Rethinking The Midewiwin And The Plains Ceremonial Called The Sun Dance

Bibliographic Data

ID9216730
AuthorsKarl H Schlesier (Wichita State University, corresponding author), Karl Schlesier (Department of Anthropology The Wichita State University Wichita, Kansas 67208)
Year1990
Volume35
Issue127
Pages1-27
Publication date1990-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePlains Anthropologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-0447 • E-ISSN: 2052-546X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/2052546.1990.11909550
OpenAlexW107739065
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

Two great ceremonies were initiated by Central Algonquian tribes (Ojibwas, Suhtais) during the 1660s as a response to catastrophic events deriving from the early European expansion into the western Great Lakes and Minnesota. Both developed because existing religious structures appeared as inadequate for the survival of tribal societies. Both were expressions of revitalization and reorganization and achieved very wide distributions because life-threatening conditions were common over very wide areas. A new approach to an understanding of the Midewiwin and the so-called Plains Sun Dance is necessary. A reevaluation of the New Life, or World Renewal ceremony, starting from Spier’s Classic study made in 1921 under the definition Plains Sun Dance, concludes that the term applies to only four out of eighteen tribes. The Plains Sun Dance as an institution is a persevering anthropological fiction

Archaeology · Art · Ceremony · Dance · Ethnology · Geography · Religious life · Visual arts · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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