Cosmogony and the Winter Dance: Native American Ethics in Transition
Two distinct, complementary ethical elements, an ethics of giving and an ethics of empathy, find expression in the world renewal ceremonial of the Winter Dance among the Kettle Falls people. Both elements derive from the cosmogony of these indigenous people who live along the Columbia River in Washi...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
1992
|
| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
Year: 1992, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 389-413 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | Two distinct, complementary ethical elements, an ethics of giving and an ethics of empathy, find expression in the world renewal ceremonial of the Winter Dance among the Kettle Falls people. Both elements derive from the cosmogony of these indigenous people who live along the Columbia River in Washington. The ethics of giving is investigated in terms of sacred power "(sumix)" and the giveaway; the ethics of empathy is studied in terms of guardian-spirit songs and spirit sickness. This paper shows that the community norms established in the ethics of giving serve to prepare individuals for those spiritual encounters that engen- der the ethics of empathy; thus, the two elements together constitute a synthetic ethics: a unified developmental system of complementary elements in which worldview is related to subsistence practices and individual maturity is integrated with community moral identity. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
|