the plains gourd dance as a revitalization movement

The “Gourd Dance,” which was formerly performed exclusively by certain warrior societies of the Plains, has recently become very popular with Native Americans over a wide area. In its recent manifestations it is largely secular and intertribal in nature, and it has spread to many groups whose ancestors never performed the ceremony. In most aspects the Gourd Dance conforms to Wallace's (1956) model of a revitalization movement or Lurie's (1971) concept of the articulatory movement Some possible reasons for the widespread acceptance of this cultural innovation during the past decade are discussed .