Women and Indigenous Religions / Sylvia Marcos, 2010
Indigenous religious traditions are mainly oral traditions. Texts, even if they exist, are not at the core of their belief structure. If we try to systematize the religions that are transmitted through oral traditions with the methods used for systematizing religions rooted in textual traditions, we will distort and misinterpret them.
Historical and textual methods presuppose a fixed narrative as a basis for analysis. Oral traditions are fl uid, fl exible, and malleable. The subtle shifting and changing of words, metaphors, and meanings easily slip through the “text” cast by historical and textual analysis. New methods are needed to capture a tradition that is in continuous change.
Typical methods used in oral storytelling:
- the use of redundancy as a means for the re- membering of traditions
- the metaphoric use of parallelism
- the formulaic structure of songs and stories
- the power of words and utterances that call reality into being
- the indissociability of myth and history
It is especially in religions that depend on oral performance and rituality for their permanence and transmission that women play a prominent role. They preside over rituals, preserve but also re-create traditions.
Ngarrindjeri - Australian aboriginals
miminar - women
ngatji - totems
friend, protector; spirit who teaches you, guide. In their example, one woman had the pelican as her ngatji.
miwi - inner spirit
ruwi - country
Everything has a story, but not everyone knows every story. Nor does everyone have the right to hear every story, or having heard it, to repeat the words.
There are some things that I want to keep private; there are some things Collin and I have different views on; I think spirituality is one of them.
To read - chapter 10 - Drawing the Connections: Mayan Women’s Quest for a Gendered Spirituality
Historical and textual methods presuppose a fixed narrative as a basis for analysis. Oral traditions are fl uid, fl exible, and malleable. The subtle shifting and changing of words, metaphors, and meanings easily slip through the “text” cast by historical and textual analysis. New methods are needed to capture a tradition that is in continuous change.
Typical methods used in oral storytelling:
- the use of redundancy as a means for the re- membering of traditions
- the metaphoric use of parallelism
- the formulaic structure of songs and stories
- the power of words and utterances that call reality into being
- the indissociability of myth and history
It is especially in religions that depend on oral performance and rituality for their permanence and transmission that women play a prominent role. They preside over rituals, preserve but also re-create traditions.
Ngarrindjeri - Australian aboriginals
miminar - women
ngatji - totems
friend, protector; spirit who teaches you, guide. In their example, one woman had the pelican as her ngatji.
miwi - inner spirit
ruwi - country
Everything has a story, but not everyone knows every story. Nor does everyone have the right to hear every story, or having heard it, to repeat the words.
There are some things that I want to keep private; there are some things Collin and I have different views on; I think spirituality is one of them.
To read - chapter 10 - Drawing the Connections: Mayan Women’s Quest for a Gendered Spirituality