Primitivism, Oral Tradition, andNative American Myths

Prim·i·tiv·ism (noun)

• A belief in the value of what is simple and unsophisticated, expressed as a philosophy of life or through art or literature

• A belief in the superiority of a simple way of life close to nature

• A belief in the superiority of nonindustrial society to that of the present

• The style of art of primitive peoples or primitive artists

• — prim·i·tiv·ist \-vist\ noun or adjective • — prim·i·tiv·is·tic \pri-mə-ti-vis-tik\ adjective

Oral Tradition: Myths & Legends

Literary Devices • Repetition• Enumeration • Incremental

development • Ritual beginnings

and endings • Use of archaic

language • Specific structure • Terse style

Functions of MythMyths convey …• Beliefs about nature

of physical world • Beliefs about social

order and appropriate behavior

• Beliefs about human nature and the problem of good and evil

Characteristics of Myths

• Myths describe and relate to the primal world

• Beings are animal spirits in more or less human form

• Mythic age flows into age of transformation (legends)

Characteristics of Legends

• Culture hero or transformer orders the world

• Culture hero or transformer turns animal people into animals

• Other beings become landmarks

• Flows into historical time (real heroes)

Key Figures

• Mythical and Cultural Heroes• Trickster Heroes

• “Real” Historical Heroes

Mythical & Cultural Heroes

• Dramatize prototypical events and behaviors

• Show how to do what is right and how we become the people we are

• Often of divine birth• Shape the world and gives it its character

by theft of sun, fire, or water • Myths are not concerned with original

owners, only with culture hero's acquisition of sacred objects

Trickster Heroes

• Use cunning and trickery to achieve their goals

• Often act foolishly and may suffer as a result

• Are often motivated by physical desires (hunger, greed, sex)

• Often give “gifts” to mankind

• Can frequently transform in their physical shape

• Enable us to see the seamy underside of life

A Definition

According to S.E. Schlosser of Tricksters: Native American Trickster Tales and other Trickster Folklore:

“A Trickster is a mischievous or roguish figure in myth or folklore who typically makes up for physical weakness with cunning and subversive humor. The Trickster alternates between cleverness and stupidity, kindness and cruelty, deceiver and deceived, breaker of taboos and creator of culture.”

Raven & Coyote

Kokopelli & Grandmother Spider

Common Themes• Formation of the world through struggle and robbery

(Pacific coast)• Movement from a sky world to a water world by means

of a fall• Earth-diver myth

a. flood that occurred after creation of the universe

b. recreation of the present world out of mud brought up from under the water by the earth- diver (muskrat or waterbird)

• Theft of fire • Emergence myths:

a. ascent of beings from under the surface of the earth to its surface

b. ascent from a series of underworlds• Migration myths: accompany emergence myths

Some Facts & Figures …A. Population (estimated)

1. European arrival: 18-20 million

2. Today: less than 2 million

B. Cultural Groups & Languages 1. European arrival:

a. Over 300 cultural groups

b. Over 250 languages2. Today: Only 8 languages still in use by sizeable number of people

Other Ways to Tell a Story …Carvings, Totems, Pottery,

Paintings

Use of Beads & Decoration

Weaving of Blankets and Rugs

The Noble Savage

• Main Definition: a primitive human as characterized in literature, representing natural goodness and simplicity when not encumbered by civilization

• Cultural Definition: Someone who belongs to an “uncivilized” group or tribe and is considered to be, consequently, more worthy than people who live within civilization. Many writers and thinkers through the centuries of Western civilization have believed in the noble savage.

Images of “The Noble Savage”

Wintu Woman, 19th Century

"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything. ... the White people pay no attention. ...How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? ... everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."

Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux

1868-1937“The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.”

Mourning Dove Salish1888-1936

“ ...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.”

Squanto

Squanto helped to save the pilgrims by teaching them to plant corn and how to survive in the wild.

Squanto was “sent of God,” wrote Pilgrim Governor William Bradford.

PocahontasHistorians agree that Captain John Smith was the savior of the Jamestown Colony. Since Pocahontas saved Smith's life, therefore she is responsible the survival of the colony.

"[She] was the first Christian of that [Indian] nation and the first Virginian who ever spake English." - Captain John Smith

 

Sacajawea (1788-1812)

Sacajawea was a Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition in their exploration of the Western United States. This monument is in Salmon, Idaho.

A Hero of the Suffrage Movement

Other “Real” Heroesof the Native American People“My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too."

These are the words Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1939 urging him to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota and carve a mountain sculpture honoring American Indians.

Fifty-five years after Ziolkowski began carving Crazy Horse Memorial, his family continues the dream and work progresses on the world's largest mountain sculpture. When finished, Crazy Horse will stand 641 feet long and 563 feet high.

Crazy Horse Memorialin the Black Hills of South Dakota

near Mount Rushmore

Crazy Horse, 1875"I was hostile to the white man... We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came... They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape ... but we were so hemmed in we had to fight.”

Sitting Bull, Sioux"I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in his sight. It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows. We are poor..but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die...we die defending our rights."

Geronimo, Apache (1829-1909)

“The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians.”

* Geronomi’s wife and children were killed in a raid, after which he began savagely retaliating

Tecumseh, Shawnee"Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!”

Chief Joseph, Nez Pearce

“All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.”

Words from Chief Joseph

Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them."

I say to him, "No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them."

Then he goes to my neighbor and says, "Pay me money, and I will sell you Joseph’s horses."

The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them."

If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.