Sacred Dog

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The English term Sacred Dog is a cross-language translation of the terms for horse used in various Indian peoples of North America . In the German translation of the term Heiliger Hund is mostly used, other names are for example large dog , magic dog or bison dog . Today the English and corresponding Indian term is used in particular when the mythological and religious significance of the horse for the development of Indian cultures is to be described.

Origin of the term

Before the horse was introduced in North America, dogs were the only pack animals known to the Indians. Dogs were provided with tow bars and used as a means of transport. The first horses were introduced to North America by the Spanish conquerors Hernando Cortez in 1519, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado via Mexico and Hernando de Soto in 1540 via Florida. The Indians initially considered the riders on horseback to be magical and threatening beings. When they learned how to handle horses, they understood them to be big dogs, as the horses could also be used for transport. The use as a pack animal partially changed the widespread semi-nomadic to a nomadic way of life, as the radius of the Indians expanded and the transport of heavy goods became possible. The use of the horse as a riding animal and means of transport also meant a fundamental advance in hunting and fighting techniques of the Indians. Your astonishment at the animal, understood as a gift and a magical being, is evident from the names formed in the respective indigenous language and the inclusion of the horse in the myths and legends of the peoples.

The linguistic connection with the veneration of the horse in the genetically related languages ​​of the Dakota , Lakota and Nakota is particularly clear . The word “dog”, in the respective language shunka , sunda or sunka , becomes by adding the adjective wakan for holy or mysterious to shunka wakan to the word “horse”. In the further development of languages, wakan was used in particular for the various objects imported by the Europeans. Examples are the Sacred Iron , which describes the rifle as "Holy Iron", and Sacred Water , which is used to describe the "Holy Water" of whiskey. The Cherokee use a similar concept in their language Tsalagi , which results there for the "holy dog" so'-gui-li , where gui-li represents the word for dog, the prefix so ' changes this word to the term mystical dog and the general term for horse. Other peoples, such as the Comanche, called the horse thongatsh-schonga , a great dog, as did the Cree , who use the term mistatim . Since the languages ​​are sometimes only spoken by a few hundred people, or are already extinct, the Indians also use the English language in their literature and the stories with which the traditions and culture are passed on, as the translation Sacred Dog has established itself as an emphatically Indian name for the horse.

Use of the term

The admiration for horse as a sacred dog is evident not only in the origin of the term, but also in Indian legends and rituals. The Sioux , for example, consider horses a sacred gift, the arrival of which, according to tradition, was prophesied long before the arrival of the Spaniards. A well-known American children's book and reader also deals with the legend of the Sacred Dog . In poems and novels, the horse is often referred to as the Sacred Dog, for example in "The Sundance Horse" by Doreen Chavarria.

In addition to the use of the term in the Indian tradition, the term is also used in general American publications and is also used independently of the mythological meaning of the term. The United States is also known as the "Land of the Sacred Dog". Many horse farms and other institutions in the United States have the word Sacred Dog in their names as a romantic reminder .

Differentiation from the ritual use of dogs and their legends

In some peoples, for example the Chippewa and Sioux, dogs are also called sacred dogs in ritual contexts . This is especially true for the ceremonial killing and eating of a dog, which becomes the "holy dog" within the corresponding ceremony. In addition to their function as pack animals, dogs were originally carried along as a living food ration, they were used in shamanic medicine as a remedy and served in ceremonies as a contact with the spirit world, for example at the annual "Sacred Dog Feast". In this capacity you played an important role in adoptions and it was considered an extraordinary honor for a visitor to be served dog meat.

The genesis of the Cherokee Wolf Clan also goes back to a mythical dog called the "Sacred Dog of Monterrey Mountain". In Tsalagi, however, this dog is addressed as' without the suffix and only referred to as "the dog", ie guili .

literature

  • Bruce E. Johansen: The Native Peoples of North America: A History , Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3899-8 .
  • Stephen Return Riggs, James Owen Dorsey, John D. Nichols: Dakota grammar: With Texts and Ethnography , Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2004, ISBN 0-87351-472-6 .
  • Elizabeth Cook-Lynn: Anti-Indianism in modern America. University of Illinois Press, 2001, ISBN 0-252-02662-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roy A. Rappaport: Ritual and religion in the making of humanity , Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-29690-0 , pages 360-361
  2. Jump up ↑ Bruce E. Johansen: The Native Peoples of North America: A History , Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3899-8 , pages 245-246.
  3. ↑ Frederick E. Hoxie: Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1996, ISBN 0-395-66921-9 , page 591
  4. ^ Paul Goble: The Gift of the Sacred Dog , Aladdin, 1984, ISBN 0-02-043280-1
  5. ^ First People: The Sundance Horse
  6. ^ For example, in Mike Crang: Cultural geography , Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-415-14083-8 or Marshall Sahlins: Culture and practical reason , University of Chicago Press, 1978, ISBN 0-226-73361-0
  7. ↑ Linda Murray Berzok: American Indian food , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0-313-32989-3 , pp. 139-140
  8. ↑ Donald Panther-Yates: Cherokee Story of the Sacred Dog of Monterey Mountain and the Great Flood (Panel on Storytelling and Contemporary Native American Culture. Presented by the Language and Social Interaction Division The Southern States Communication Association 2001 Convention. Narratives We Live By: Redefining the Power of Communication in Lexington, Kentucky, April 8, 2001.) Retrieved April 5, 2009