Rainmaking (ritual)
Rainmaking is an ethnographic term for rituals intended to invoke rain.
Among the most well known examples of rainmaking rituals are North American rain dances, historically performed by many Native American tribes, particularly in the Southwestern United States. Some of these traditions have survived to the present day.[1]
Examples
North America
Julia M. Butree (a wife of Ernest Thompson Seton) in her book,[2] among other Native American dances, describes the "Rain Dance of Zuni."[3] Feathers and turquoise (or any sort of blue shade) are worn during the ceremony to symbolize wind and rain respectively. Many oral traditions of the Rain Dance have been passed down[4] In an early sort of meteorology, Native Americans in the midwestern parts of the modern United States often tracked and followed known weather patterns while offering to perform a rain dance for settlers in return for trade items. This is best documented among Osage and Quapaw Indian tribes of Missouri and Arkansas.[citation needed]
Eastern Europe
Paparuda, Caloian, Dodola and Perperuna, among other terms, refer to a family of Slavic and Romanian rainmaking rituals, some of which survived into the 20th century.[citation needed]
In popular culture
In hacker slang, "rain dance" refers to "any ceremonial action taken to correct a hardware problem, with the expectation that nothing will be accomplished."[5] In search and rescue, a rain dance is a method of estimating how far apart searchers in a line search should be spaced so as not to miss clues and not to waste searchers' effort.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ "Rain Dance". Indians.org. American Indian Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ Julia M. Butree (Julia M. Seton) The Rhythm of the Redman: in Song, Dance and Decoration. New York, A.S. Barnes, 1930
- ^ Rain Dance of Zuni
- ^ The rain dance helped native Americans get through dry summers.
- ^ Jargon File, version 4.4.6, 25 October 2003