North American Indians

Beskrivning:

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
LEWIS SPENCE, FRAI
In countless tepees, across the wide expanse
of the North American continent, the Indian
storytellers filled the hours of darkness with
tales of myth and magic that held their
audiences spellbound.
Before the arrival of the Europeans,
more than three hundred tribal groups lived
in the forests, mountains, and plains of
North America. For these Indians, the
stories were more than mere entertainment:
they were an essential part of a culture based
upon a common understanding of
mankind's place in nature. As such, the
mythology was inseparable from the
ceremonies and beliefs of the tribes. In
many, such as the Navajo, the mythology
was inextricably bound with tribal
ceremonial and beliefs; dancers who donned
masks to represent gods thereby assumed
the spiritual strengths associated with them.
The stories that were told varied
according to tribe, but they were united by
many common themes. Trusting yet
superstitious, the American Indian lived
close to nature, at one with his
surroundings. The mountains, forests, and
plains are the settings for these charming
stories, which center on hunting, trapping
and other pastoral pursuits. In all of them,
the elements play an important part, just as
they did in the lives of the Indians
themselves — the open air, the wind and the
sun, the trees, the stones and the hills, all
were believed to be living things — even the
night and the day. Presiding over all was the
Great Spirit, the supreme Indian deity.
Many stories tell of a time when the
earth was different than it is today, before
the coming of the tribes, when animals were
considered to be human, too. Totemism, the
belief-that animals had inhabited the land
before man and were thus better equipped
by nature and cunning to survive than
primitive mankind, is the prevalent
characteristic of the Indian mythologies. The
Indians had come to believe that the animals
shared their spirit, being at the same time
animal and human, thus retaining the ability
to assume human form. Animals had souls,
spirits and 'ipernatural powers, while the
latecomer, man was different, made merely
of flesh and bone. However, the animals
could help him if they chose to.

Indianer