The Body Ritual of the Snaidanac
1.
The magical beliefs and practices of the Snaidanac are very unusual,
so please do not be too shocked when you hear of the extremes to which
some tribes will go. The culture of the Snaidanac is not well understood.
They are a North American group living in the territory between the Inuit of
the North and the natives of the Plains. No one really knows where they
came from but many think they came from the east.
2.
The Snaidanac spends most of the day in ritual and ceremony. The
center of this activity involves the human body; its appearance and health
are extremely important to them. Their main belief is that the human body
is ugly and that all it does is decay and disease. Since humans are trapped
inside this ugly body, their only hope to avoid decay and disease is through
religious ritual and ceremony. Every household had one or more shrines
for this ritual and ceremony. Powerful people in their society have several
shrines.
3.
The strange rituals of the shrine are not shared by the family
together, but are private and secret. The most important place in the shrine
is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest, the natives keep
their important charms and magical potions. These charms are bought
from special religious people, something like wizards. The most important
wizards are the medicine men. They do not provide the magic potions to
the everyday native, however. They write down the ingredients in an
ancient and secret language. The native must take this to an herbalist,
very wise in plants and herbs. It is she who, for a gift, supplies the charm.
4.
Underneath the charm box is a small basin. Each day every member
of the family, one after the other, enters the shrine room, bows his or her
head before the charm box, mixes different kinds of holy water in the basin
and then immerses themselves kind of like a Christian baptism.
5.
The medicine men are the most important people in the society of the
Snaidanac. However, “holy-mouth-men” are second in line. The
Snaidanac have a supernatural horror of and also a fascination with the
mouth. It affects all their social relationships. They deeply believe that
without the rituals performed by the “holy-mouth-men” their teeth would fall
out, their gums would bleed, their jaws would shrink, their friends would
desert them, and their lovers would reject them.
6.
One of the daily body rituals performed is a mouth-rite. Even though
these people are so careful with their mouths, someone who had never
seen this ritual would be revolted. It has been reported that the ritual
consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with
certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle quickly in many
different directions.
7.
Not only do they perform this ritual everyday, but they also go see the
“holy-mouth-man” at least once and sometimes twice a year. These
wizards have impressive tools, consisting of a variety of augers, awls,
probes, and prods much like the ones used for carving wood. The “holymouth-man” opens the natives mouth and, using the tools, enlarges any
holes which decay might have created in the teeth. Magical materials fill
the holes back up. If the natives’ teeth don’t already have holes, large
sections are gauged out so that the magical materials can be put in. In the
native’s view, the purpose of this ritual torture is to stop their teeth from
decaying and to attract friends.
8.
The medicine men have a very special and important temple called a
“latip soh” in every community. The most elaborate of ceremonies take
place at the temple and ceremonies for the very sick can only take place at
the temple. A permanent group of young women move quietly about the
temple chambers wearing very special clothes and headdresses caring for
the sick.
9.
The latip so ceremonies are so harsh that it is surprising that many of
the natives who enter ever recover. The native entering the temple is
stripped of all their clothes. In every day life, outside the temple, the
Snaidanac avoids exposing his or her body and its natural functions.
Bathing and excretory acts are done only in the secrecy of the household
shrine. So, it is a great shock for a Snaidanac to enter the latip so and lose
the secrecy of the body.
10. The young women of the latip so move around the temple inserting
magic wands in a native’s mouth or forcing them to eat things which are
supposed to heal them. The medicine men jab magically treated needles
into the native’s flesh. Even though these temple rituals may not cure them
and sometimes even kill them they have great faith in the medicine men.
12. It was mentioned that excretory functions were done in secret.
Natural reproductive functions are also done in secret. Intercourse is never
talked about. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical
materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon. Birth
takes place in secret as well, without friends and relatives to assist, and
many women do not nurse their infants.
13. Our review of the Snaidanac has certainly shown them to be a magicridden people. It is hard to understand how they have managed to exist so
long under the limits they have set for themselves. But, even such weird
customs as the ones practiced by the Snaidanac take on real meaning
when we read what an anthropologist had to say:
“Looking at other civilizations from our highly
developed society, it is easy to see how absurd
and backward the use of magic really is.”