Unit 13

English 203:
Literature of the NonWestern World
Introduction .Explication Questions Review

Introduction:
Reading: 1728-59, 2614-18:
                     Native America, 1728-35
                     Florentine Codex, 1736-39
                     Cantares Mexicanos, 1739-42
                     Popol Vuh, 1742-59
                     Navajo Night Chant, 2614-18

This final lesson is devoted the literature written by Native Americans.  The Navajo Night Chant, is the only contemporary piece in our text.  The major piece in this lesson is the Mayan Popol Vuh.  The section we have offers a fairly familiar creation story.  The Navajo, e.g., also have stories about the twins who slay monsters & bring order to the world.

This material is difficult for us, not only because we are reading it for the first time, but because the matrix of culture in which it was created & for which it speaks is either irrecoverably lost or exceedingly difficult to enter.  Like the monuments of Egypt, you can visit the gorgeous architecture of Mayan civilization in southern Mexico & Guatemala (Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, Tikal, Monte Alban) & see some of the art in one of the world's great museums, The Anthropological Museum in Mexico City.  In Peru you can visit Machu Picchu & see the marvelous Incan walls there & in other places in the Andes.  But this great physical culture is not surrounded by an emotionally involving literary culture.

Of course there are millions of descendents of the Mayans & Incas in southern Mexico, Guatemala, & Peru, but their high culture was entirely destroyed by the Spanish.  When you visit these places you may be shocked at how unassimilated Native American Indians are in Mexican or Peruvian society, far more so than Navajos in the American Southwest.  What remains of Native American folk culture throughout the Americas is at once fairly easy to "drop in on" by visiting Taos, Acoma, Gallup, the Indian Market Day in Santa Fe, Chaco Canyon, or similar places.  Buying a piece of turquoise jewelry is easy.  (By the way, the gods do not see you, if you are not wearing turquoise.)  "Buying into" Native American culture is more difficult, as we will find in this lesson.

Because Mayan monuments are popular travel destinations, there are many good websites devoted to Mayan culture.  Here are a couple:
Mysteries of the Maya
Pre-Columbian Cultures

Our text says that "native American literature my be regarded as essentially technological, or functional, rather than aesthetic.  For the individual its function is medicinal" (1732).  This is somewhat misleading, unless you understand that the kind of "medicine" that the editor has in mind is comparable to the "medicinal" lifestyle of Daoism & not like taking an aspirin.  In both Daoism & Native American outlooks, the physical world (including our physical health) is caused or produced by spiritual powers & ritual events.  It is most important for you to understand that this is not a moral outlook in which one's motives & intentions are all important.  This is why the editor chose the otherwise strange metaphor of technology; because he meant to imply that the Native American outlook was not comparable to Christianity where it is sufficient to love God & your neighbor & not be overly concerned about details of behavior that have no moral significance.  In the Native American outlook, the world is a dangerous place.  You can lose your health, your good fortune, & your life by accident.  It is not sufficient to pray & hope that God will look out for you.  You must know the dangers & avoid them in order to successfully live a long & happy life.
 

 Frank Mitchell
 A very interesting account of the Native American outlook is offered by Frank Mitchell, a Navajo Blessingway Singer.  He explains that when someone falls ill it is always because of some spiritual event.  Very likely, someone performed witchery, or gave you the evil eye, or otherwise made you ill.  Or you may have inadvertently violated some taboo, such as touching a tree that has been struck by lightning.  Your family will most likely employ a Crystal Gazer to make a diagnosis.  This is a kind of shaman who is gifted as well as trained to discern what the rest of us overlook -- something out of place or something that doesn't fit in the pattern of "walking in beauty" (cf. the Dao).  Once you know what the problem is likely to be, you can then have the appropriate ceremony conducted to alleviate the problem & return you to the Blessingway path of health & happiness.

 


The myths in our text are fragmentary, but most have 3 functions or intentions.  They offer:

  • hidden or esoteric information about what the world is like, why it is the way it is, & how to avoid hidden dangers;
  • ritual or ceremonial magic or power to maintain the cosmic order or synchronize the community with the cosmic pattern (cf. Dao);
  • personal therapy, catharsis, or healing; also a precautionary or educational warning so the "patient" can avoid "reinfection."
These purposes produce a "literature" that is unlike the usual epic story of Gilgamesh, Son-Jara, or King Rama. You may not especially enjoy this Native American literature, but I hope you view it as a way to better understand many of our neighbors in Oklahoma, New Mexico, & elsewhere in the Americas.  Somewhat strangely, this literature introduces us to "exotic" cultures that exist in our backyard rather than on the other side of the globe.

Frank Mitchell's autobiography is, unfortunately, a little obscure.  Black Elk's autobiography is justly famous.  He was a Lakota (Sioux) shaman whose story will very much remind you of Achebe's Things Fall Apart, except that it takes place in South Dakota.
.
Black Elk

Click on the next section:
Explication