Fig 1 - uploaded by Christopher B. Bolfing
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
The "Paradigm of the Periphery" is an analytical model that allows for interpretation of how symbolism and sacred traditions spread from their original inception points. When these traditions and ideologies disappear in urbanized core centers, such as Cahokia, Moundville, Etowah, and Lake Jackson of the Greater Southeast, they can continue in the p...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... people of the Eastern Woodlands and Greater Southeast conceived of the world as a multilayered entity. While different cultural groups had different layers or numbering, the standard cosmology separates the world into three parts (see Figures 1.1 and 1.3, see also Lankford, 2007a: 8-38). These three divisions are the above world, the beneath world, and here-in-the-center, which is the middle-world where humans reside and is usually regarded as a turtle residing in the cosmic ocean ( fig. ...
Context 2
... different layers or numbering, the standard cosmology separates the world into three parts (see Figures 1.1 and 1.3, see also Lankford, 2007a: 8-38). These three divisions are the above world, the beneath world, and here-in-the-center, which is the middle-world where humans reside and is usually regarded as a turtle residing in the cosmic ocean ( fig. ...
Context 3
... proper medicines, rituals, or knowledge to access the spirit worlds by interfacing the natural and supernatural (Eliade, 1964: 298-300). For example, access to the above world could be achieved through the sacred fire, while access to the below world could be achieved by traveling up the ball-pole, atop which is a representation of a fish (see fig. 1.1) Southeastern tribal groups such as the Cherokee and Mvskoke conceived of the sky vault or above world as a stony plate secured to the middle world at the four corners with cords (Swanton, 2000: 477-481 andReilly, 2004: ...
Context 4
... cords are depicted in iconography by the looped square ( fig. 1.2, see also Lankford, 2004: 207-217). The "above place" of the ancestors, accessible by traveling through the Milky Way after death, rested above this stony sky vault (Reilly, 2004: 125-137). The cords holding the above world to the middle world, usually represented as serpents referred to as "Grandfather," correspond to either the ...
Context 5
... color associations represent each cardinal direction and the aspect it represents ( fig. 1.3, see also Mooney, 1982:342-343 andSwanton, 2000: 477-478). Black represents death and lies to the west. West is where the sun descends, bringing upon night, and is the place where souls enter the Milky Way on their journey to the afterlife by jumping through the opening created by the movement of the sky vault (see Mooney 1982: ...
Citations
... For the Mvskoke, the cosmos is tripartite: with an above world, a below world, and a middle world, where humans live (Chaudhuri and Chaudhuri 2001:15-18, Reilly 2004:127, Lankford 2007, and Bolfing 2010. The above and below worlds switch places at dusk and dawn, with the day sky of the above world and the night sky of the below switching places at these periods of transition (Reilly 2004). ...
This thesis examines how a particular community of Mvskoke Creek peoples in northern Florida perceive the relationship between plants, people, and the natural world and how their participation in the traditional Busks (the ritual aspect of the traditional Mvskoke religious system) have influenced the development of those perceptions over time. This thesis employs the theoretical approaches of phenomenology, situated learning, world-view studies, ethnoecology, ethnobotany, and traditional ecological knowledge. Themes that emerged from his research vary from perceptions of supernatural beings known as the Little People, to gardening, to traditional Medicine practices. The primary focuses of this thesis are modern Mvskoke lifeways and traditional Mvskoke ceremonial rituals.
