Post by blackcrowheart on Feb 14, 2006 13:26:21 GMT -5
Love, Native American style
Indian museum offers Valentines Day exhibit, Native culture replete with
lessons on life and romance
Sam Lewin 2/13/2006
nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7561
<http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7561>
With Valentines Day this week (Guys: you did know that, right?), a noted
American Indian museum is offering what it calls "In Business for Love:
Works of Eroticism and Romance."
"It allows for free-thinking," Institute of American Indian Arts
spokesman John Villani tells the Native American Times. "It's
art that talks about family, romance, passion and sexuality."
Native artists featured in the exhibit include Stan Natchez, Nocona
Burgess, Jody Naranjo, Connie Gaussoin and Diego Pomero.
The display runs through Feb. 28 at the institute's museum in Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Even if you can't check it out, there is available a
wide range of materials that examine the traditional American Indian
perspective on love and romance.
The importance of relationships is symbolized in the Medicine Wheel,
which contains the Four Sacred Colors. One of those colors, white,
denotes peace and happiness. A West Coast-based group called the
Cherokees of California runs a website explaining the significance of
the Medicine Wheel. The site states that, "In love charms, the man,
to induce the woman to cast her lot with his, boasted, `I am a white
man,' implying that all was happiness where he was."
The website RomanceClass.com reports that in traditional Native culture,
"Love and romance was a part of every life, just as the doe falls in
love with the stag or the wolves pair up. Families were an integral part
of every group, and the extended family was supported and nurtured.
Children were loved and adored. Part of every individual's life was
finding a path that made them happy and that fit in with the group. Each
person was open to thinking about and developing what he or she could
be. One symbol of this was the dreamcatcher."
Non-Indian professionals have also drawn on American Indian influences.
Marriage counselor Irene Zalkin of Indiana says she offers services to
"individuals interested in counseling and couples counseling using
approaches such as Native American philosophy."
Other experts frankly believe that older Native customs were more
enlightened and thus preferable to modern theory. According to Dr.
Kenneth R. Stubbs, Ph.D., some older cultures did not feel the need to
shield youngsters from people today sometimes refer to as "the facts
of life." Stubbs says that led to a healthier outlook.
"It is natural [for children to]… integrate their sexual,
sensual, spiritual nature into a wholeness of being," writes Stubbs.
"They do not have all these horrendous experiences that most of us
have had in discovering ourselves as sexual beings."
Lest anyone mistake the point Stubbs is trying to make, entomologist Ron
Cherry refers to the Mothway myth of the Navajo, which is essentially
"an explanation of the prohibition against sibling and clan incest,"
he says.
While sexual issues may have been treated in a more matter-of-fact
manner, the power of romantic love was frequently acknowledged. Several
tribes, including the Omaha and the Sioux, have well-known songs about
that very topic.
The following is a Native American love song called "My Heart's
Friend." Although it's origin is uncertain, the title refers to
a traditional term for someone special.
Fair is the white star of twilight
And the days clearer
At the day's end
But you are fairer and dearer
You are my heart's friend
Fair is the white star of twilight
And the moon roving
To the sky's end
But you are fairer, better worth loving
You are my heart's friend
Indian museum offers Valentines Day exhibit, Native culture replete with
lessons on life and romance
Sam Lewin 2/13/2006
nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7561
<http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7561>
With Valentines Day this week (Guys: you did know that, right?), a noted
American Indian museum is offering what it calls "In Business for Love:
Works of Eroticism and Romance."
"It allows for free-thinking," Institute of American Indian Arts
spokesman John Villani tells the Native American Times. "It's
art that talks about family, romance, passion and sexuality."
Native artists featured in the exhibit include Stan Natchez, Nocona
Burgess, Jody Naranjo, Connie Gaussoin and Diego Pomero.
The display runs through Feb. 28 at the institute's museum in Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Even if you can't check it out, there is available a
wide range of materials that examine the traditional American Indian
perspective on love and romance.
The importance of relationships is symbolized in the Medicine Wheel,
which contains the Four Sacred Colors. One of those colors, white,
denotes peace and happiness. A West Coast-based group called the
Cherokees of California runs a website explaining the significance of
the Medicine Wheel. The site states that, "In love charms, the man,
to induce the woman to cast her lot with his, boasted, `I am a white
man,' implying that all was happiness where he was."
The website RomanceClass.com reports that in traditional Native culture,
"Love and romance was a part of every life, just as the doe falls in
love with the stag or the wolves pair up. Families were an integral part
of every group, and the extended family was supported and nurtured.
Children were loved and adored. Part of every individual's life was
finding a path that made them happy and that fit in with the group. Each
person was open to thinking about and developing what he or she could
be. One symbol of this was the dreamcatcher."
Non-Indian professionals have also drawn on American Indian influences.
Marriage counselor Irene Zalkin of Indiana says she offers services to
"individuals interested in counseling and couples counseling using
approaches such as Native American philosophy."
Other experts frankly believe that older Native customs were more
enlightened and thus preferable to modern theory. According to Dr.
Kenneth R. Stubbs, Ph.D., some older cultures did not feel the need to
shield youngsters from people today sometimes refer to as "the facts
of life." Stubbs says that led to a healthier outlook.
"It is natural [for children to]… integrate their sexual,
sensual, spiritual nature into a wholeness of being," writes Stubbs.
"They do not have all these horrendous experiences that most of us
have had in discovering ourselves as sexual beings."
Lest anyone mistake the point Stubbs is trying to make, entomologist Ron
Cherry refers to the Mothway myth of the Navajo, which is essentially
"an explanation of the prohibition against sibling and clan incest,"
he says.
While sexual issues may have been treated in a more matter-of-fact
manner, the power of romantic love was frequently acknowledged. Several
tribes, including the Omaha and the Sioux, have well-known songs about
that very topic.
The following is a Native American love song called "My Heart's
Friend." Although it's origin is uncertain, the title refers to
a traditional term for someone special.
Fair is the white star of twilight
And the days clearer
At the day's end
But you are fairer and dearer
You are my heart's friend
Fair is the white star of twilight
And the moon roving
To the sky's end
But you are fairer, better worth loving
You are my heart's friend