Research for the Paper

Anna Hemphill

Though I dread the research that looms over me, once I get into it I realize how fascinating things can be. And once I get myself there, I love to just sit in a library and read about these topics that I am going to write about. It turns out to be fun to become a mini expert on a subject, exposing myself to all these details about a people, idea, event, or place.

My research for our term paper for this class was really wonderful. My topic was about dance as a ritual experience in Native American tribes, and I connected really well as I read about the spirituality of ritual dance. Everything seemed to be connected: religion, communitas, performance, audience participation, sacred experience. I got a lot of my information from "American Indian Quarterly" (forgive me, the italics button is not working), which goes in depth about specific dances or tribes. What moved me most in learning about tribal dance was that it has transformed to become less a sacred experience and more a unifying force among all Native Americans.

The most personal thing I read was the description by a Kiowa Gourd dancer, Momaday, who says:
The sun descends upon the trees. The heat is hypnotic… It is as if I am asleep. Then the drums break, the voices of the singers gather to the beat, the rattles shake all around – mine among them. I stand and move again, slowly, toward the center of the universe in time, in time, more and more closely in time.
There have been times when I have wondered what the dance is and what it means – and what I am inside of it. And there have been times when I have known. Always, there comes a moment when the dance takes hold of me, becomes itself the most meaningful and appropriate expression of my being. And always, afterward, there is rejoicing among us. We have made our prayer, and we have made good our humanity in the process. (Kracht, 321)

This is what happens to me sometimes on stage, and many times in church or when I am praying with just one other person. It most closely relates to me when I receive Eucharist. There are times when I feel the Holy Spirit burning inside me, and I well with tears. I can feel myself moving toward the center of the universe (God) slowly in time. I have had moments of unknowing and knowing, of dryness and fullness of emotion. There can be a whole gammut of experience with something that is powerful to you, and just because you are not always moved to tears or some strong emotion it does not belittle the experience. Momaday trusts the experience and emerges a more connected member of humanity. It seems the closer we become witht the supernatural, the more authentic we are as members of the human race on earth.