Disenchantment: A Religious Abduction, by Sam Gill
December 8, 2009
The chapter entitled Disenchantment: A Religious Abduction, by Sam Gill touches on a few examples of ritual violence. Gill talks about the Hopi tradition of initiation into the religious lifestyle. The ritual consists of a week-long process in which the children go through various ceremonies collimating to the acceptance into Hopi religious life. On the last day the children are whipped by the so-called Kachina Spirits after the children endure a flogging, they are confronted with the truth regarding the Kachinas. The Kachina Spirits, which they have been taught to obey and fear as Supreme Beings, are uncovered to them as mere members of the village disguised.
This revealing of the identity brings about great emotional confusion within the participants their whole views are questioned and shattered. The whipping rite ensures the secrecy of information with fear of being beaten to death I proposed to those who break the code.
“The initiation is constructed in such a way that a Childs religious life begins in a state of seriousness and reflection, motivated by doubt and skepticism (243).”
This in affect brings about tremendous incentive to listen more carefully to the stories of the elders in an effort to piece together a new concrete view of the past.
“They lay bare the limitations of naive view of reality so that through deepened participation in a religious community and celebration of the day to day events of life in religious ritual, the individual may increasingly explore, create, and experience worlds of fuller meaning (238).”
Although this violent method of ritual seems unorthodox, violence and ritual have gone hand in hand since the beginning of time. This method forces the participants to reevaluate and critically engage in thought in order to fulfill their desire for knowledge and meaning.
