Cultural Sweat Lodges - Part 2
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cyberbohemia.com];
TEMESCAL • MEXICAN
When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they found spirited use of the sweat house among scattered Mayan tribes and their new rulers, the Aztecs. The most common name for the sweat house is temescal, an Aztec name from teme, to bathe, and calli, house. The largest Mayan dictionary, compiled shortly after the Conquest, gives the word for sweat bath as Zumpul-che, "a bath used to cast out disease in their bodies."
ALLUS BOTHAN • IRISH
In Ireland, a primitive kind of sweat bath (allus bothan) that resembled a casual mound of sod and stone, unlike bath houses on the continent, quietly cleansed the wearers of green. We can only speculate on how they began. Sweat houses were common in Ireland until 50 years ago. It was heated by fires of turf; when sufficiently hot the coals and ashes were removed, and some cool thing such as sods, rushes or stones put in for the person to stand upon. As many as six or eight men stripped off and went in, then all openings were closed except what afforded a little ventilation. When they could suffer the heat no longer they came out and plunged into a pool of water within a yard or two of the sweat house.
HOT HUT • HAWAII
The oldest know medical document, the Ayurveda, appeared in Sanskrit in 568 BC and considered sweating so important to health that it prescribed the sweat bath and thirteen other methods of inducing sweat.
FIRE LODGE • HINDU
A bather absorbing the heat of a sweat bath was seen as re-enacting Creation, merging body and fire. Hindu mythology has several stories regarding the human absorption of heat. Pajapati created the world by heating himself to an extreme temperature through asceticism. Consequently, Hindu ascetics meditate near fire to achieve inner heat. Those who reach a communion with the Spirit are said to "burn." Those who perform miracles are called sahib-jocks, which means to "boil" from inner heat.
VAPOR LODGE • OMAHA
Many cultures discovered that rocks could absorb the power of fire, and thereby acquired spiritual significance. The Omaha Indians referred to the rocks as Grandfather, symbol of earthly endurance, and moved them from the fire into the revered sweatlodge. When water was splashed over them, the vapor produced became another medium for the transfer of heat and another object of worship. The Finns named this vapor loyly, spirit of life. The Fox, another American Indian tribe, believed that Manitou, a friendly spirit, dwelled inside the rocks and was released through the vapor to penetrate the skins of the bathers and drive out sickness.
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ok, so i've done a bit a research and found some examples in which we can see that the "sweat lodge" is a part of many
cultures.
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years ago, i attended a men's conference and a Native man shared wisdom in story-telling. aftwarwards a young
man asked "where else can i learn of these things?" the Native man had an embarrassed look on this face and said to
the young man "you can look at your own culture, pre-Christianity, and you'll find the same things".
so, logically, MKP could have examined non-Native culture and drawn from that to design/execute its "sweats".
however, it appears that, yes, much of what has been done was "gifted" to the organization and the organization has seen fit
to mold as it feels is apropriate (as far as i can tell).
i can certainly understand how people might view this as "cultural appropriation". the same can be said of minority people & rap music
in regards to rapper EMINEM.
should MKP let go of it's "molded" sweat? should it re-design it so that it is something more european-based and totally leave out any
Native American expressions? I don't have any answers on this.
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my main concern, that has been brought up here, is safety "in MKP sweats". And I am researching into that.
i'll share with you what I find out.
floatingfreebear