The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees - Traditional Prayers, Healing Rituals, Sacred Songs, and Ceremonial Knowledge of the Cherokee People
Overview
Drawn from years of fieldwork among Cherokee communities, this landmark ethnographic study preserves a remarkable body of prayers, songs, healing rites, and ceremonial formulas rooted in Cherokee spiritual life. James Mooney recorded the texts primarily in western North Carolina during 1887 and 1888, selecting them from a collection of approximately six hundred formulas concerning medicine, love, hunting, fishing, warfare, agriculture, protection, divination, ball play, and relations with the spirit world.
Presented with Cherokee texts, English translations, explanations of ritual practice, and accounts of the medicine men who preserved them, the formulas reveal a worldview in which physical health, human conduct, nature, dreams, and spiritual power are inseparably connected. Mooney examines sacred plants, healing ceremonies, myths, taboos, charms, and the specialized knowledge transmitted by Cherokee priests and healers.
Originally published by the Bureau of American Ethnology, The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees remains an important historical record of Cherokee language, religion, medicine, and ceremonial tradition. Readers should approach the work within the context of nineteenth-century anthropology and recognize that its interpretations reflect both the valuable observations and the limitations of an outsider writing in that era.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781934451960
- ISBN-10: 1934451967
- Publisher: A & D Publishing
- Publish Date: August 2007
- Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.44 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.74 pounds
- Page Count: 112
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