Dream Catchers: How Mainstream America Discovered Native Spirituality

by Philip Jenkins

Overview

In books such as Mystics and Messiahs, Hidden Gospels, and The Next Christendom, Philip Jenkins has established himself as a leading commentator on religion and society. Now, in Dream Catchers, Jenkins offers a brilliant account of the changing mainstream attitudes towards Native American spirituality, once seen as degraded spectacle, now hailed as New Age salvation.
Jenkins charts this remarkable change by highlighting the complex history of white American attitudes towards Native religions, considering everything from the 19th-century American obsession with "Hebrew Indians" and Lost Tribes, to the early 20th-century cult of the Maya as bearers of the wisdom of ancient Atlantis. He looks at the popularity of the Carlos Castaneda books, the writings of Lynn Andrews and Frank Waters, and explores New Age paraphernalia including dream-catchers, crystals, medicine bags, and Native-themed Tarot cards. He also examines the controversial New Age appropriation of Native sacred places and notes that many "white indians" see mainstream society as religiously empty. An engrossing account of our changing attitudes towards Native spirituality, Dream Catchers offers a fascinating introduction to one of the more interesting aspects of contemporary American religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195189100
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	797,692
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.42(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Philip Jenkins, one of the world's leading religion scholars joined Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion as Distinguished Professor of History and Co-Director for the Program on Historical Studies of Religion.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Terminology	xi
	Acknowledgments	xii
1	Haunting America	1
2	Heathen Darkness	20
3	Discovering Native Religion, 1860-1920	47
4	Pilgrims from the Vacuum, 1890-1920	65
5	Crisis in Red Atlantis, 1914-1925	92
6	Brave New Worlds, 1925-1950	113
7	Before the New Age, 1920-1960	135
8	Vision Quests, 1960-1980	154
9	The Medicine Show	175
10	Thinking Tribal Thoughts	197
11	Returning the Land	223
	Conclusion: Real Religion?	245
	Notes	257
	Index	299

Editorial Reviews

Jenkins (The Next Christendom; Mystics and Messiahs), a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State, here trains his keen eye on the appropriation of Native American spirituality by those in the white mainstream. What do liberal white Protestants gain from sitting in sweat lodges, visiting shamans and taking pilgrimages to New Age "hot spots" like Sedona, Ariz.? Plenty, says Jenkins, who posits that interest in Native spirituality peaks when white Americans are dissatisfied with one or more elements of mainstream society. Refreshingly, he doesn't just trace this disenchantment to the 1960s-that easy target of a decade isn't even addressed until 150 pages into the book-but offers a sweeping overview of American religious history to prove his point. In particular, Jenkins sees the early 20th century as a crucial period of transformation; whereas Victorians were likely to dismiss Native American belief and ritual as godless superstition, the interwar years saw more Americans turning toward indigenous practices and products, with the rise of "native tourism" and the proliferation of crafts (such as the jewelry worn by Grace Coolidge at her husband's 1925 presidential inauguration). Although Jenkins is critical of whites' appropriations of Native American culture and belief, and particularly of their tendency to repackage New Age ideas with a veneer of indigenous authority, his tone is never unfair; he does a masterful job of setting such uses-cum-exploitations in historical context. Anyone wishing to understand the ongoing romanticization of Native American spirituality should read this book. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Once viewed with contempt by white America, Native American spirituality has now been embraced. In this well-researched history, Jenkins (history & religious studies, Pennsylvania State Univ.) explores how this transformation took place and what it signifies. From savages to mystics to eco-warriors, Native Americans have been defined (and often idealized) through a projection and repackaging that has taken on mythic proportions. Their rituals have been commercialized, imitated, and appropriated, raising questions of authenticity. Neo-Indian wannabes borrow freely from various tribes and traditions, often mixing them with other world religions. Jenkins offers both a critique of white America and a defense of the New Age, showing that spiritual seekers raise the important question of whether religion is changeable. This extremely readable and thought-provoking book is recommended for academic and large public libraries and where there is strong interest in contemporary religion and Native Americans. Nancy Almand, Weld Lib. Dist., Greeley, CO Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"Magnetically absorbing.... Jenkins fills in the major details of the last two centuries of deep white interest in Native religion with his customary thoroughness, and he scrupulously avoids judgments about the validity as well as the theological truth of the many practices and cults he sketches. He relays fascinating history with scholarly care and in prose as clear as it is precise."—Booklist (starred review)

"With his characteristic eye for nuance and his uncanny ability to master an enormous range of evidence and present it in a clear, compelling, provocative form, Jenkins has written an indispensable book."—Books & Culture

"Jenkins has acquainted himself with the relevant historical materials and also acquainted himself with more New Age manuals, mantras and sales pitches than any human being should have to endure. This allows him to trace a striking shift in white attitudes, an exchange of one kind of willful stupidity for another."—New York Times Book Review

"Anyone wishing to understand the ongoing romanticization of Native American spirituality should read this book.... Although Jenkins is critical of whites' apropriations of Native American culture and belief, and particularly of their tendency to repackage New Age ideas with a veneer of indigenous authority, his tone is never unfair; he does a masterful job of setting such uses-cum-exploitations in historical context."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher