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CHAPTER THREE The Above World For human beings, survival demands an awareness of the way the world works. No matter how we lookat the world around us, it is endlessly complex. Inordertoreducethatcomplexity,everyhumansocietypositsarelativelysmall number ofprinciplesthat seem toexplainandpredictthe dynamic forces ofthe non-human natural order. This lore is crystallized into patterns called belief systems, and those patterns fmd expression in all areas ofsocial life, from the verbal, aural, and visual arts to organization, customs, and economics. All together, thebeliefsystems and their expressions compriseour''culture," the thought and behavior that make us part ofone society and not another. NativeAmericansoftheSoutheast, likeallhumansocieties, createdasetof similarcultures thatarebothadmirable and frustrating. "Admirable" because they survived and even thrived in a single region over many centuries, at least until the arrival of the Europeans. "Admirable" also because their cultural expressions are considered aesthetically excellent by many people from other cultures. "Frustrating" because the pre-Columbian Southeastern ways of lookingattheworldarenotcompletelyrecoverable, thankstothelengthoftime the Native Americans have been adapting to the presence ofEuro-Americans and Afro-Americans, the tragedies inherentinthe expansionofEuro-America, and the lateness ofthe gathering ofso much ofthe ethnographic information. OneoftheclearestandmostwidespreadbeliefsofNativeAmericans isthat the sun is amajorpowerinhumanlives. Thesunappears inmanypractices and art forms inthe Southeast. There is evidence thattherewas ageneral beliefin a higher spirit, but, as is true ofso many animistic peoples, that "high god" did notappear inritualsandlegendry. Thesun, however, bothasthe celestialbody and as its earthly representative, fire, did take adirect role in the cultural life of the people. The people were understood to be in direct contact with the sun by means of fire, especially the "sacred fire" that was the ritual center of each major town. All fires were extinguished at the annual first-fruits festival, 54 generally called by the Creek name posldta, anglicized into busk. In a major ceremony a "new fire" was made at the town's center. From the new fire all other fires were begun for the new year. As might be expected, care was taken that the sacred fire was not polluted, and everyone seems to have known the rules surrounding the use of fire. Each sacred fire was distinct from the others, defining the individual's talwa, poorly translated as "town." As already noted, the town seems to have been a universal organizational principle in the Southeast. Each person owed first allegiancetohis orhertown, whichwas defmed by the sacredfire. Evenas towns grew large and split, the "offspring" towns continued to regard their parent's fire as theirs also. Thus close relations between towns were expressed interms offire; towns that recognized aclose linkage were referredto as being "of one fire." That phrase served as a useful political metaphor when ambassadors wished to stress the closeness of the two talwas or clusters of talwas, aswhenKasihta, alowerCreektalwa, asserteditwas "ofonefire" with the Chickasaw. This sort of claim may only reflect the current politics, but it mightalsoenshrinehistorical fact. AlthoughTukabahcheewasaleading Creek talwa in the late eighteenth century, some have suggested that it was originally Shawnee. When Tecumseh visited the Creeks in 1811, he stayed at Tukabahchee , whose council asserted it was ofone fire with the Shawnee.1 In the late prehistoric era the symbols ofthe sun and fire were widespread, and most Muskhogeans and Cherokee are known to have had ritual features organized around the importance ofthe sun.2 Swanton and Haas surveyed the data and listed as participants in solar worship the Natchez, Yuchi, Creek, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Caddo, Cusabo, Timucua, Cherokee, Tunica, and BiloxU The addition of Mugulasha and Bayogoula of the lower Mississippi Valley (from French records) suggests that the sun/fire belief complex was virtually universal in the Southeast. Oneofourearliestindicationsofwidespread solarworship is aportrayal of sixteenth century Timucua making a first-fruits offering to the sun.4 FromtheMississippiValleythereistantalizingtestimonyfromtheNatchez oftheearlyeighteenthcentury. Soimportantwasthesunintheircomplexsocial system that the leading family were known as the Suns, and the primary chief was called the Great Sun.5 Unfortunately, the French observers recorded just enough information about the Natchez social system and beliefs to spark disputes among anthropologists that continue to the present day. The major problem lies in the nature of the ruling class; as given by the French, the marriage and kin system does not appear to be a stable one, but it is not clear whetheritwasafaultofFrench reportingoranactual flaw inthe Natchez social structure. Even more unfortunately, the French did not record much oftheir legendry, possibly because it was part ofa still functioning ritual and political systemandwas too secret to be shared withthe Europeans by the Natchez who knew the materials. One Frenchobserver, however, did record from the Great 55 [3.144.253.161] Project...

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