article

Old religion among the Delawares: the Gamwing (Big House rite)

Ethnohistory : the bulletin of the Ohio Valley Historic Indian Conference44 (1)Published In 1997 • Pages: 113-134

By: Miller, Jay.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is a rebuttal to Anthony F.C. Wallace's argument that the Big House (Gamwing) ceremony of the Delaware was an 1805 'new religion' among these people. A '… review of his sources, native testimony, and continuing cultural import suggests instead that it was their ancient integrative ritual, held to mark the conjunction of men and women, hunt and crops, and Creator and creation as a world renewal ceremony of universal thanksgiving' (p. 113).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Reviews and critiques
Internal migration
Sociocultural trends
Religious and educational structures
Clans
Cosmology
Revelation and divination
Organized ceremonial
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Delaware
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2003
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Woodlands
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle; 2002
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
seventeenth-nineteenth centuries
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
not specified
NotesAdditional notes
Jay Miller
Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-134)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
57043343
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Delaware Indians