| Dream Seekers Revised Edition Contributor(s): Irwin, Lee (Author), Deloria, Vine (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0806128933 ISBN-13: 9780806128931 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press OUR PRICE: $21.73 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 1994 Annotation: In The Dream Seekers, Lee Irwin demonstrates the central importance of visionary dreams as sources of empowerment and innovation in Plains Indian religion. He examines 350 dreams from 150 years of published and unpublished sources to describe the shared features of cosmology for twenty-three groups of Plains Indians. Irwin describes the different means of acquiring visions, including stress, illness, social conflict, and mourning and the spontaneous vision experience common among Plains Indian women. He also explores the stages of the structured male vision quest, unsuccessful or abandoned quests, and threshold experiences during a vision. His conclusion is that dreams not only strengthen the group's experience of a shared religious world view but also confer the right to enact new patterns of individual and collective behavior. "The Dream Seekers offers new and genuine insights into the dream experience of the Plains Indians....(and) offers original comments on the dream experience itself -- the receiving of the dream and the transference of the dream's inherent power". -- American Indian Culture and Research Journal. "No library -- private, professional, public, or academic, with any interest in Native American culture -- should be without this book". -- Western Historical Quarterly. "Anyone with a particular interest in American Indian studies, anthropology, sociology, or religion will find this volume invaluable". -- Rapport. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Native American - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies |
| Dewey: 299.798 |
| LCCN: 93045863 |
| Series: Civilization of the American Indian |
| Physical Information: 0.95" H x 6.05" W x 9.06" (1.04 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Plains - Ethnic Orientation - Native American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In The Dream Seekers, Lee Irwin demonstrates the central importance of visionary dreams as sources of empowerment and innovation in Plains Indian religion. Irwin draws on 350 visionary dreams from published and unpublished sources that span 150 years to describe the shared features of cosmology for twenty-three groups of Plains Indians. This comprehensive work is not a recital but an understandable exploration of the religious world of Plains Indians. The different means of acquiring visions that are described include the spontaneous vision experience common among Plains Indian women and means such as stress, illness, social conflict, and mourning used by both men and women to obtain visions. |
Contributor Bio(s): Irwin, Lee: - Lee Irwin, Department Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, is author of The Dream Seekers: Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains and editor of Native American Spirituality: A Critical Reader. |