At times while I was reading Ceremony, I felt that much of the subject
matter held little meaning or relevance to me. I've always believed that
each culture had it's own unique and effective beliefs and ways of dealing
with the many challenges and mysteries of life. In retrospect, however, I
find that maybe there was some universal meanings contained in Ceremony. In
believing that each individual culture is best able to deal with it's own
problems, I thought that I was approaching this issue in a completely
non-ethnocentric way. But after giving some thoughts to the way Silko
addressed the problems of the Laguna Pueblo through her character of Tayo, as
well as the comments that were made throughout Ceremony regarding the plight
and condition of the white Anglo-European-American people, I began to realize
that this non-ethnocentric approach might be ignoring some very valuable
beliefs and philosophies of the Native-American people.
Modern Western cultures - especially United States culture - have
preoccupied themselves with a furious barrage of cultural institutions that
have, to say the least, effectively and distinctly removed us from our
origins within nature. Institutions such as business, science, politics,
religion, recreation and entertainment seem to occupy every facet of our
existence. Little time seems to be left for connecting with our spiritual
selves as well as nature; the frenzied pace of our culture could very well be
our undoing. Perhaps the beliefs of Native-Americans such as the Laguna and
Hopi, will allow their cultures to withstand the onslaught of modern white
culture, and to persevere and survive while Western culture crumbles.
The following is a passage from Frank Water's book Pumkin Seed Point,
that I think captures the profoundly different attitude that Native Americans
have about their place in this world:
"The Hopis, like other branches of their race, knew themselves as privileged
newcomers to this great new world. So upon their arrival they first asked
permission to live upon it from its guardian spirit and protector. The
spirit gave his permission, telling them, however, that they were not free to
wander over it rampantly, using it as they wished..... they were to establish
those annual ceremonies which would recapitulate their wanderings and reclaim
the land for its Creator. The meaning of the myth is clear. The emergence
of consciousness does not set man entirely free. He is still obligated to
the dictates of the unconscious which embodies all his primordial past. He
may travel to the limits of his mind and will, but he must always observe
those thaumaturgical rites which acknowledge his arising from the one great
origin of all life and which keep him whole."
What an amazing difference in attitude from our concided and self
important view of our place on this earth.
The interview film of Silko that we watched on Thursday, brought to life a
little bit of the world that we have been reading about in Ceremony. The way
in which Silko sat with her friends and told stories, as well as the
buildings and geography that we saw, clearly depicted the stark difference in
cultures between these natives and mainstream America. In Silko's
story-telling, we witnessed the way in which the history and culture of her
people are past along no history books, museums, or videos just her rich
story telling that contained so much more than just the sum of her words.
In the movie Thunderheart, we see a dual-plot developed; we watch as a far
removed one-quarter Native American FBI agent goes to the Pine Ridge
reservation in South Dakota to investigate a series of murders. During his
investigation, this skeptical agent begins to connect with a native heritage
that he has never known or accepted. The other side of the plot deals with
the inner politics of this native tribe as well as the contemptible
involvement of the United States government in their affairs. There were
some parallels between Thunderheart and Ceremony; the most apparent would be
the main characters of each getting in touch with their native heritage and
rituals. I thought that the story of the main character of Thunderheart,
Ray, was a bit contrived and far less effective and powerful than Silko's
healing portrayal of Tayo. While Thunderheart was an intense and effectual
film that was largely concerned with the role of the white man in Native
affairs, I enjoyed Ceremony more because Silko largely de-emphasized the
prevalence and influence of the white man in almost all aspects of Tayo's
journey to discover the ceremony he was part of.
Jeffrey Bennett
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