — with its central emphasis on respectful listening and joyous participation - that is the essence of the study of indigenous religions. Contributors have been asked to write about particular themes in which they have shown great interest. They do so in relation to (and relationship with) nations, communities, peoples and/or traditions with whom they are intimately familiar and often passionately involved. Their chapters reflect the various approaches and methodologies applied in their research. As such, each chapter can be studied not only for information about a theme or people, but also about academic approaches and methodologies. Readers are encouraged to explore each theme in relation to other indigenous religions, and to ask whether insights gained here might cast light elsewhere in the study of religions. Happily, the current XI PREFACE phase of the study of indigenous religions is committed to the self- determination and vitaility of indigenous peoples. The authority to define what is true, correct or worthy of celebration resides not in distant disengaged academics but among the people themselves. Researchers - wherever their place is - should be respectful listeners before they are careful speakers. XII Introduction Graham Harvey Health, wealth and the pursuit of happiness are central concerns of religions. Even in the credal religions that insist they (alone) are divinely revealed, and in those recently formed religions that locate everything of value in the individual 'self', these goals are sought communally. In larger or smaller groups or networks, people express their desire for a better life. How 'better', 'healthy', 'wealthy', or 'happy' are understood varies from one community to another, and from one individual to the next. The ways in which it is legitimate to express one's desire or possession of a 'good life' also vary. Religions are structured, orderly, socially sanctioned ways of reaching out to those things, or that thing, which people most want. Sometimes religions are defined by authoritative teachers who assert that 'what people really want' is something that only they can mediate, organize and offer. Sometimes it is asserted that the 'good life' is defined not by human desires but by divine dictate. But this is not always so, and it is a mistake to think that 'true religion' is 'what God says it is', or that it is solely or primarily concerned with a future life. People do religion, just as they make music. They may gladly do what someone else (a divinity, ancestor, priest, or buffalo) says. They might adjust their mannerisms, desires, actions, diction, and even world views to what is acceptable to their source of authority and to their community, culture or society. Religions are far from static, they change like everything else in this world. People experience something that forcefully validates what has until now been a marginal part of their lifeway. Or they meet someone who has a more dramatic or more humbling way of expressing a similar intuition about that which is desirable. Sometimes events overwhelm a group of people and their lifeway is irrevocably damaged or otherwise made obsolete (un-do-able at least as often as untenable). Perhaps aspects of their old lifeway can be subsumed into a new, seemingly more empowering religious tradition - or at least one that provides hope for future improve- ment. There are lots of possibilities open to people. 1 GRAHAM HARVEY Politics and catering are also ways in which people express or reach for health, wealth and happiness in orderly, socially structured ways. The fact that religions do not only involve humans (but also divinities, ancestors, plants, animals, and a host of others) is also true of politics, catering and other facets of human life. Religions are not defined by 'belief in God', or even 'doing the will of God (or the ancestors, etc.)'. This would be equally true of politics and catering to a considerable number of people. All of this is to say that we must take seriously the fact that most languages have no word for 'religion'. Most people do not separate bits of their lives into neat boxes which can be labelled 'religion', 'politics' or 'catering'. People live lives in which these are inter-linked, meshed, blended, and generally inseparable. They do not say, 'we've done religion, now let's cook'.