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The Mythology of Evil Among North American Indian Yuroks and Its Implications for Western Spirituality
Author(s) -
Alsup Royal,
Krippner Stanley
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1525/ac.1996.7.3.15
Subject(s) - mythology , spirituality , ceremony , harmony (color) , consciousness , worship , face (sociological concept) , shamanism , aesthetics , environmental ethics , harmony with nature , sociology , history , religious studies , social science , philosophy , epistemology , theology , art , classics , ecology , archaeology , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , biology , visual arts
The mythology of evil has assumed renewed importance among diverse spiritual groups in the West and among scholars of the anthropology of consciousness. An investigation of Yurok mythology reveals that it is conceptualized asian "imbalance" between individuals (or groups) and parts of themselves, other community members, nature, and/or the Great Spirit. Yurok teaching stories, as well as shamanic practices, provide examples of how these imbalances are brought into equilibrium through worship, ceremonial procedures, and personal behavior. Western spirituality may find ways to better confront individual and social evil by studying Yurok practices, especially their emphasis on the sacred uses of humor, their use of ceremony to face the paradoxes of life, and their application of myth to attain personal and group harmony.