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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Info from elsewhere on the internet on this book , January 11, 2005
Excerpt(s): This textbook is about the sacred ways of Native American people in North America. Through examples from the oral tradition of The People, through interviews, speeches, prayers, songs and conversations, these ways will be explored.
The material in this textbook will attempt to describe, not intrude by analysis, the meaning, role and function of sacred traditional practices and observances in the lives of The People, individually and collectively. This textbook will perhaps also help to correct the misinformed views of Native American sacred traditions and observances. These views fill the archives, the libraries, the movies, and the textbooks students use throughout the world. By simply letting The People speak we may come to better understand the profoundness of strength, beauty, and vitality of this dimension of American Indian People.
Many Native People find it difficult to explain their ways of life, beliefs, traditions, and observances with the word "religion" Therefore, we tried to find a word that would better describe sources of life and ways of knowledge. For this reason we chose the word sacred which we will define in more detail later on in this chapter. (page 3)
The Path of Life
The place from which you had started at the beginning seemingly a long time ago, will now appear very close as if you had started but recently.
Within several religions around the world is the philosophy or idea that life is envisioned as a path or road. The terrain through which it winds and goes is representative of the pitfalls, or turns of life one must encounter as one travels the "road of life." This is made explicit in the ceremony, like the Mide of the Winnebago. The above quote comes from this ceremony.
At the root of Native American aboriginal concepts is the belief that the road conveys an eternal return. There is no end. At death one returns in some way to the beginning. On the path of life, when one has reached old age, one knows what one knew when one was born, but only realizes and acknowledges it for the first time. The concept is at the root of aboriginal beliefs because like the road, the "sacred" had no beginning or end. The road is continuous and never ending. ...
In Peyotism, the Peyote "road" is also discussed. An explanation, metaphorically, is given about the altar of a crescent moon.
At the west corner, horns to the east, is the crescent altar with a groove or "path" along it from horn to horn, interrupted by a flat space in the center where the "father peyote" is later to rest on springs of sage. The "path" symbolizes man's path from birth (southern tip) to the crest of maturity and knowledge (at the place of the peyote) and thence downward again to the ground through old age to death (northern tip).
The priest swung a pointing finger along a narrow groove running through the crest of the altar moon. "You follow life's road,: he explained to me, "then you meet peyote, and your life changes. It has for everyone in here. We meet peyote and then we continue in that Way."
Through these roads or paths life is given more meaning, purpose, and responsibility. We also find that these roads provide means or procedures by which the people may attain or achieve certain desired goals. This is the role of religions. The path of life is analogous to this role. (page 197)
The Peyote Spirit
We have been taught that all men have the right to worship God in the manner and form most satisfactory to their own conscience. (Osage Peyotists)
The definitions of Peyote are multi-faceted and varying. It depends, of course, on whom one asks and their knowledge, or experience with Peyote. Obviously many interpretations will range from the abstract, personal, and emotional to an objective concrete, scientific explanation.
Examples of the abstract are:
Peyote is a power. There is a power in there. That power, he has many names. You don't know how much power is there. It will take all your lifetime and you will know only a small part of the power. This is what I was told.
This description comes from a young Navajo man, Ron Barton, who was introduced to Peyote as a small child and has since made a commitment to it. Larry Etsitty, also a Navajo and Vice-President of the Navajoland Native American Church defines Peyote in this way,
The Peyote to me, is my bible. I know what I should be doing and shouldn't be doing. To me, when I take that Peyote, I feel humble (respectful) all the time.
Peyote has always been a religion. It is used mainly to gain power. (Manuel Watchman, Navajo) (page 233)
The Peyote experience is one of individual meditation and consequently, revelation. Prayer and contemplation provide reasonable access, through Peyote, to satisfying revelations about one's self. Shirly Etsitty explains further, "The fundamental teaching is as a sacrament . . ., it (Peyote) is the mediator. When you take the medicine, you learn from inside out." Change is inevitable, according to one's conscience and confrontation with himself. Change for the better becomes possible, necessary, and worthwhile. However, the change must be within the individual, as his environment does not visibly alter. While he cannot usually control conditions that affect him, he can influence and exercise more controls within his own life. His outlook, philosophically, and behavior adjusts accordingly. (pages 245-246)
Christianity and the Peyote Religion
Emhoolah who has spent part of his life from childhood with "Peyote People" says, "I've gone to Christian Churches. I always come back. There must be something about that herb that appeals to the Indian." Ron Barton echoes the sentiment, "I've been involved in the Native American Church all my life, since I was born. It's in me. It will always be in me. I like the Peyote Way. I pray that way. I eat that way. I sleep that way. I live that way. It puts back the dignity." Sam Gardipe talking about tradition and its place in a fast-moving technologically oriented world, shared his philosophy as Peyotist, and as an Indian. "I have a philosophy. One of the ways of rebelling, is to be traditional, to really know your own way (Peyote Way)."
To reiterate, Larry Etsitty also acknowledges that the bird he envisions can also go in the direction of Christianity. He sees Peyotism as being adaptable, supplemental and not detrimental to any other religion, including Christianity. It is acknowledged that the Native American Church in its contemporary form contains seeds of Christianity, incorporated either recently or in some cases before the 20th century.
The Peyote Religion functioned as separate independent groups prior to the organization of specific groups into the affiliated Native American Church. In doing so, some groups also introduced characteristics and the concept of Christianity. Other groups did not attempt to introduce change or did not reorganize themselves. (pages 247-248)
The Peyote Way or Peyote Road stresses four main teachings one must conform and adhere to. "Peyote People" may supply the instruction, or after Peyote is consumed it may be directly responsible for teaching. The teachings are: (1) Love for your fellow man or brotherly love; (2) responsibility for one's family; (3) self-reliance; and (4) refraining from use of alcohol. ...
Larry Etsitty stated with regard to children that he had been told by other members of the Native American Church (not of the Navajoland chapter or branch) that it delighted them to see children participate. Their age ranged from infants to expectant parents. Larry Etsitty continued, "They said they felt that's where they went wrong. At times when there were too many participants, the young ones were requested to leave to make room for older participants." He indicated that these people regretted that their young ones have not responded in the desired manner. As to the women in Peyotism, depending on the area and the time, it was once recorded they were sometimes not allowed to participate. Most tribes, as oral tradition indicates, gave the women a very high place in the Peyote Religion and usually credit her for the bringing of Peyote. The Navajo tribe is one of the very, very few who allow women to sing during the meeting. (pages 249-250)
In the Summer of 1975, the author met an elderly man at the Navajo Tribal Fair in Window Rock, Arizona. He was a golden man, all sparkly, dark skin and eyes, in the sun. He was obviously not wealthy in ways of money and extravagant finery. He and his clothes were all wrinkly and worn. Both had bags in them. He stepped up to negotiate a purchase he planned. He wanted the man's robe or sheet, half red and half black, worn in the Peyote meeting. He said he was a road man, had been one for forty years. He said he'd been to jail for Peyote, was there when Peyote followers were harassed. He said it simply and matter-of-factly. "Peyotism had endured." He said that softly, gently in Navajo. He said he would do it all over again.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Sacred, October 30, 2007
A wonderful compilation of Native American Practices and Religion. Interesting to both researchers and Native American practitioners. I would recommend this book to anyone needing insight to a culture that is much older and wiser than the Western European and American cultures.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You Want To Begin To Understand Native American Life-Ways, Past and Present, "The Sacred" Remains The Best Book Available, August 19, 2008
Since I purchased my first copy of "The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life," I have done all I can to promote the book as the best way to start learning about Native Americans and American Indian Life-Ways. I recommend it to everyone.
In 1987 I published the following book review in the prestigious American Indian Quarterly. Some twenty-one years later, by beliefs remain the same, but my hopes that "The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life" would become a regularly used textbook and standard reference book in libraries remain unfulfilled. And for me the question remains, how do I get people to read this book? I did my part, utilizing it as a textbook for classes I taught at Rocky Mountain College, Northern Montana College, and Carroll College, all here in Montana. When I left Carroll College, the instructor who took my place continued to use "The Sacred" for several years. Since then, however, it has been dropped for more "up to date" books, hoping to reinvent the wheel. Here, then, is my published review:
One is seldom afforded the opportunity to read such an exemplary book as Peggy V. Beck and Anna L Walters' "The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life." As alaudatory contribution towards better literature on American Indians, "The Sacred" serves as both a fundemental resource and a textbook. Although it has been ten years since the book was first published, the book is once more available for classroom use. It is fitting, therefore, that it be re-reviewed in an effort to bring renewed interest in "The Sacred" as both a textbook and a resource.
The impetus for writing and publishing "The Sacred" is to provide a textbook that emphasizes "the traditional characteristics of sacred ways in North America" (p. xii; emphasis in the original). However, these traditional values are also viewed by the authors as the foundation for thinking in contemporary American Indian communities. I would say that Beck and Walters have indeed provided an omibus resource, and now it is up to academia to kindle the study of "The Sacred."
As a textbook, "The Sacred" is editied into an appropriate, systematic framework that allows the student to move from basic ideas and definitions to contemporary problems and attitudes, building upon itself (the knowledge) to create a holistic understanding of the sources of Indian life. The appropriate use of maps, charts, photographs, and superb illustrations enhances, as well as stimulates, the reader's interest in the topics. Each chapter has a bibliorpahy peculiar to its subject matter, and a more general bibliography is located at the end of the book. The reference section contains a glossary of difficult and/or misconstured terms, a listing of films and filstrips pertinent to each chapter (and where to obtain them), and an index.
The text is an integrated combination of reportorial, narrative, biogrphical, and interpretive styles of writing that reveal the attitudes of the authors along woth those of the cited contributors and "The People" themselves. In discussing the subjects or themes of each chapter, historical influences are fully inorporated with contemporary issues to create a relavantly circular presentation. This stylistic technique, when comined with the book's authoritativeness and perspectus, transposes into a highly readable and pertinent textbook for students of all levels of knowledge. Additionally, documents and recorded oral commentaries, which the authors appropriately use to support their detailed treatment and general themes, contribute to make "The Sacred" an invaluable reference as well.
The authors begin "The Sacred" by distinguishing between the concepts of religion, the sacred, world view, and how these ideas function in each person's daily awareness. From this foundation they develop their ideas concerning the way thinking about the sacred--indeed, ways for thinking about the sacred for most American Indians:
1. A belief in or knowledg of unseen powers, or what some people call The Great Mystery.
2. Knowledge that all things in the universe are dependent on each other.
3. Personal worship reinforces the bond between the individual, the community, and the great powers. Worship is a personal commitiment to the sources of life.
4. Sacred trations and persons knowledgealble in them are responsible for teaching morals and ethics.
5. Most communities and tribes have trained practitioners who have been given names such as medicine men, priests, shamans, caciques, and other names. These individual also have titles given them by The People which differ from tribe to tribe. These individuals are responsible for specialized, perhaps secret knowledge. They help pass knowledge and sacred practices from generation to generation, storing what they know in their memories.
6. A belief that humor is a necessary part of the sacred. And a belief that human beings are often weak--we are not gods--and our weakness leads us to do foolish things; therefore, clowns and similar figures are neded to show us how we act and why. (pp. 8-9)
Once the reader learns what the sacred entails, along with the ways of thinking about the sacred, it becomes obvious that the sacred permeates American Indian lifeways. The remainder of "The Sacred," then, develps and inetrates these ideas within various components of American Indian life-ways.
Beck and Waters' book is an original and qualified book that is comprehensive in its usefulness. That is, it is a book that should be considered for use in more than just American Indian Religion classes. "The Sacred" is totally appropriate for introductory classes or general classes like Indians of North America (for which I am successfully using the text). "The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life" is a positive addition to the literature on American Indian Studies, and is one that should be seriously considered for adoption in courses treating topics on American Indians.
Please, read "The Sacred," and then help me pass the word. However, also remember that this is not a novel or a popular reading book, and as such you may find parts hard to understand. If you do, contact a Native American Studies program or feel free to email me.
Please Note: If this review was not helpful to you, I would appreciate learning the reason(s) so I can improve my reviews. My goal is to provide help to potential buyers, not get into any arguments. So, if you only disagree with my opinion, could you please say so in the comments and not indicate that the review was not helpful. Thanks.
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by Jack Frederick Kilpatrick
