The road of life and death : a ritual drama of the American Indians / Paul Radin ; with a foreward by Mark Van Doren.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Radin, Paul, 1883-1959.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Bollingen series ; 5.

Mythos (Princeton, N.J.)

Mythos.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Winnebago Indians--Rites and ceremonies.

Winnebago Indians.

Winnebago Indians--Drama.

Indians of North America--Rites and ceremonies.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Drama.

Genre:

Drama.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1 & 2)

Physical Description:

xiv, 345 pages ; 23 cm.

Manufacture:

1991.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1973]

Summary:

In this transcription of the Medicine Rite, the most sacred ritual of the now vanished Winnebago Indians, anthropologist Paul Radin captured a poetic source of profound importance to the understanding of mystical experience. Performed by medicine men upon the initiation of a member to their cult, this secret rite recapitulated the mythic origins and heroes of the Winnebago while integrating those present with the ancestral forces. The rite imparted not only knowledge about life, death, and rebirth within the community, but also insights into our potential, as human beings, of living with genuine dignity on this earth. Available for the first time in paperback, Radin's book offers an authentic rendering of these prayers and ceremonial procedures and guides readers in appreciating their rich symbolism.

This text, recorded in 1908 through an interpreter, is the recollection of Jasper Blowsnake, a former medicine man hesitant to commit the once mortal sin of repeating the Medicine Rite. In the introduction Radin describes the events surrounding Blowsnake's recitation and sets the rite within its historical context. We learn that Winnebago medicine men attempted to find in the rite a refuge place for their tribe members, disoriented by their obsession with war and threatened with annihilation.

Contents:

I The Recording of the Medicine Rite 35

II Winnebago Civilization and the Medicine Rite 49

The Medicine Rite 79

Part 1 The Ritual of Tears 81

I The Preliminary Ceremonies 81

II The Preparatory Four Nights of Ancestor-Host's Band 88

III The Preparatory Four Nights of East's Band 102

IV The Preparatory Four Nights of North's Band 118

V The Preparatory Four Nights of West's Band 135

VI The Preparatory Four Nights of Ghost's Band 150

VII The Preparatory Four Nights of South's Band 165

Part 2 The Ritual of Purification 183

Part 3 The Ritual of Expectations 213

Part 4 The Ritual of Rewards 250

Part 5 The Ritual of Life, Death and Rebirth 266.

ISBN:

0691098190

9780691098197

0691019169

9780691019161

OCLC:

59889971