In-class journal. Write a page on this question: Does time move in a straight line or does it move in a circle? Today we'll look at the American national myth of Thanksgiving, and what it tells us about our culture(s). But first we'll take note of a more immediate reason for giving thanks, at least for the families of 150 members of the Alaska Army National Guard.
In Bethel, in western Alaska, Guardsmen returning from deployment in Iraq will be honored with a
traditional Yup'ik ceremony incorporating a "purification rite to cleanse the soldiers of the pressures of war,"according to today's Anchorage Daily News.
"We wanted to put more cultural relevance in this event so there could be a connection with the people we are honoring, so they could feel they are truly home," Agatha John-Shields, administrator of Ayaprun Elitnaurvik, a Yup'ik immersion school, told the ADN.
The deployment left scores of families without their primary hunters of walrus, seal, geese and other crucial subsistence foods. Some families moved to larger communities like Bethel, population 6,000. Others relied on younger family members to do the hunting while some turned to the time-honored tradition of their villages taking care of them.
"These guys, when they left, there was a big hole in their communities," Shields said. "They are the ones who hunt and fish for their subsistence. Those left behind, even the young kids, had to grow up fast and do it. We want to show how much we appreciate them."
Note the difference between military ceremonies, which can be very moving, and Native ceremonies.
There's a broad difference in the way Native cultures think about
ceremony and the way many of the rest of us do, at least as Americans. The Webster-Merricam Dictionary
defines ceremony as "a formal act or series of acts prescribed by ritual, protocol, or convention." Often it has spiritual or religious significance. To generalize perhaps way too much, Native people tend to act out their religion or spiritual beliefs in daily life more than do Europeans or Americans of European heritage. In contrast, Euro-Americans tend to set aside ceremonies for special occasions.
To see how this plays out in the cultures we're studying this semester, let's start by reading a story in The Christian Science Monitor on
the First Thanksgiving myth. Pay special attention whhen the Monitor says, "In the culture of the Wampanoag Indians, who inhabited the area around Cape Cod, 'thanksgiving' was an everyday activity." As you read, look for similarities and differences in the way descendants of the Pilgrims and descendants of the Wampanoag people who were at the "First Thanksgiving" think about the event ... and ceremonies like eating turkey and cranberry sauce, and watching the Macy's parade on television.
Another definition, and this one is important. Our Thanksgiving story is a
myth, which
Webster-Merriam defines as "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon" or as " a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone;
especially : one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society." Both definitions fit here.
A myth is simply a story that tells us who we are, how we got here and what we believe in. When we dressed up as "pilgrims" and "Indians" in elementary school, complete with tall hats and feathers cut out of construction paper, we were learning a myth of origin. We will read others.
For some background on the way different people look at Thanksgiving, read the webpage comparing Lakota and Euro-American
cultural values put up by Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota. Note especially the difference between "natural time" and "clock time," and "Religion = Way of Life . . . Sacramental, Symbolic" and "Religion = Segment of Life . . . Intellectual, Gnostic." What does that mean?
Blue Cloud Abbey also has a webpage comparing European and Indian concepts of
"Time as Communiction." How do cultural values affect these concepts?
Finally, we'll complete a circle by reading in the Anchorage Daily News about
another Thanksgiving ceremony. This one is a village feast on Thanksgiving Day in an Inupiat Eskimo village near the Arctic Ocean. What stands out as being about the same as Thanksgiving in the "lower 48" states? What is different? (Hint: Do you eat whale blubber for Thanksgiving?) How do some of the Eskimo attitudes expressed here compare to the Wampanoag Indians interviewed for the story about the "First Thanksgiving" in Massachusetts and the Lakota values outlined in the Blue Cloud webpages in South Dakota? How do they compare to our own attitudes, values, ceremonies and myths?
