BOBMAA publication of the Mizzou Religious Studies Club

Volume 1

June 2015

BOBMAExecutive Board

Co-Editors-In-ChiefShannon Orbe ‘15

Haydn Campmier ‘15

Design & Layout MangerRachel Koehn ‘15

Faculty Advisor

Bob Flanagan Assistant Teaching Professor

Director of Undergraduate Studies

A publication of the Mizzou Religious Studies Club

Volume 1 | June 2015

Table of Contents

03 Letter to the Editors

04 About BOBMA

05 Jesus Taped Out: A Fight Church Review Haydn Campmier, class of ‘15

08 Avatar: Communal Identities, Legends, and Totemism Luke Welsh, class of ‘15

12 The Lakota Ghost Dance: Of Songs and Shirts Shannon Orbe, class of ‘15

17 Professor Profile: Dr. Signe Cohen

Letter to the Editors

Dear Readers,

It is my great pleasure to announce that I will be the president of Religious Stud-ies club as of Fall 2015, as our current, fearless leader, Shannon Orbe, will be gradu-ating this May and subsequently attending Law School at St. Louis University (woo! Go Shannon!). I am a 20-year-old junior, I hail from the dusty little town of Durant, Oklahoma, and I am a triple major in Religious Studies, Political Science, and English. I look forward to next year with much anticipation, as my main goal for Religious Stud-ies Club will be to find fun, interactive ways for undergraduates, and underclassmen especially, to be exposed to the Religious Studies major. This is a major that I strongly believe will increase any student’s ability to com-municate and empathize with people of all different cultures and creeds, and in today’s competitive job market, any major that can aid in critical thinking and speech skills is invaluable. I understand that our major may not be the most commonly discussed college degree, and that is why it would be incredibly valuable to use Religious Studies Club to help promote the public salience of our department. This could include any-thing from always having a booth at organization fairs, to handing out gift bags with information on the major at Speaker’s Circle. As always, we are aggressively looking for new members for next year, including a treasurer (hint, hint), so if you have any ques-tions concerning the club, department, or ways that you can get involved in either in the upcoming year, please contact me at peopp9@mail.missouri.edu.

Phoenix OrtlipIncoming President

Class of 2016

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About BOBMA

Who We Are

We are the students of the University of Missouri that have formed the Religious Studies Club. We are inquisitive. While others look with boredom, indifference, and fear, we gaze will wonder, curios-ity, and awe.

Mission Statement

To be an organization of students seeking to increase the presence of Religious Studies on the cam-pus of the University of Missouri and to provide a non discriminatory community for Graduate Students, Majors, Minors and interested students through education, thoughtful dialogue, and wel-coming outreach.

Name

As explained in our first issue, the club has decided to name our publication in honor of Professor Bob Flanagan, the advisor for undergraduate studies. For many students at the University of Mis-souri, Professor Flanagan is the first person they meet from the department and he is often the first person to propose new perspectives to students. He constantly champions the voices of students and has become a great mentor to the Religious Studies club.

Selection Process

All articles submitted to the Club are reviewed by the editors-in-chiefs who take into account fac-tors such as quality of argument, quality of writing style, and quality of research. Articles are then selected based on merit and group consensus.

Sponsors

BOBMA is a publication of the Religious Studies Club in association with the University of Mis-souri’s Religious Studies Department.

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Jesus Taped Out: A Fight Church ReviewHaydn Campmier, class of ‘15

Fight Church follows the story of Paul Burress, a pastor and former Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, his wife, Jill Burress; Preston Hocker, another pastor and fighting instructor, and John Duffell, a pastor in oppo-sition to MMA and the fight church. Fight Church was released in fall of 2014 by directors Daniel Junge and Bry-an Strokel and takes place mainly in Rochester, New York following the life of Pastor Burress and his church, Victory Church. This is the story of Burress and many others integrating MMA fighting into their churches in an attempt to convert non-Christians to Christianity.

Several themes arise from Fight Church such as the hyper-masculinity that is pervasive throughout the film. These MMA Christian ministries utilize hyper-masculinity to create a ministry they claim emulates Jesus’ personhood. It appears that these churches give MMA fighting the same priority they give their faith, obscur-ing where their faith truly lies. The film illustrates the main fault of the Fight Church, which is the lack of in-terest in a deeper conceptualization of Jesus’ personhood that the subjects in Fight Church often ignore. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of a dishonest manager where he claims one could not serve two mas-ters.1 This portion of the parable contradicts the actions of those participating in the Fight Church because the church is, in fact, creating another master: MMA fighting. When the agenda of the Fight Church participants is to expose Jesus to the “unchurched” through MMA, fighting will always be their first priority. Moreover, this creates confusion for the audience about whether they worship MMA or Jesus.

Another theme illustrated in the film is the strong opposition to these fight churches’ theologies. In con-trast to Victory Church’s position that Jesus was historically representative of a strong, hyper-masculine MMA church revolutionary, pastors such as John Duffel assert that Jesus was weak and lacked physical strength be-cause those were characteristics that did not matter in his apocryphal metanarrative. Pastor Duffell at one point in the film declares, “Jesus doesn’t support violence.” It is clear the opposition is concerned about the Strong Theology promoted by pastors like Burress, which is mainly concerned with God being historically specific to their religion, Evangelical Christianity. In contrast, Weakness theology presents God in the negative and as that which underlines the reality of the universe. Weakness Theology is a concept coined by philosopher John D. Caputo, as a Derridan deconstruction of who God is supposed to be. While Strong theology is concerned with God existing as a governing force over the earth,2 Duffell argues in favor of a Weak Theology against the glori-fied violence in Burress’s church.

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1 “Bible Gateway Passage: Luke 16:13 - New Revised Standard Version.” Bible Gateway. Accessed April 5, 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke 16:13.

2 Caputo, John D. “Introduction: A Theology of the Event.” In The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event, 9. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Adherents to Strong Theology often construct a du-alism between the two theologies, which Caputo ex-plains this in his book The Weakness: A Theology of the Event when he states:

In a strong theology, God is the overarching gov-ernor of the universe, but in what follows I will endeavor to show that the weak force of God set-tles down below in the hidden interstices of be-ing, insinuated into the obscure crevices of being, like an ordo non ordinans, the disordering order of what disturbs being within, like an anarchic interruption that refuses to allow being to settle firmly in place.3

Caputo suggests that God, through Weakness Theol-ogy, is what is in the negative or not seen, rather than in a blatant governing force such as punishment for sin. Paul Burress and Preston Hocker show this type of determinism, which narrates that God is unchange-able, physically strong, and hyper masculine through-out history rather than a God that lives in the nega-tive. This Strong Theology excludes the hidden or negative aspects of the God character that is present all throughout the Hebrew Bible. A close reading of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament shows that the writers in the wisdom literature and Jesus both “found” the God character not by name or determin-ism but through the negative.4 The ironic thing; how-ever, is that Burress claims that, “God is too big to be stuck in stain-glass,” when Burress is cramming him inside of the predetermined God figure shaped by his own constructionist theology. It disturbs me that the subjects of this film proclaim to read their sacred text every day; yet, miss such overarching themes that are so prevalent throughout. Burress is not alone is this hyper-masculine Strong Theology either. Preston Hocker projects this same type of theology when he states that, “church isn’t just for women and kids. It’s for tough guys too.” This creates a narrative around the larger Evangelical church in which they present a Jesus that only wel-comes women, children, and the weak. These pastors perpetuate the idea that “tough guys” are not wel-comed by the Evangelical church, while these “tough guys” are, in fact, the ones in charge of every aspect of their ministries and their personal lives. Burress bra-

zenly ignores his wife’s clear objection to him partici-pating in MMA ever again. In another instance, Pastor Hocker claims that “churches lack a men’s ministry” whilst simultaneously ignoring his own reality. Male leaders, he claims are lacking in the church, surround Hocker in reality. Hocker further asserts that women and children are inferior beings both in strength and religious leadership based solely on their God-given status below the male. The idea that men are not wel-come in the Evangelical church or that men’s minis-tries are somehow lacking is a product of patriarchal singularity amongst the Fight Church subjects. Patriar-chy reinforces Strong Theology, which rejects the no-tion of weakness and negativity theology, and there-fore, making God in the reflection of a MMA fighter rather than a reflection of the Gospel accounts. awak-ened in the mind.”1

Additionally, the historical Jesus looks very different than what is depicted by the subjects of Fight Church. However, the theology that Duffell suggests in the film is the closest to illustrating the historical Je-sus. While historically Jesus is not as peace loving as Duffell presents him to be, Duffell does have a “weak-er” interpretation of scriptures that is more accu-rate to historical Jesus.5 As mentioned above, Duffell clearly asserts in the film that, “Jesus does not endorse violence.” While Duffell and some other liberal theo-logians make such claims, the actions of Jesus, such as flipping over tables and whipping people in the tem-ple, put that into question.6 Duffell’s views about Jesus encompass the Weakness Theology by arguing Jesus’ nonviolent political overthrow is what most transpar-ently reflects Jesus’ personhood. He explains that we can understand aspects of Weak Theology by under-standing Jesus’ socioeconomic position within the Roman Empire including within that position who Jesus’ audience would have been. Jesus preached that the “meek shall inherit the earth” and that “Blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom of God.”7 Fight Church’s main projections of the Jesus figure are concerned about how strong Jesus was; moreover, in missing the Weakness Theology the main subjects of the film create a theology based on their own inter-ests, rather than history.

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Jesus Taped Out

3 Caputo, John D. “Introduction: A Theology of the Event.” In The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event, 9.4 “Bible Gateway Passage: Luke 6:12 - New Revised Standard Version.” Bible Gateway. Accessed March 29, 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke 6:12&version=NRSV.

5 Ibid. Matthew 21:12.6 Ibid. John 2:15. 7 Ibid. Luke 6:20.

Overall, this film seems to be a fairly accu-rate description of what I have seen and experienced within the Christian Evangelical movement. There-fore, if you are looking for a film that captures a hy-per-masculine, dualistic group of (mostly) men who seek power over their congregations and family, this is the film for you. If you are interested in a deeper understanding of who Jesus as a historical person was and how a Jew in 1st century Palestine lived, there are other resources for you.8 I believe this film is about power, manipulation, and dualistic pride; and there-fore, I think everyone should see this film because power is a problem within all forms of religion, which needs to be addressed. In America power dynamics are especially prominent in Evangelical Christianity, as it is one of the largest and most politically influen-tial religious groups. Fight Church exposes the power struggle present within the Evangelical Christian church today and reveals the Weakness theology of the Christian Evangelical movement that is too of-ten hidden from the public eye. Fight Church alludes to the opposing side of MMA churches, but lacks the historic narrative of the actual personhood of Jesus. By not talking about the historic personhood of Jesus, the filmmakers missed a large portion of the opposi-tion to the main subjects of the film.

Bibliography

“Bible Gateway Passage: New Revised Standard Ver-sion.” Bible Gateway. Accessed April 5, 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com/.

Caputo, John D. “Introduction: A Theology of the Event.” In The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event, 9. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Ehrman, Bart D. Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 21.

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Jesus Taped Out

Haydn Campmier, recently grad-uated with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies. He will study-ing aboard in Aqaba, Jordan this summer.

Avatar: Communal Identities,Legends, and TotemismLuke Welsh, class of ‘15

The series Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra center themselves pri-marily around the balance between light and darkness, between peace and chaos. The force of light exists in a physically manifested form named Raava, and the force of darkness as Vaatu. The Avatar is the single person who embodies Raava and is tasked with keeping balance between the four na-tions of the world – Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and can restore balance to the world. In each of the four nations lives a rich narrative, connecting each nation to an original source of power. The airbenders learned the art of airbending from the flying bison, the firebenders learned firebending from the dragons, the earthbenders learned earthbending from the badger moles, and the waterbenders learned waterbending from the moon. The origin of the exis-tence of bending is never clarified in the series, though the show introduces massive flying lion turtles that have the power to bestow a form of bending upon people. The first Avatar, Juan, stole fire from a lion turtle and used his new abilities to disrupt Raava’s control of Vaatu; and thus, took it upon himself to work with Raava to bring peace and light to the world. An explanation of the show requires a dis-cussion of balance, origin narratives, and totemism. Throughout this paper, I will view totemism and origin legends in Avatar through textual analysis and develop how these elements inform the beliefs and practices of the various communities within the series. The texts that preserve legends of the original teachers are largely oral texts that are reinforced by further interactions between humans and their various sources of bending. In The Last Airbender, Avatar Aang and Fire Nation prince Zuko travel to the Sun Warrior ruins to learn the original source of firebending. Prince Zuko’s firebending was formally fueled by anger, but he found inner peace and lost his ability to bend. “I know my people have distorted the ways of fire bending, to be distorted by anger and rage, but now I want to learn the true way. The original way,” asserts Zuko (The Firebending Mas-ters, 2008). Dragons were largely believed to be extinct due to human hunting, but two explorers find that the masters of firebending at the Sun Warrior tribe are two dragons. As the narratives of original firebending are reinforced by Aang and Zuko learning from the dragons, so too are origins of the other elements throughout the series. Toph, an earthbending master who is blind, learned to earthbend from badger moles. Toph explains:

For earth bending, the original benders were badger moles… They were blind, just like me, so we understood each other. I was able to learn earth bending. Not just as a martial art, but as an ex-

8

tension of my senses. For them, the original earthbenders, it wasn’t just about fighting. It was their way of interacting with the world (The Firebending Masters, 2008).

Avatar Aang is the only airbender alive for much of his life; and thus, plays a vital role of preserv-ing the airbender narrative. He learned to air-bend from the monks, but preserved the legend through oral tradition that the sky bison were the original airbenders. Finally, waterbending is the only bending art that originated from some-thing besides an animal. Waterbenders have a strong connection to the moon and the ocean as the original teachers, as well as to the spirit realm. All four of these legends accompany their respec-tive elemental communities and allow benders to connect to the origins of their arts.

The oral ‘texts’ work to support and pre-serve a totemistic framework within each of the four elemental nations; totemism being the sys-tem in which humans have a mystical connec-tion with a spiritual non-human beings. The The Legend of Korra illustrates a new relationship be-tween nations and totems such as the indigenous tribes of the Sun Warriors actively preserving their totem as a means to preserve their culture and cultural identity. In another example, a vil-

lage of sages and shaman raise a herd of sky bi-son to ensure the species is not lost. In contrast, some benders use their abilities and knowledge for personal gain, to ‘move beyond’ their roots in the Legend of Korra series. This manifests in prof-iting from fur trapping or gaining honor by kill-ing rare species. A pro bending league emerges, and bending becomes a form of sport rather than an art form. Communities that find their identi-ties in their connection and kinship with their totems seek to preserve their totemistic identity as a means to better understand themselves. Ad-ditionally, fostering the connection with their to-tem allows them to stay connected with both their ancestors and with their origins as a people. It is here that Avatar truly explores the intersection of totemism and modernity.

The texts largely carry much more significance for those who reject modernity than those who embrace it, and with the texts come a reverence for the totems and the origins of the arts of bend-ing. The significance behind the oral traditions manifests itself in two forms. First, the texts con-nect the benders to the original sources of their bending – their totems. Through preserving the legends of dragons teaching humans to firebend,

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Avatar: Communal Identities, Legends, and Totemism

firebenders see their philosophies in the art of firebending. Sociologist Emile Durkheim as-serts that the sacred is a reflection of the under-lying emotions that arise with social ways of life, which are externalized onto a totem (Jones 126). Using this theory, the philosophies surrounding each bending technique correspond with their respective totems. Firebending is swift and pow-erful like the dragons, waterbenders are fluid and use existing momentum to their advantage similar to the ocean and the moon, earthbend-ers are strong and utilize neutral jing (“essence”) like the badger moles, and airbenders are agile and find the path of least resistance like the sky bison. All of these bending arts are rooted in an-cient philosophies and find their philosophies externally in the totems that taught humans the art of bending, according to the texts. Secondly, the oral traditions provide a unified totemic and shared identity. Levi-Strauss connected totems as a means of connecting the material and spiritual world, in which the totems expressed the relation between society and nature (Jones 132). Benders of different regions connect over their shared stake in bending as well as their mutual reverence for their totem. The oral tradition has the power to unite groups over their shared totemic identity, and create a sense of community that transcends borders. Texts function within society by connect-ing benders to the original source of bending and by providing a unified identity in a shared set of ideals. Text analysis within religious studies serves a variety of purposes. A text tells scholars not only about the era in which it was written, but often acts as a living document that continually reveals new per-spectives as society develops. Sociologist Andrew K.T. Yip explores in his work “Queering Religious Texts” how discrepancies become exaggerated without the words changing within a text (Yip 61). The texts in Avatar were founded in ancient practices, which Yip asserts differentiates from Christian and Islamic texts. He sees Christian and Islamic texts as rising out of specific cultural phenomena; and thus, must be in-terpreted contextually (Yip 54). Additionally, both a

structualist and a post-structuralist analysis of Avatar have benefits and limitations. Structuralism invites the dialogue of dualisms, such as Levi-Strauss’s so-ciety/nature dualism. The Legend of Korra creates a further dualism in constructing an entirely separate realm known as the spirit world, which blurs the lines between both the nature/society dualism and the ma-terial/spiritual world dualisms. The Legend of Korra provides clear pictures of history through flashbacks while also giving ample room for creative interpreta-tion, which would stifle a post-structuralist analysis of Avatar from within the reality of the show. Struc-turalists and post-structuralists could offer insight on Avatar as a television show, but analyzing it as if the fantastical fictional world was a reality complicates either analysis. A post-structuralist critique of both structuralism and post-structuralism observes that both theories were created in the context of our re-ality; and thus, are best equipped to work within the framework of our reality.The texts in Avatar are primarily in the form of the oral tradition. The legends are continuously affirmed through cultivation of bending as well as through in-teractions with totems. A primary function of the texts as well as the totems is allowing benders to connect with the origins of their bending; however, modernity in The Legend of Korra threatens that connection in favor of advancement, entertainment, and profit. The oral tradition preserves the framework of totemism within each of the four elemental nations and allows modern benders to be connected to the original teach-ers. It is through the texts and the totems together that benders reach a collective identity in their bending as well as in their shared worldview. Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra illustrates the significance a collective external totemic symbol has, as well as the role a text plays in creating a multi-gen-erational and transnational community.

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Avatar: Communal Identities, Legends, and Totemism

Bibliography

Avatar - The Last Airbender Wallpaper. Digital Im-age. Wallpaper Converter. Wall convert, n.d. Web 11 June 2015. < http://www.wallconvert.com/wall-papers/cartoons/avatar-the-last-airbender-18818.html>.

Jones, Robert. (1986). Emile Durkheim: An Intro-duction to Four Major Works. Beverly Hills, Cali-fornia: Sage Publications.

K.T. Yip, Andrew. (2005). Sociology (1st ed., Vol. 39, pp. 47-65). London: Sage Publications.

(2008). The Firebending Masters [Television se-ries episode]. In Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nick-elodeon.

Tisch, Chris. “For Mary’s faithful, a shattering loss,” St. Petersburg Times(St. Petersburg, FL). March 2, 2004.

Luke Welsh recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Reli-gious Studies. He is particularly interested in Eastern religions and the intersection of religion and popular culture.

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Avatar: Communal Identities, Legends, and Totemism

12

The Lakota Ghost Dance: Of Songs and Shirts

Shannon Orbe, class of ‘15

Introduction In December of 1890 the massacre of Wounded Knee occurred at Pine Ridge Indian Reserva-tion in South Dakota, resulting in the death of nearly 300 Native men, women, and children (Viola 190). The massacre is cited as the end of the American frontier, where years of persecution, removal, and forced assimilation climaxed for Native Americans. The American frontier was a zone of conflict between the Indigenous population and the invading white settlers, who felt entitled by a sense of Manifest Destiny. Spiritual movements emerged in the West as forms of resistance to the invading op-pressors, such as the Ghost Dance preached by Paiute prophet Wovoka. However, the American gov-ernment defeated the Indigenous peoples in the West politically, militarily, and finally spiritually by 1890. Several scholars argue that the Lakota transformed the Ghost Dance into a militant, antagonistic ceremony. This is evidenced in the emergence of ghost shirts or sacred shirts, ógle wakhá ki, that some Lakota believed to be bulletproof. The songs involved in the Lakota Ghost Dance ceremony affirmed the power of the sacred shirts worn by participants that provoked reservation agents, white settlers, and stationed soldiers, which contributed to the massacre at Wounded Knee.

Contextual Framework Once the Indigenous population was forced on to reservations, the U.S. government outlawed dancing, native religions, and other traditional practices with hopes of converting the Natives to “good” Christian farmers (Viola 54). In response to these forced conversions, new religious movements emerged that combined traditional Native beliefs and practices with Christian elements. In 1889 the Ghost Dance revivalist movement originated from a Paiute prophet named Wovoka (also known as Jack Wilson) in Nevada (Kaye 80). This prophesizing began during an eclipse of the sun, which was highly auspicious in Paiute society, where Wovoka fell into a trance and had a vision of meeting Christ as an Indian (Kaye 83). When he awoke, Wovoka declared that Natives could achieve paradise if they lived peacefully with their white neighbors and danced a version of the round dance that put them into a trance to visit their dead relatives. Additionally, this certain dance would bring back game and plants to replace white settlers and miners that had ravaged the Indigenous land (Kaye 83). For many Natives experiencing external threats to their culture and rapid change, they found solace in this religious movement that promised to reunite the dead with their relatives and bring green pastures. Tribes sent delegates to Wovoka to learn his teachings and share their hope with tribal mem-

bers. Wovoka’s teachings would become particu-larly popular for the Lakota tribes on the Plains who were facing great tension with settlers and government agents. The Ghost Dance spread to the Arapaho, a bordering tribe to the Lakota, and later to the Lakota by late 1890. In October 1890, Kicking Bear, a Lakota chief, brought the ghost dance religion to Sitting Bull and his people at Standing Rock Reservation after being instructed by the Arapaho tribe (Andersson 65). The Lakota were known for their fierce resistance to the U.S. government, but were slowly being defeated. The Ghost Dance offered hope to one of the most op-pressed tribes in the West that would soon end in bloodshed.

Origin of the Sacred Shirt Around the time Kicking Bear had brought the Ghost Dance to the Lakota, ceremonial sacred shirts began to appear, which later would develop mythologies of being bulletproof. However, the origin of these shirts is unclear to many scholars. Rani-Henrik Andersson, a Professor of American Studies at the University of Helsinki, suggests that the idea originated from Wovoka perform-ing a miracle such as someone firing at him and remaining unharmed (71). He argues that Kick-ing Bear, Short Bull, or another Lakota delegate encountered this miracle story on their journey to meet Wovoka and the myth spread as a result (An-dersson 71). Moreover, Kicking Bear was instruct-ed in the ghost dance by the Arapaho tribe, who were wearing sacred shirts as part of their cer-emony (Andersson 288). However, the idea that the sacred shirts were bulletproof was a uniquely Lakota invention. Wovoka himself refuted claims of respon-sibility for the ghost shirts and preached that his religion was one of peace and against hostility of whites (Mooney 14). Renowned ethnographer James Mooney suggested that the Mormon “en-dowment robes” influenced the creation of the ghost shirts (34). The Paiute tribe and Wovoka were in close proximity to Mormons in Nevada

and Utah at the time, therefore making this ar-gument plausible. The endowment robe of the Mormons was a seamless white garment adorned with symbolic figures, which initiates wore as a sign of their most sacred badge of faith, and by many of the believers is supposed to render the wearer invulnerable (Mooney 34). This descrip-tion is similar to the Lakota ghost shirt and its my-thology (see Figure 1). Many settlers and reservation agents saw the Lakota ghost shirts as an auxiliary of war and the religious ceremony as a dance of impending war on the white invaders. However, it is impor-tant to note that the ghost shirt reflected the be-liefs and customs of the Lakota. For example, in traditional warfare, shields were decorated with sacred symbols that were meant to protect them form the enemies’ weapons (Andersson 72). Ad-ditionally, warriors would also paint their bod-ies in special symbols to make him invincible in battle (Andersson 72). For instance, the famous Native warrior Crazy Horse was believed to be bulletproof as he evaded the harm of his enemies in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 (Viola 119). Therefore, shirts impervious to arrows and bul-lets were an old cultural tradition among Plains Natives (Andersson 71). The power of the ghost shirts was from its inherent sacredness and in the

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The Lakota Ghost: Of Songs and Shirts

Figure 1: Arapaho Ghost shirt – Front (Mooney 152)

sacred symbols associated with the shirts (Ander-sson 72). These sacred symbols were derived from visions experienced by ghost dancers. Visions were a significant part of Lakota life as medicine men and chiefs were able to interpret these; there-fore, the visions of the ghost dance were believed without question (Andersson 64). Chiefs and medicine men interpreted visions to form certain expectations and hopes for the tribe, which con-tributed to ghost dance’s transformation by the Lakota. The assurance of the manifest power of the ghost shirts was received through visions and affirmed by songs.

Songs & Shirts as Textual Evidence During the ghost dance participants would sing songs in a circle until, from exhaustion, they would fall to the ground into a trance. Partici-pants would emerge from their trance with a vi-sion such as seeing their dead relative or having an eagle soaring towards them (Andersson 68). These were then transferred into songs to be per-formed at future dances and participants added certain symbols to their shirts to reflect their vi-sions. For example, Mooney recorded one song about a girl begging for her dead mother to return to them because her little brother is always cry-

ing after his mother (see Figure 2) (305). In Figure 3 we see a song about the promise of the Ghost Dance returning the game and dead relatives to the Indigenous people (Mooney 307). The birds, especially the eagle, were considered messengers to the people and sacred beings (Mooney 307). The most frequently utilized symbols were the sun, moon, stars, eagles, crows, and buffalo. This is seen in Figure 1 of a ghost shirt where a half moon is on the chest surrounded by eagles and stars (Mooney 152). Colors also held important meaning within the ghost shirt. Red was considered the sacred col-or of the ghost dance and the traditional color of the sun (Andersson 68). The yoke of the shirt was often painted blue, the color of the sky, or yellow was used (Adnersson 68). Additionally, the ghost shirts were adorned with eagle, magpie, and crow feathers and sewed together with sinew, but never adored with metal or reminders of white culture (Andersson 68). The reservation agents and white settlers interpreted the omission of these objects and symbols as the hostility of the ghost dancers towards whites (Andersson 68). Moreover, the decorations of the shirts symbolized the Lakota belief of renewal and re-creation, which was an important concept in their traditional ceremonies (i.e. the Sun Dance), in addition to, the promise of a new world from the Ghost Dance religion (An-dersson 68). Assurance of the power of the ghost shirts was constantly affirmed through visions and songs. Figure 4 and 5 are examples of recorded songs that affirm “the father” has given the Lakota the sacred shirt (Mooney 307-308). The song in Figure 5 translates to:

Verily, I have given you my strength,Says the father, says the father.The shirt will cause you to live,Says the father, says the father (Mooney 308).

These visions and songs were considered infal-lible to the Lakota. Their visions affirmed the power of the shirts and this allowed the Lako-

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The Lakota Ghost: Of Songs and Shirts

Figure 1: Arapaho Ghost shirt – reverse (Mooney 149)

tas to continue to defy reservation agents who banned the ceremony. Andersson argues that, “the protective nature of the shirt made it easier for the Lakotas to maintain their belief in the ghost dance” (72). However, their steadfast faith in the power of their shirts antagonized their sur-rounding white counterparts. Daniel F. Royer, the agent at Pine Ridge Reservation, sent a frantic telegram requesting military assistance to address the growing threat saying, “Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy” (Andersson 111). Conclusion The transmission of the Ghost Dance from the prophet Wovoka to the Lakota can be traced through the invention of the sacred ghost shirt. Many scholars accuse the Lakota ghost shirts for the massacre that occurred at Wounded Knee. However, I have shown that other tribes, such as the Arapaho, were also wearing sacred shirts as part of the Ghost Dance ceremony and may have been influenced by their Mormon neighbors in Nevada and Utah. In my last paper I highlighted the events and movements that created tensions between the Lakota and the U.S. army that cli-maxed at Wounded Knee. However, with a textual lens of the ghost shirt emergence, one can see the transformation of the Ghost Dance religion. The religion was spread among many tribes in the West, but each medicine man, tribal leader, and participant brought new meanings and in-terpretations to the doctrine of the Ghost Dance. It remains clear that the mythology of the sacred shirts as bulletproof was purely a Lakota inven-tion, but is that to blame for the atrocities commit-ted by the U.S. government at Pine Ridge? Many of the traditions and practices of the Lakota, and Indigenous people in general, were misinterpret-ed and misunderstood by white settlers, reserva-tion agents, and the U.S. government. I believe the Ghost Dance songs and presence of the sacred shirts were a contributing factor in the hostility between the Lakota and the U.S. government, but were not to blame for the massacre at Wounded

Knee.

Apendix

Figure 2: Lakota Song 1 (Mooney 305)

Figure 3: Lakota Song 2 (Mooney 307)

Figure 4: Lakota Song 3 (Mooney 307)

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The Lakota Ghost: Of Songs and Shirts

Figure 5: Lakota Song 4 (Mooney 307-308)

Bibliography

Andersson, Rani-Henrik. The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Print.

Kaye, Frances W. GoodLands: A Meditation and History on the Great Plains. Edmonton: Athabas-ca University Press, 2011. Print.

Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890. Abr. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965. Print.

Viola, Herman J. Trail to Wounded Knee: The Last Stand of the Plains Indians 1860-1890. Wash-ington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2003. Print.

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The Lakota Ghost: Of Songs and Shirts

Shannon Orbe graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and International Studies. She plans on attending Law School at Saint Louis University in the fall and hopes to work with im-migrants and refugees.

Professor Profile: Dr. Signe Cohen

Interview with Dr. Cohen

1. How long have you been teaching?

I have been teaching at Mizzou since 2001. Before that, I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for two years.

2. What drew you to Religious Studies and your speciality within this discipline?

I actually started out as a Sanskrit scholar. My undergraduate major, MA degree and PhD are all in Sanskrit language. I am absolutely, utterly in love with the Sanskrit language! Since most sacred Hindu texts and many Mahayana Buddhist texts are in Sanskrit, I read a lot of Hindu and Buddhist texts in the original language be-fore turning to the academic study of religion. Being part of a Religious Studies department where everyone is passionately interested in the study of religion has been wonderful; it has added so much to my understanding of the ancient texts that I love.

3. What subjects do you wish to teach in the future?

I always love teaching anything relating to Hinduism and Bud-dhism, as well as Norse Mythology (I am Norwegian, so anything Scandinavian feels a bit like home!). I am also intrigued by the rela-tionship between religion and popular culture, and I teach courses like Harry Potter, Magic, and Religion, and Robots and Religion. I’d like to keep teaching all of those courses, but I would also like to de-velop some new courses in the future. Religion and animals? Religion and vampires? Celtic mythology? There are so many possibilities!

4. If you had a time machine, would you go back in time or go into the future? Why?

I would definitely like to travel to the past, simply because I have always been drawn to ancient languages and cultures. A trip to 5th century India is definitely on my time-travel bucket list - I’d love to be there and strike up a conversation in Sanskrit with some of my favorite authors. If there is any sort of project that you have an abstract or a section of that you would like to share that would be wonderful as well. Thank you again for do-ing this.

5. What research are projects are you currently working on?

Right now, I am working on a book about ancient Hindu and Buddhist stories about robots and mechanical beings. Yes, there are robot stories from ancient India, and very little has been written about them. I argue that these ancient robot tales encode specific religious beliefs about body, soul, and embodiment and construct a cultural and religious discourse of what it means to be human.

Dr. Signe Cohen

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