>>Dr. Nelson: We're starting the unit on cosmology
and religion. So, Dan, we're moving a little
bit now from worldview into something a bit
more specific. Could you tell us a little
bit about how we're going to, kind of refine
our focus?
>>Dr. Swan: Religion is such an important
part of the human experience, in that religion
is used for a variety of purposes. All religions
share a a certain set of features, most importantly
their purpose. So their purpose is to provide
a way of living, a moral and just way of living.
But oftentimes, religion is also focused on
explaining the unexplainable. This is where
this concept of a leap of faith, that some
things cannot be explained and are either
accepted or rejected on the basis of faith
and belief. So I think that what I hope that
we're able to unpack in this unit of the course
is to explore the diverse ways in which religion
accomplishes the same work.
>>Dr. Nelson: Mmhmm. Okay, so this variety
that we want to explore we are actually going
to try to do by generating some looks from
different corners of the state, really. We're
going to start over in the northeastern and
talk about some of the southeastern U.S. stomp
dance traditions. And then where are we headin'?
>>Dr. Swan: Well, we are also going to look
at the Cheyenne sun dance. We'll discuss newer
religious movements among Native peoples,
like Peyotism, and the ghost dance, and revitalization
efforts. And then we have to discuss Native
Christianity. It's so paramount in the story
of Native religions.
>>Dr. Nelson: One of the things that I think
we will start to see when we start talking
about Native and Christian, is that there
have been some who have wondered if those
are a contradiction in terms. Putting them
together all of a sudden like cancels each
other out. I'm starting to get the impression
that that's not exactly the way that we find
people living out their religious lives.
>>Dr. Swan: You know, I think this is always
I think the challenge when we try to generalize
about religion and religious pursuits. One
of the things that I think is is extremely
interesting among Native peoples that I have
not encountered elsewhere is religious pluralism.
So that you can have people who participate
in the sun dance and pledge, and vow, take
on a vow of sacrifice there, and the next
week they may be in a Peyote, a Native American
church religious service, and then feel perfectly
comfortable going to Catholic mass or or to
to their local Baptist church.
>>Dr. Nelson: I gotta tell ya, it's not always
super comfortable going from a all night,
Saturday night stomp dance to church bright
and early on Sunday morning, but yeah, there
are people who make it happen.
>>Dr. Swan: Yeah, yeah, and I think that that's
that's another important aspect of all of
this, is that we find incredible diversity
within communities, within tribes, and within
families. It's not, it's not that that one
path suits everyone.
>>Dr. Nelson: Right. Well, I think that that
kind of diversity is part of the reason that
we're here.
>>Dr. Swan: It's part of the rich story that
we're going to explore.
>>Dr. Nelson: Yeah.
