Primal Religions

Introduction

It is a profound mistake to think of primal as meaning "unintelligent" or "savage," etc. Nor is primal to be equated with "Step 1" in a multi-tiered process of spiritual development. A more accurate synonym for primal would be "non-technological," not merely in the sense of having little or no exposure to machines, automation, or electronic conveniences, but rather having no exposure to the overall state of consciousness that is often implanted by a technological environment.

Technology presupposes compartmentalization of both the exterior world and the interior psyche. A technological culture tends to see the world as a collection of interrelated and yet distinctive realms of experience. Initially, it was industrialization that drew people out of an agrarian-based society and into the urban factories. Fewer and fewer people are growing and making their own food and goods; more and more people are in factories producing nameless components of larger products that they may never afford or even see. Thus the point of working is altered: it is no longer an expressive enactment of one's identity but an instrumental function of one's need to earn the income to maintain a quality of life in a separate realm. In many cases, a "quality of life" is simply the ability to make ends meet. Out of this change develops the dichotomy of work vs. leisure or "free time," of job identity vs. home identity. We are taught not to mix the two, as they are often regarded as opposing worlds. But if one works hard, we are taught, one might get ahead of the game. The higher the income, the higher the quality and amount of one's leisure time. One dreams that he/she may someday have so much economic security that he/she can give up working altogether. What all of this results in is an assumption that the workplace is public, while home and hearth is private-- another dichotomy. Even religion becomes a choice one makes within the private realm of leisure. In essence, then, the world is divided up into separate realms of experience that are stored in separate pockets or files in the mind: work-leisure, job-home, instrumental-expressive, physical-spiritual, secular-religious, public-private.

The primal consciousness has not been altered by the conditions and dichotomies described above. The primal world is not fragmented but remains whole. All of life is a symbolic paradigm of the sacred. Divine worship, for example, would not be regarded as an "activity" to be separated or isolated from other "activities." Life as lived is a sacred "activity" in and of itself. One worships as one breathes. Work and play (not "leisure") are not so much opposites but simply two sides of the same coin.

Some Basic Concepts

• Unity of experience: The primal world is not fragmented but remains whole as a symbolic paradigm of the sacred. There is no perceived division between the physical and the spiritual. The physical can indeed be a channel for the spiritual, as opposed to something “corrupt” that stands in opposition to it. In contrast, recall my use of the expression “the divorce of Mom and Dad" in regard to Western religious consciousness. Divine worship, therefore, would not be regarded as an activity to be separated or isolated from other activities. Life as lived is a sacred "activity" in and of itself. One worships as one breathes.

• Place (“Not available for export”): What is the difference between “space” and “place?” Place is space with a line drawn around it. The physical location of the community is the spiritual pivot of the universe. The primal consciousness is identified with the earth in this particular place. In other words, one's physical place is one's spiritual base (consider the Native American crisis of relocation, e.g., the Cherokee nation). Compare this with the Western emphasis upon "history as destiny."

• Orality (“Tell me a story”); Where should story dwell? Where do ancestors live? In the soul or in a text? There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Whoever said “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me” did not know what he was talking about. Words have life and breath. Stories may change and evolve, but they are always relational events (“And then what happened?!”). Texts, on the other hand, preserve story, tradition, information, etc. as a constant. But how often do we go read them? We often seem content simply to know they are over there safe and sound (i.e., in the library).

• Time: in relationship to the characteristics articulated above, time is better thought of as "timelessness." In the West or in technological cultures, time is linear. This implies that time and history are "going somewhere," i.e., in fulfillment of a destiny or purposefulness. Primal time is not linear but eternal. "Eternal" does not mean "forever," as the idea of forever is in itself linear (i.e., going on and on). Eternity simply "is." This "isness" or beingness is the stable, unchanging backdrop within which the gods and ancestors simply "are." It is encountered in any number of ways, such as dreams, shamanic ecstasy, mask performance, etc. Primal people may indeed speak of "the Past," but this should be understood not as chronological but causal: the past is not "back then" but closer to the original Source of things. This relates once again to the primacy of "place" as something eternal and central.

• Ritual enactment: each of the above ideas is present in what one enacts. Rituals and rites of passage are rehearsals or performances of the original creative act. Creation, therefore, is not a chronological event that took place "back then," but an ever-presentness. Ritual enactment keeps one in touch with that presentness as an eternal reality.

• Related closely to ritual enactment is the concept of liminality. From the Latin limen, meaning "threshhold" or "entryway," liminality refers to the ritual state of transition in a rite of passage, wherein the initiand is in a condition (or non-condition) of ambiguity or "between two worlds." He or she is in the midst of the process of leaving something old and becoming something new. Compare this to, for example, the contemporary process of engagement and marriage. The period of time between "Will you marry me?" and "I do" can last for months, and it is often filled with confusion and chaos. The partners-to-be are not married yet, but they are not single, either. They are in a liminal state of ambiguity in which they are, in a sense, non-persons, until they re-emerge on the other side as husband and wife. This is why a bride is traditionally "carried over the threshhold" on her wedding day. A similar custom is that in which both partners jump over a pole, such as a broom handle, that is extended out in front of the couple at about ankle height.

• Types of "magic:"  magic can refer to any ritual process whose enactment brings about a desired result or an attainment of power over/control of something.
  • Sympathetic magic: the attainment of power through imitation, through the use of dance movement or a mask
  • Contagious magic: the attainment of power through physical contact with a substance or object, such as the skin, bones, or blood of an animal, or even a personal possession of an individual whose behavior one wants to influence

Focus on Native American Religion

I. Los Indios ("Indians") and the European invention of America

    A. The Bering Strait theory: an ethnocentric construct?

II. "Religion:" Native vs. Western/European viewpoints

III. Many tribes and traditions but some general characteristics can be named

    A. Native practices are localized

        1. "Place" and "placement"

        2. Place/placement vs. history/time

    B. Access to certain knowledge is restricted to the initiated

        1. Rites of Passage

    C. Participation (actual enactment) is more important than belief (abstract doctrine)

    D. Relationships are more important than individualism

    E. Generosity is more a religious act than a social act

    F. Oral narratives constitute a mytho-historical record

        1. Creation stories: harmony and order

        2. The Trickster: chaos and disorder

    G. Joking/clowning are integral parts of ritual and ceremony

IV. Some Significant Examples of Ritual Performance

    A. Sand painting

    B. Masks

    C. Clowns

    D. Revivalist/Nativist Movements: the development of "pan-Indian" consciousness

        1. The Sun Dance

        2. The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (1890)

        3. Peyotism and the Native American Church

V. Contemporary Issues and Concerns

    A. Access to and control of sacred sites

    B. Survival of Native languages

    C. Return of sacred beings taken illegally and held/displayed as "objects" in museums

    D. Misuse of traditional/sacred knowledge in New Age/"Pop" religions

    E. Compromising effects of modern socioeconomic life on traditional values/practices

Important Concepts and Vocabulary Terms

Primal (definitions, e.g., non-technological, not available for export, etc.)
"The Triangle"
Animism
Magic (contagious, sympathetic)
Rite of Passage
Liminality
Psychic Affinity
Totem
Fetish
Taboo
Divination
Dualism ("the divorce of Mom and Dad")
Space/Place
Orality/Textuality
Eternity/Temporality
Revivalist/Nativist movements
 

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