Momaday & Sanchez: Sacred & Secular   Term Paper ID:27288 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Compares & contrasts the books Sanchez' RABBIT BOSS & Momaday's HOUSE MADE OF DAWN, focusing on their shared themes of primitive people trying to exist alongside a modern Western culture.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Compares & contrasts the books Sanchez' RABBIT BOSS & Momaday's HOUSE MADE OF DAWN, focusing on their shared themes of primitive people trying to exist alongside a modern Western culture. Paper Introduction: The Sacred and the Secular Introduction In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and in the modern West, the divide between the sacred and the secular is particularly pronounced. This is not the case for all cultures. In modern Saudi Arabia, for example, the sacred runs like a thread through each person's daily life. Historically, indigenous people have also had daily lives that were characterized by an ongoing relationship to spirit. What happens when indigenous people have to coexist with modern Western culture? According to the two books under consideration in this analysis, the result of the encounter is disjunction, confusion, and a great deal of despair. Before Encounter Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. There is no truesacred, nor true secular. It seems as though from the first time thathe saw Abelito after his return, he was aware that there was a problem.For him, the sacred seemed to lose energy. What is strikingly similar about both books is the determination, inboth of them, that the white man is the enemy, the evil spirit. Even if they do not think they will be affected, they areaffected by other people's loss of faith, doubt, and change. NY: Alfred A. He is seen as acriminal and his words are meaningless to the game officer. He saw the eaglessoaring and releasing the snake. The old man who played the bull indicated that ithad always been hard to play the bull since it was a victim, but that itwas even harder in the current times, because the men of the town had"relaxed their hold upon the ancient ways, had grown soft and dubious" (p.75). The old symbols havebeen replaced by new ones, but they are conflated. After Abel kills the white man, hisgrandfather's story seemed to change also. The whole townseems to have been gradually affected by the outside culture. On the other hand, the characters in the Rabbit Boss remember a timewhen their life was purely of their own culture, but they do not actuallylive it. They have a power thatis recognized as stronger than that of the Indians. There is no comprehension of what thehunter is saying to the game officer. They saw the white manas the white burden covering over all the Indians, and all the earth. According to the two books underconsideration in this analysis, the result of the encounter is disjunction,confusion, and a great deal of despair.Before Encounter It is not quite accurate to think of the protagonists as existing in apure state in which their indigenous culture was all that they knew. The greatmedicine of the white men is so powerful that the Indians lose spiritbefore it. For the Indians in these books, the gap between their culture and thewhite Western culture meant that the sacred and secular was increasinglydivided. Rattles Ruggles indicated that the white man had shot asickness into all Indians and that all Indians were dead or dying from it.The Indians believed that the white men had taken the sun away anddestroyed the medicine of the Indians completely. There are dreams ofmingled past and present, representations of tormented minds with remnantsof the old ways in their souls, but no way to embody those old ways. The book is hallucinatory in many spots. Abel, too, thought that the white man wasan evil spirit, although his thinking seemed to be more generic. This is not the same thing as the Indian culture, ineither book, however. Knopf. There is a reason for capitalizing the word"Ford." It represents one of the secular aspects of Western culture thatis treated as if it is sacred, holy, and meaningful. For example,Abel's grandfather is changed. (1973). Instead, he waited in thefield worried about Abelito. In both books, this sense of dubiousness is apparent. In those cultures, the sacred infused all of lifeand all of life was a relationship. Yet,in the case of Abel, there was a difference in his relationship to theworld before he left home for the war and after his return. Thegrandfather does not leave the old ways because of himself, primarily, butbecause of Abel's transformation. What theysaw in the white man and white ways was evil, not another sacred path. The secular world intrudes intothe sacred, hallucinatory visions of the hunter with its demand for huntingtags (p. The grandfather no longerresponded appropriately within the culture. At the same time, Abel felt shame anddisgust after capturing the eagle, which does not seem to be the expectedfeeling (p. This isnot the case for all cultures. What happens when indigenous people haveto coexist with modern Western culture? Even though the white man has not entered thescene directly, the sacred ways are already impacted. Instead, there is a secularized sacred and asacralized secular. 94). Althoughpeople hunt and eat the deer, they do so with respect and reverence.Afterward On the other hand, the thinking of Western culture is dispirited,rational, functional, pragmatic. The Sacred and the SecularIntroduction In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and in the modern West, the dividebetween the sacred and the secular is particularly pronounced. Yet, there also is the realisticrecognition that "they" have come closer to the Indians dwelling place andthat they represent a major danger to the people. He noted that when Abelkilled the white man, he was doing so because he believed that the whiteman was an evil spirit (p. Theculture of the white man is perceived as absolutely deadly for Indians, andso it was. The Indians in both books seethemselves as defeated utterly, and possessing inadequate medicine tocounter the effects of the white man's evil spirits.The Widening Split What appears during the course of both books is that there is awidening split between sacred and secular for those who engage with modernWestern culture. The gulf between the sacred and secular here is enormous. NY: Harper & Row. Even though other characters stayed in the town while he went away, theywere still affected by the changing culture. The result of seeing these people is immediate change. There are a number of othercharacters whose lives change over the course of the book. The deer is not merelyanimal, separate and alien, but brother to the human being. References Momaday, N.S. 446-453). It could not resolve the sacred-secular split and returnthe people to their previous condition of harmony. Clearly, in their minds, the gods favor the white men, becauseall the power has been transferred to them. 95). So, there was already something working to separate himfrom his own culture. It seemedas though he believed that it was the white man as a whole, as a race, thatwas the enemy, and that he was justified in killing such an enemy (p. Thisseems as much symbolic as actual. Even Christianity, which insome cases could be modified to fit with older beliefs, or the Christ-figure adopted as another god-figure, could not serve as the foundation fora new, whole path. 25). There are interlocking influences. They were being drowned andcovered, both literally and symbolically (pp. Rumors have precededthem, including stories of the fire sticks that can kill both animals andpeople. In the newer culture, ordinary lifewas vitiated and made isolated. The deer issecular, it is no longer sacred, and it is ruled by secular considerationsand rules. There is no majorconflict here, at least initially. The change is not only within the family, however. The before way of thinking is of arelationship between the deer and the person. He is powerless to the secular culture, which has been madesacred by Western society. The last sections of The Rabbit Boss are even more powerfullyaccusatory. Theirceremonies have less and less meaning and vitality, as characterized by theresponse to the bull. The entireway of thinking is different. For example, the incident with the eagles represents an encounter withspirit that seems to flow fairly naturally for Abel. In the House Made of Dawn, Abel is only one character who is affected. In modern Saudi Arabia, for example, thesacred runs like a thread through each person's daily life. In the very first section of the book, there is the expression ofthe first encounter between the two cultures. (1966). Theending of the book is very appropriate. Rabbit boss. Instead, the hunter is perceivedmerely as someone who is disobeying the laws of the state. 467-468). Yet,the old ways would not simply die and be replaced by other ways. Their lives, too, became divided and conflictual in ways that hadnot been the case before the encounter with another culture. Sanchez, T. It could only provide bits and pieces, sometimes evenmore confusing. Gayabucdoes not bring home killings for the baby-feast. Theysaw the earth as being transformed into an earth covered with whiteness, onwhich there was no longer room for them. Even the priest recognized this. House made of dawn. For the first time, hisgrandfather did not go to the sacred dance. The confusionof seeing their culture, and their gods, as powerless against people whoseemed to be quite evil to them was destructive of their belief and theirability to continue the long-term relationships with land and spirit. Historically,indigenous people have also had daily lives that were characterized by anongoing relationship to spirit. His child will have nocelebration, no baby-feast. Gayabuc saw the white meneating themselves, presumably engaging in some form of cannibalism. Intheir terms, the white person was an evil spirit, seeking to destroyeverything they held sacred, and succeeding. He pondered that, told the leader of theEagle Watchers Society, and became part of their ritual. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.