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THE GHOST DANCE CULT
THE GHOST DANCE
Machu Picchu, Star Eyes CrazyHorse [no image id specified] X=X=X=POWWOW=X=X=X
After the Civil War, the Plains Indians encountered the full force of manifest destiny. Bison, their food base was systematicly shot to extinction. The Indians were forced to wasteland reservations.
When all hope seemed lost there appeared a shaman or (medicine man) named WOVOKA
A Paiute of Nevada.
During an eclipse of the sun in 1889, Wovoka lay ill with fever and had a vision where he was taken to the other world. He was given a message by God, and told that the time was near when all Indians, living and dead, would be reunited on a revitalized earth. Then they would live without misery or want.
The were to put on the "ghost shirt" a garment fancifully decorated with symbol of birds, the sun, stars, and arrows. The return of the dead ancestors could be hastened by dancing. Wovoka told the people God said, "love one another, have no quarreling, and live in peace with one another; they must work and not lie or steal..."
This was not something new. In the Great Basin the belief existed long befor the arrival of the settlers. The dead would return, and the return could be hastened by dancing.
Twenty years earlier a Ghost Dance movement had predicted the return of the dead and the destruction of the whites in a cataclysm. Wovoka's peaceful teachings spead, and became confused with the earlier prediction and dance. The Plains tribes sent delagations to talk to him. They traveled on the white man's railroad to spread the news of the Ghost Dance. English was the only common tongue among the tribes. The delagates reported back Wovoka's message in a garbled form. They told the Plains tribes the dancing would bring back their ancestors bearing gifts, and great herds of bison, and the whites would be wiped off the face of the earth. Best of all the Plains Indians would be invulnerable to the white attacks because the ghost shirts were bulletproof.
The Shoshonis and Arapaho began dancing at once. Others soon followed.
In 1890 the Sioux were being punished for intransigence. Present among them was Sitting Bull, white haired leader, and vetran of the 1876 massacre of Custer's cavalry. The authourities were alarmed by the spread of the Ghost Dance. and alerted the army to put an end to the movement. Sitting Bull was killed while being arrested. Two weeks later three hundred of his followers, mostly women and children were shot by U.S. cavalrymen. Wounded Knee marked the end of the Ghost Dance movement, though it lingered till the 1930's. It was a movement that spread like a prairie fire, and burned itself out
quickly.
References:
Man's Rise to Civilization As shown by Indians of north America From Primeval Times to the coming of the Industrial State. Peter Farth
The Last Ghost Dance Brooke Medicine Woman
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ASSYRIA-BABYON
RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION
Babylon, Leah Enkidu [no image id specified] The religion and civilization of Assyria were almost identical with those of Babylonia, the former having been derived from the latter and developed along the same lines. Although the Assyrians made notable contributions to architecture, art, science, and literature, these were with them essentially a Babylonian importation. Assyrian temples and palaces were modelled upon those of Babylonia, although in the building material stone was far more liberally employed. In sculptural decorations and in statuary more richness and originality were displayed by the Assyrians than by the Babylonians. It seems to have been a hobby of Assyrian monarchs to build colossal palaces, adorned with gigantic statues and an infinite variety of bas-reliefs and inscriptions showing their warlike exploits. Asshurbanipal's library shows that Assyrian religious literature was not only an imitation of that of Babylonia, but absolutely identical therewith. An examination of the religions of the two countries proves that the Assyrians adopted Babylonian doctrines, cults, and rites, with such slight modifications as were called for by the conditions prevailing in the northern country. The chief difference in the Assyrian pantheon, compared with that of Babylonia, is that, while in Semitic times the principal god of the latter was Marduk, that of the former was Asshur.
The principal deities of both countries are: the three chief deities, Anu, the god of the heavenly expanse; Bel, the earth god and creator of mankind; Ea, the god of humanity par excellence, and of the water. Next comes Ishtar, the mother of mankind and the consort of Bel; Sin, firstborn son of Bel, the father of wisdom personified in the moon; Shamash, the sun-god; Ninib, the hero of the heavenly and earthly spirits; Nergal, chief of the netherworld and of the subterranean demons, and god of pestilence and fevers; Marduk, originally a solar deity, conqueror of storrns, and afterwards creator of mankind and the supreme god of Semitic Babylonia; Adad, or Ramman, the god of storms, thunders, and lighting; Nebo, the god of wisdorn, to whom the art of writing and sciences are ascribed; Girru-Nusku, or, simply, Nusku, the god of fire, as driving away demons and evil spirits; Asshur, the consort of Belit, and the supreme god of Assyria.
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AZTECS
A NEW PERSPECTIVE .
Machu Picchu, Xolotl Huascar  As the Warriors stand before the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan listening to speeches given by the emperor ,they gaze over the looking for the faces of their proud families among the multitude who have come to witness their triumph. One mighty veteran gets a firmer grip on the hair of the prisoner kneeling at his feet and looks up at the towering pyramid to ponder the shrine of his patron god. It is the sworn duty of every Aztec soldier to carry on the legacy of Huitzilopochtli, Hummingbird of the South; to be ever vigilant , ever prepared to protect his family and his city from those who would destroy all that his ancestors had worked to accomplish.
The captive resigns himself to his fate ; he knew the fortunes of war when he joined the army of his city state in the revolt against the empire .The priests approach and the warrior makes his presentation .Now is the time for the final conflict , the triumph, the conclusion of the battle to be witnessed there in the central plaza by the Aztec people themselves. The captive will exact the role of the cosmic enemy, the living proof of Huitzilopochtli’s omnipotence, of his power manifest in the abilities of warriors, his spiritual descendants to repay him for his blessings. The captive is pulled on to his back over the surface of a stone disk emblazoned with the image of the sun .He is held down by four priests while the fifth drives a knife into his chest. The trauma of the blow kills him nearly instantaneously. Just as quickly the priest slits the arteries to the heart and lifts the bloody mass into the air, pronouncing it to be the 'precious eagle cactus fruit’ a supreme offering to the solar god.
Every time I look upon the colossal monument known as the Aztec Calendar Stone whether it be on a webpage or in a book, I try to imagine such rituals following Aztec military campaigns. Thousands of people participated –to reassure themselves that their investment in supplying food, making weapons and equipment and committing the lives of their children to the armies would grant them the benefits of conquest that their emperors.
Aztec civilization has been clouded in mystery and misunderstanding for centuries. For many people, knowledge of the Aztecs is confined to vague recollections of the illustrated books of youth and their graphic depictions of grisly sacrifices .This maybe true in Britain ,indeed in Europe ,than in North America where people have been privileged to witness a remarkable rediscovery of the Aztec culture over the past two decades .Aztec 'sacrifice',for example once perceived as a ruthless practice committed by a ‘tribe’ seemingly obsessed with bloodshed is now seen as no more or less brutal than what many imperial civilizations have done to ’bring home the war ‘ in the words of Harvard professor David Carrasco .
Today we witness war on television to confirm for ourselves to confirm for ourselves that what a government claims they are doing is in the interests of national security is worth the cost in resources and human life. But ancient societies had no comparable means to convey the image of battle to the heartland of their culture. Roman triumphs were a means of doing just this, and were more important than battlefields for ambitious politicians and we should not forget those of captives who were forced to march in their thousands to celebrate the glorious commander were condemned to horrifying deaths in the Colosseum . The Aztec rituals were no different
In their songs and stories the Aztecs described four great ages of the past ,each destroyed by some catastrophe wrought by vengeful gods. The fifth and present world only came into being through the self –sacrifice of a hero who was transformed into the Sun. But the Sun refused to move across the sky without a gift from humankind to equal his own .War was therefore waged to obtain holy food that the Sun required, and thus to perpetuate life on earth .The Aztecs had no term like ‘human sacrifice’ for their rituals . For them it was nextlaualli, the sacred debt payment to the gods. Thus warfare, sacrifice and promotion of agricultural fertility were inextricably linked in their religious ideology. Meanwhile for the Aztec soldiers, participation in these rituals was a means of displaying their prowess, gaining rewards from the emperor’s own hand, and announcing their promotion in society. In addition, the executions served as a grim reminder for foreign dignitaries, lest they should ever consider making war against the empire themselves.
Xolotl Huascar
Bibliography
Frances F. Berden and Patricia Rieff . Annawalt ,
Codex Mendoza. Four Volumes University of California Press 1992.
Elizabeth Hill Boone
The Aztec World
St. Remy Press Washington 1994.
David Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Mocetezuma
Mocetezuma’s Mexico : Visions of the Aztec World
University of Colorado Press 1992
Michael E. Smith
The Aztecs
Osprey 2001
ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS
Rome, Cornellia Cornelius  Roman treasure found in English garden
This past week, while digging a fish pond, an English gardener uncovered a hard of 20,000 ancient Roman coins according to a BBC report issued last Thursday. Experts have told the BBC that its possible the coins could be dated to the 4th-century or near the end of Roman occupation of Britain. Gail Boyle, from the Bristol Museum said, "This is the most amazing kind of treasure to come out of this area for 30 years". Regardless, the priceless discovery has been described as the largest of its kind in Britain. The oins were cramme dinto a ceramic pot that crumbled as Ken Allen. the gardener who made the discovery, dug it out of his garden in Thornbury, Gloucestershire. It will now be determined if Mr. Allen can keep the treasure. Mr. Allen told the BBC, "It was a great surprise and at first I didn't realize what we had found. The pot was perfectly upright, I can't believe that this discovery was only 20 feet from our house". Roman Paris was not in Paris, but in Nanterre Recent excavations at a building site in a suburb 10 kilometers to the west of the island which lies in the center of the modern French capital have brought to light a pre-Roman settlement. Nanterre is the only agglomeration of size identified on the territory of the Parisii. Until now no significant remains from an occupation predating the Roman conquest have been found on the Ile de la Cite," saId Alain Bulard, of the directorate for cultural affairs for the Paris area. The Nanterre site which was discovered on the bank of the Seine at the end of last year shows a density and sophistication previously unknown in the area. It has revealed a rigidly planned urban area constructed around two parallel cobbled streets and a market square. Ditches drained away waste water and each home, constructed of wood and a clay straw mixture contained its own stone lined well. Coins, bronze brooches and a cooking fork are among the items found on the scene. Tuscan 'Excalibur' Mystery to be Unearthed Italian researchers have announced that they will soon be conducting an archaeological dig around the stone which holds the sword buried in a Gothic abbey in Tuscany, in search of the knight's body. Indeed, ground penetrating radar analysis revealed the presence of a 6 1/2-foot by 3-foot room beneath the sword. Known as the "sword in the stone," the Tuscan "Excalibur" is said to have been plunged into a rock in 1180 by Galgano Guidotti, a medieval knight who renounced war and worldly goods to become a hermit. Built in Galgano's memory, the evocative Gothic abbey at Montesiepi, near the city of Siena, still preserves the sword in a little chapel. Only the hilt and a few centimeters of the blade protrude from the rock in the shape of a Cross. Long thought to be a fake, metal dating research in 2001 indicated that the sword does have medieval qualities. "The composition of the metal doesn't show the use of modern alloys, and the style is compatible with that one of a 12th century sword," Luigi Garlaschelli, a research scientist at University of Pavia, recently told Discovery News. The figure of Galgano Guidotti, who is said to have be born in 1148 in Chiusdino, near Siena, is shrouded in mystery and legend. Evidence of his historical identity has never been found and no records exist in documents from his time. Gallgano Guidotti was said to have been an arrogant and lustful knight who isolated himself in a cave and became a hermit after seeing a vision of the Archangel Michael. Legend has it that, Galgano was lured out by his mother who convinced him to meet with his former beautiful fiancée; on the way to her house, Galgano was thrown by his horse while passing Montesiepi, a hill near Chiusdino. There, another vision told him to renounce material things. Galgano objected that it would be as difficult as splitting a rock with a sword. To prove his point, he struck a stone with his sword. Instead of breaking, the sword slid like butter into the rock. Galgano once again became a recluse, isolating himself by the sword's side. There he remained until he died in 1181.
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THE GHOST DANCE CULT
Star Eyes CrazyHorse Machu Pichu
RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION
Leah Enkidu Babylon
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Xolotl Huascar Machu Picchu
ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS
Cornellia Cornelius Rome
ARS ROMANA & SPRINGFEST
A CONTEST!
Hecate Flaminius A special contest will be held at Ars
Romana in collaboration with Rome's Springfest (probable
dates 20-21 April) . AR will be present and
active in the spring celebrations. We still don't
have a defined theme but one is already being
discussed: the art and architecture of Rome in "City and Country".
If you want to participate, come and visit Ars Romana!!
ARACHNE'S WEB SPRINGTIME HOMESITE CONTEST UNDERWAY
Laurels Curius This quarter's contest starts March 15th, and entries will be accepted until April 5th. Submit your entry here Results will be announced next ACTA issue, April 15th. Good luck to all our contestants!
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