Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+494+. The Caddoan group, dwelling formerly west of the Mississippi, in
Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, had an approach to specific totemism. In
the Caddo tribe clansmen refrained from killing the eponymous animal;
but all members of the tribe refrained from killing eagles and panthers.
Whether this custom represents former clan restrictions is uncertain.
For the related Skidi Pawnee (who formerly dwelt in the Nebraska region)
there is evidence, from folk-tales, of a belief in the origin of clans
from marriages between human beings and animals, and of belief that
through such marriages benefits accrued to the people. But such beliefs
appear not to have affected the Pawnee social organization.[848]
+495+. The Nakchi (Natchez) people (of the lower Mississippi Valley)
dwelt in villages that had such names as "pond-lily people," "hickory
people," "swan people," "forest people." These are possibly survivals of
totemic names, but there is no account of the existence of totemic
groups among them. On the other hand, they had a highly developed
sun-worship, with human sacrifices.
+496+. Customs in the Siouan stock vary. In the Dakota tribe there is no
known evidence of totemism. The Omahas (of the Missouri Valley), who
are partly agriculturalists, partly hunters, refrain from eating or
using eponymous objects, certain clans are credited with magical power
over such objects, and there are traces, in ceremonies and myths, of the
descent of clans, each from its eponym. This combination of more
definite totemistic conceptions is not found in any other member of the
Siouan stock. The Osages had a tradition or myth of their descent from
animals, but their civil organization was nontotemic--they were divided
into two groups, termed respectively the Peace Side and the War Side,
and the members of the former group took no animal life, though they ate
flesh that they obtained from the War Side. The origin of this custom is
uncertain--the two divisions of the tribe, the hunters and the tillers
of the soil, exchanged products, but how this division of labor arose
(whether from a union of two tribes or otherwise) is not clear. Among
the Hidatsa, it is reported, there was a belief that spirit children
might enter into a woman and be born into the world. The resemblance to
the Central Australian belief is striking, but it does not appear that
such entrance of spirit children was supposed to be the only mode of
human birth. The Mandans (living on the Missouri River, in North Dakota)
now have no totemic system; but little or nothing is known of their
early history.[849] In the Siouan tribes the figure of the individual
animal guardian (the manitu or "medicine") plays a prominent 'rôle'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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