Sweat Lodges

1 min read

Sweat Lodges – Many Native American nations make use of a ritual complex in which people enter a heated confined space in order to seek purification. The ceremony itself involves communication with powerful other-than-human persons or helpers, most centrally the heated rocks onto which water is sprinkled to produce steam. In fact, many Native Americans identify the ritual structures not as “sweat lodges” but as “stone people lodges,” clearly aligning themselves with an animist cosmology. The combination of sensory deprivation and overstimulation (i.e., the darkness and heat) may induce a light trance, but the key here is the practice of altered styles of communication, or “prayer.” Further ceremonies normally follow from the purification achieved in “the sweat,” such as vision quests. In New Age and neo-shamanic contexts, sweat lodges may also be considered initiatory but more often enable self-knowledge than communication with other-than-humans. While many Native Americans welcome non-Natives into their lodges, they generally see neoshamanic sweat lodges as an offensive appropriation by “wannabe Indians” facilitated by exploitative “plastic medicine people.”

SOURCE:

Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ IN OUR LIBRARY:

Previous Story

Sun Bear

Next Story

Taboo

Latest from Blog

Eugène Deloncle

Eugène Deloncle was a French businessman and far-right political activist who lived from 1890 to 1944.…

Thixo

Thixo is a creator god in Xhosa mythology. In Xhosa culture, Thixo is considered the highest…

Aziza

In Tuareg mythology, Aziza are protective spirits or genies that are believed to inhabit natural features…

Irikuden

Irikuden is a legendary hero in Tuareg mythology, who is revered as a symbol of strength,…

Tin Hinan

Tin Hinan is a legendary figure in Tuareg mythology, who is considered the mother of the…