Pagan and Christian elements in the religious syncretism among the Shoshoni indians of Wyoming

Authors

• Åke Hultkrantz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67030

Keywords:

Syncretism, Christianity and paganism, Christianity, Indians of North America, United States, Mormon Church, Dance, Religious, Missions -- United States

Abstract

Religious syncretism, in the wider sense of this term, is an expression for cultural contact, and in most cases it presupposes an advanced acculturation, as it is the focus of culture, its value system which is influenced. Religious syncretism must therefore be analysed in its connections with the changes of the whole cultural system. These changes cannot be confined to the present time. Theoreticians of acculturation have, however, all too often categorically contrasted the acculturation process with a conjectured earlier, static and "original" state. The Shoshoni Indians of Wyominghave, since they were first noticed by white men, undergone a continuous process of acculturation, not least concerning religion. Since being primitive seed-collectors and hunters in the Great Basin in a remote past they have, during the last centuries, been influenced by the Plateau and Plains cultures, European-American civilisation and Pan-Indian revitalization movements, respectively, all these cultural changes are reflected in the religious history of the Shoshoni, such as this can be determined with the aid of archaeological discoveries and combinations, ethnological distribution studies and historical documents.