"For the Cherokee who bathed in his body, who drank from him and invoked his curative powers, the Long Man always helped them out." Anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes of a river known as "Long Man": Bathing in rivers, year-round, is one traditional method, even in the winter when ice is on the river. Ritual purification is traditionally important for ceremonial and ongoing spiritual balance. To prevent this from happening the hunter must follow traditional protocols when hunting, to honor the animal and spiritual world and continually maintain balance. ![]() These would cause the hunter to lose their appetite, become sick and die. "All human diseases were imposed by animals in revenge for killing and each species had invented a disease with which to plague man."Īccording to Reid, some believed animal spirits who had been treated badly could retaliate by sending bad dreams to the hunter. "In this belief system, women balanced men just as summer balanced winter, plants balanced animals, and farming balanced hunting." Sickness and healing Īuthor John Reid, in his book titled A Law of Blood: The Primative Law of the Cherokee Nation, writes: In Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, Theda Perdue writes: To the traditional Cherokee, the concept of balance is central in all aspects of social and ceremonial life. "Fire was the medium of transformation, turning offerings into gifts for spiritual intercessors for the four quarters of the earth." Balance In his book Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places, anthropologist Peter Nabokov writes: Sacred fire įire is important in traditional Cherokee beliefs, as well as in other Indigenous cultures of the Southeastern United States. Their strong ties to Selu, the corn mother in their creation story, put women in a position of power in their communities as harvesters of corn, a role they did not give up easily. Perdue also outlines the ways that Cherokee culture persisted through multiple attempts by Christian missionaries to convert them. "These features served as mnemonic devices to remind them of the beginning of the world, the spiritual forces that inhabited it, and their responsibilities to it." Theda Perdue and Michael Green write in their book The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast, Plants, animals, and other features of the natural world such as rivers, mountains, caves and other formations on the earth all have spiritual powers and attributes. ![]() Humans mediate between all worlds in an attempt to maintain balance between them. ![]() Instead, humans live in coexistence with all of creation. Unlike some other religions, in the Cherokee belief system, humans do not rule or have dominion over the earth, plants or animals. "The Cherokee did not separate spiritual and physical realms but regarded them as one, and they practiced their religion in a host of private daily observances as well as in public ceremonies."Ĭherokee cosmology traditionally includes a conception of the universe being composed of three distinct but connected worlds: the Upper World and the Under World, which are the domains of the spirits, and This World, where humans live. In her book Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700–1835, historian Theda Perdue wrote of the Cherokee's historical beliefs: The physical world is not separated from the spiritual world. To the traditional Cherokee, spirituality is woven into the fabric of everyday life.
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