Rituals for Transition

Many native North American cultures mark the crucial moments of each person's life, such as birth, puberty, adolescence, marriage and death, with meaningful rituals that symbolize the transition from the pre-state to the new one. They believe that, in those moments of physical transition, the person in question is very close to the spiritual world, which turns him into a state full of potential and risks.

Newborns and newborns are extremely fragile, and many tribes haveined the tradition of following taboos to protect children from the greatest possible harm. A cherokee who was pregnant avoided tasting the strawberries for fear that her offspring would be born with stains on her face. Eggs were rejected by the Apaches because they believed that they caused blindness and that the animal's tongue caused the child to delay in learning to speak.

Most civilizations have rites that accompany the transition from childhood to adulthood. Its structure is very similar to that of most indigenous cultures and tribal societies around the world. They usually include a period of physical isolation, which marks the moment the person breaks ties with his previous condition. This brief social exile serves as an intermediate state of “not being” and usually consists of a test of physical resistance, pain or deprivation. The incorporation into the new life condition is usually completed by a ritual. Almost all of these elements were present in the Nozihzho rite of the Omahas, which means "sleeping standing." The ritual consisted of a four-day fast followed by all Omaha teenage males and any girl who desired it. The name refers to the mood that young people experience during the ceremony. They kept themselves away from their surroundings and only had knowledge of their own inner identity. The Omaha myth of the origins was recreated in this ritual. To honour the animals who reached the bottom of a large mass of water and returned with the mud from which the earth was created, the teenager sought an isolated place and sprinkled his head with clay. He prayed to Wakoda, the mysterious power that ruled nature. The teenager thought of health, good hunting, successes in the war and a happy and happy life, but it was illegal to ask for special favors.

The Omahas believed that Wakoda responded with a sacred song in a vision or dream. Dreaming of hawks, alms or thorns could be a sign of good luck. The song was a lucky amulet that connected the teenager with the powers of the universe and could use it throughout his life to ask for help from the guardian spirits in difficult times.

After performing the ritual, the teenager took a four-day break and listened to the words of an old man who had had had a similar dream. Then he searched and killed the animal he had seen in his dreams, and kept a fragment as a sacred possession in his personal medicinal hole. This object was taken to the battlefield or used in rituals.

The Nozhizho ritual contained risks. The idea of dreaming of snakes generated difficulties. The teenager had to abandon the idea of becoming a man and adopt the customs of a woman, living like a little bitch receiving instructions from the moon, if he dreamed of the Moon and woke up at the wrong time. He dressed himself like women, and wore long hair instead of shaving his head, except for the strap that went from neck to forehead, as men did, because of his condition of mixuga. Instead of hunting and warfare, she devoted herself to agriculture, planting, harvesting and the practice of female arts.

The courtship required very special customs. The Lakotas offered a serenade to the young women and played a special flute for the courtship, which often included animal scales, especially of birds such as ducks, grullas and prairie faisanes, known for their spectacular "dances" of courtesy. They believed that the flute, often made by sacred beings, had powerful magic notes that allowed the woman to travel everywhere with her beloved.

Aboriginal Americans used to see marriage as a state that persisted until death, which can be observed in the wedding rites of some communities. The hopis used to marry at dawn. Towards the rising sun, the couple spread corn flour across the eastern edge of the table. The groom's family woven two white cotton wedding tunics with blades and blades for the bride. The bride only wore one during the wedding because the other was destined to be her mortuary. Therefore, uniform clothing confirmed the woman's married status and, at the time of her death, facilitated her entry into the spirit world.