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KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 162 / SEPTEMBER . 22 . 2005 / New Perspectives on Native North America / Kan and Strong 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 [First Page] [162], (1) Lines: 0 to 42 ——— 0.772pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [162], (1) 7. Night Thoughts and Night Sweats, Ethnohistory and Ethnohumor The Quaker Shaker Meets the Lakota Sweat Lodge raymond a. bucko, s.j. There are many things I deeply appreciate about my mentor, Ray Fogelson , though they are the kinds of things that, like one’s parents, sometimes go unappreciated until one has really grown up. To my frustration as someone who wanted to finish his dissertation in a single weekend, Ray calmly counseled me to put up my feet and think about things for a while. Indeed, his own works are open ended, suggesting avenues of fertile exploration rather than trying to corner the epistemological market . In this chapter, a tribute (I hope) to Ray and the many things he has taught me, I propose to look in a reflexive way at humor in the context of ritual among the Lakota. In doing so, I seek to understand why humor has been generally omitted or bracketed in ethnohistorical literature, anthropological analysis, and at times in contemporary Lakota practice. Like Ray, however, I do not propose to sew up the situation but to recommend possible avenues of investigation and reflection for a deeper understanding of these phenomena. It was Ray who introduced me to the Diamond Crystal Quaker Shaker lady, that paradigm of reflexivity (also known as “ethno ethno” [1974]) who once graced the Diamond Crystal salt container. As Ray himself describes both her and his metaphoric intentions: “The image in the salt trope is that of a Quaker woman on the label of a cylindrical Diamond Crystal salt shaker (note Quaker/Shaker) holding an ideational salt shaker in her lap, leading to the illusion of infinite regress.”1 From my own youth I recall a different blue, round salt container, made by the Morton salt company, on which appears a young girl holding an umbrella and a round, blue container on which she appears holding an umbrella and a round, blue container on which she appears holding an umbrella and a round, blue container as far as the eye and imagina- KimE — University of Nebraska Press / Page 163 / SEPTEMBER . 22 . 2005 / New Perspectives on Native North America / Kan and Strong 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 [163], (2) Lines: 42 to 58 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [163], (2) tion can see. I suggest that an examination of Lakota humor will reveal something about influences and reflections: Lakota reflections on other Lakota or Lakota at other times, Euro-American reflections on Lakota culture, and Lakota reflections on Euro-American culture and on the intricate interrelationships the Lakota had and continue to have both among themselves and with these outsiders who insist on writing down everything. The day when that Ray introduced this Ray to the Diamond Crystal Quaker Shaker lady I was reminded of my own childhood introduction to reflexivity. My parents were both hairdressers and ran their own shop. The shop had mirrors on opposite sides of the room so there were hundreds of people in the room and multiple Ray Buckos. I loved to sit on the barber chair and spin around and around. I could see my selves, my many sets of parents, and a multiplicity of their customers. The faster I spun myself in the chair the bigger all their eyes grew. I’ve been going around in circles ever since, reflecting and becoming part of the reflection itself. Ritual humor, I propose, is an event that became a nonevent and then later an event and nonevent through the interactions and reflections of both Lakota and Euro-American participants and observers. Insiders and outsiders continue to debate its significance and place in ritual practice. It is for the ethnohistorian to reflect on these reflections and re...

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