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Vision Quests
A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. Individual Indigenous cultures have their own names for their rites of passage. "Vision quest" is an English-language umbrella term, and may not always be accurate or used by the cultures in question. Among Native American cultures who have this type of rite, it usually consists of a series of ceremonies led by elders and supported by the young person’s community. The process includes a complete fast for four days and nights, alone at a sacred site in nature which is chosen by elders for this purpose. Some communities have used the same sites for many generations. During this time, the young person prays and cries out to the spirits that they may have a vision, one that will help them find their purpose in life, their role in a community, and how they may best serve the People. Dreams or visions may involve natural symbolism – such as animals or forces of nature – that require interpretation by elde ...
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Rite Of Passage
A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of social status, status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite de passage'', a French term innovated by the Ethnography, ethnographer Arnold van Gennep in his work ''Les rites de passage'', ''The Rites of Passage''. The term is now fully adopted into anthropology as well as into the literature and popular cultures of many modern languages. Original conception In English, Van Gennep's first sentence of his first chapter begins: "Each larger society contains within it several distinctly separate groupings. ... In addition, all these groups break down into still smaller societies in subgroups." The population of a society belongs to multiple groups, some more important to the individual than others. Van Gennep uses the metaphor, "as a kind of house divided into rooms and corridors." A ...
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New Age
New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it a religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as a unification of mind, body, and spirit, and rarely use the term ''New Age'' themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a Social environment, ''milieu'' or ''zeitgeist''. As a form of Western esotericism, the New Age drew heavily upon esoteric traditions such as the occultism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the work of Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer, as well as Spiritualism (movement), Spiritualism, New Thought, and Theosophy (Blavatskian), Theosophy. More immediately, it arose from mid-20th-century influen ...
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Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
File:2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples voting map.svg , , , The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP or DOTROIP) is a legally non-binding United Nations resolution passed by the United Nations in 2007 that delineates and defines the individual and collective indigenous rights, rights of indigenous peoples, including their right to property, ownership rights, cultural expressions, cultural and ceremonial expression, identity, language, employment, health, education, and other issues. Their ownership also extends to the protection of their Indigenous intellectual property. The declaration "emphasizes the rights of Indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions, and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations." It "prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them, and their ri ...
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United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and international security, security, to develop friendly Diplomacy, relations among State (polity), states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals. The United Nations headquarters is located in New York City, with several other offices located in United Nations Office at Geneva, Geneva, United Nations Office at Nairobi, Nairobi, United Nations Office at Vienna, Vienna, and The Hague. The UN comprises six principal organizations: the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council, Security Council, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Se ...
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Indigenous Intellectual Property
Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property held to be collectively owned by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such property. This property includes Traditional knowledge, cultural knowledge of their groups and many aspects of their cultural heritage and knowledge, including that held in oral tradition, oral history. In Australia, the term Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, abbreviated as ICIP, is commonly used. There have been various efforts made since the late 20th century towards providing some kind of legal protection for indigenous intellectual property in colonized countries, including a number of declarations made by various conventions of Indigenous peoples. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was created in 1970 to promote and protect intellectual property across the world by cooperating with countries as well as inter ...
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James Arthur Ray
James Arthur Ray (November 22, 1957 – January 3, 2025) was an American self-help businessman, motivational speaker, author and convicted felon who was found guilty in 2011 of causing three deaths through negligent homicide. A former telemarketer, Ray taught Stephen Covey motivational seminars while employed at AT&T and claimed he later worked two years for the Covey foundation; however the company has no record of him as an employee or contractor.Ortega, Bob"Sweat-lodge trial: James Arthur Ray often misused teachings, critics say", '' The Arizona Republic'', April 10, 2011. accessed April 13, 2011. In 2006 he appeared on CNN's '' Larry King Live'' and was one of several narrators in the film '' The Secret''. He also appeared on the ''Today'' Show and '' Oprah''. In October 2009, three participants died while taking part in a ritual, led by Ray, at one of his New Age retreats. Ray was arrested in 2010, and in 2011 convicted of three counts of negligent homicide. He serve ...
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Sweat Lodge
A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply a sweat. Traditionally the structure is simple, constructed of saplings covered with blankets and sometimes animal skins. The induction of sweating is a spiritual ceremony – it is for prayer and healing, and it is only to be led by Indigenous Elders who know the language, songs, traditions, and safety protocols of their culture's inherited tradition. Otherwise, the ceremony can be dangerous if performed improperly. The ceremony is traditional to some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, predominantly those from the Plains cultures, but with the rise of pan-Indianism, numerous nations that did not originally have the sweat lodge ceremony have learned the ceremony from other Nations. Sweat lodges have also been imitated by many non-na ...
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Henrietta Marrie
Henrietta Marrie (née Fourmile; born 1954) is a Gimuy Walubara Yidinji elder, an Australian Research Council Fellow and Honorary Professor with the University of Queensland. Her language name, given by her grandfather, is Bukal and connects her to country, to a place near Woree. Bukal is the black lawyer vine that is characterised by its strength, resilience, and ability to overcome obstacles. Professor Marrie's scholarship includes biocultural diversity, indigenous intellectual property, and traditional ecological knowledge. Through her scholarship and activism she has:"fought for the recognition of Aboriginal peoples’ intellectual property and cultural rights and particularly for access to and repatriation of ancestral remains, cultural objects and important historical information from national and state museums and archives".Professor Marrie is a Member of the Order of Australia, "For significant service to the community as an advocate for Indigenous cultural heritage and ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ...
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Plastic Shaman
Plastic shamans, or plastic medicine people,Hagan, Helene E ''Sonoma Free County Press.'' Accessed 31 Jan 2013. is a pejorative colloquialism applied to individuals who attempt to pass themselves off as shamans, holy people, or other traditional spiritual leaders, but who have no genuine connection to the traditions or cultures they claim to represent. In some cases, the "plastic shaman" may have some genuine cultural connection, but is seen to be exploiting that knowledge for ego, power, or money.G. Hobson, "The Rise of the White Shaman as a New Version of Cultural Imperialism." in: Hobson, Gary, ed. ''The Remembered Earth''. Albuquerque, NM: Red Earth Press; 1978: 100-108.Chidester, David, ''Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture''. University of California Press; 2005; p.173: "Defenders of the integrity of indigenous religion have derided New Age shamans, as well as their indigenous collaborators, as 'plastic shaman' or 'plastic medicine men.'" Plastic shamans a ...
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Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically arises when members of a dominant culture borrow from minority groups, minority cultures. When cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context – sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of members of the originating culture – the practice is often received negatively. On imitation Native headdresses as "the embodiment of cultural appropriation ... donning a highly sacred piece of Native culture like a fashion accessory". Cultural appropriation can include the exploitation of another culture's religious and cultural traditions, customs, dance steps, fashion, symbols, language, history and music. Cultural appropriat ...
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