Native American Symbols

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Native American Symbols

• Beyond Aesthetics

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Native American Symbols

• Native American symbols are more than art.
• Animals are also used.
• They encompass a cosmos and a context.

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Symbols - An Overview

• Point to something beyond themselves.
• More descriptive than words.
• Develop over time.
• Often only has meaning in a context.
• Some symbols are used in a number of different
  contexts and cultures. For example

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More On Symbols

• The symbols have a history which includes the
  object itself, persons involved and the
  circumstances surrounding its development.

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Native American Symbols

• Symbolism in Native American is significant but
  only as it relates to a particular context which
  includes a number of factors.
• Significance cannot be determined by isolating
  and decoding particular symbols.
• They are inseparable from the performance of
  which they are a part.

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Examples of Symbolism in Use

• Sandpainting ritual is used as a cure ceremony.
• They are constructed on the floor of a ceremonial
  hogan and depict mythic persons who have a
  connection with the cause of the illness being
  treated.

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Context driven Sandpainting

• One has to see how the sandpainting fits into a
  greater picture that is itself symbolic, created
  from the experience of hearing the stories,
  praying the payers, living the way of life, all
  of which constitute Navajo tradition.

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Self-Directed Designs and Objects

• Some Native American artifacts are self-directed
  in others words to be understood they have to be
  looked at from the point of view of the wearer.
• An example are the effigy pipes of the Algonquin
  which are used to aid in concentration and
  thought. A person by smoking the pipe and
  concentrating on the effigy that one gains power
  from the guardian spirit.

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Esoteric Objects

• Many esoteric objects such as the medicine
  bundles are very symbolic. Their power lies in
  what they invoke through history of the user and
  use, stories of their origin, the occasions and
  manners of their use.

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Masks

• Masking or masquerade?

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Seneca False Faces

• Many masks are related to formal and public
  religious acts.
• Masks are living things.
• For example the society of men of the Seneca who
  perform the new years corn and green ceremonies
  to drive out evil.
• These masks are called gagosa.

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Use of the gagosa

• These are carved out of living trees and removed
  (if possible) without killing the tree.
• They are distinctly decorated with distortions
  and exaggeration.
• Carved out by special people.
• The masks have a purpose. For example
• And another example

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Care

• The masks have distinctive features.
• They are molded according to a dream revelation.
• The masks are treated as living beings.
• When not in use they are hung facing the wall or
  are wrapped and carefully placed in a box or
  drawer.

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Treatment

• They are fed periodically by putting something on
  their lips.
• Their faces are sometimes treated to keep clean.
• Each mask is named and has its own personality.

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Consider This

• They are very powerful for they manifest the
  power of the Bad twin who, when overcome by the
  Good Twin at the close of creation, was destined
  to aid in keeping the health and wellbeing of
  human beings.
• The masks are not a covering or disguise but are
  a living manifestation of the type of spiritual
  being.

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The Hopi

• Looking Through the Mask

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Meaning of the Mask

• In the case of Hopi the masks represents a way of
  looking at the world--a perspective.
• For example masks are used to frightened children
  into behaving properly--this is where the family
  has to provide a considerable sum for the life of
  the child.
• The mask provided wearer with a perspective of
  reality shown on the face of the child.

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Kwakiutl Masks and the Notion of Place

• The Kwakiutl use the mask to designate
  hierarchical relationships.
• For Kwakiutl reality is in grid relationships.
• In it there are a fixed number of positions, to
  each of which belongs a name, referred to as seat
  or standing place. An example
• Another example

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Conclusion

• Masks are symbolic because of what they make
  present they spiritual reality. Masks cannot be
  translated or decoded because their meaning is
  inseparable from what they make present--which,
  apart from the masks, could not be observed or
  expressed.
• An explanation of masks at this site.

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Native American Symbols

• Lifes choices example
• Tribes