From Sun Dance to Body Suspension. A Cultural Adaption?

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: Sehr Gut, University of Graz (Institut fur Amerikanistik), course: American Cultural Studies (Introduction to American Indian Studies), language: English, abstract: It is a central aspect of this paper to discover which symbolic functions Body Suspension carries and how the art relates to the Indian Sun Dance. It will be examined why the physically potentially dangerous and aggressive Sun Dance was practiced in some tribes and why the Plains Indians as well as some Native Americans today identify with the ritual. Showing that the customs are far from being merely pointless and brutal, the paper reveales the messages that Sun Dance - or Body Suspension rituals try to convey. Due the large number of existing Plains Indians tribes, the paper restricts the investigations to only two tribes of North America, that is, to the Arapaho and the Cherokees. However, the Plains Indians are also considered in general terms in the essay.