Ceremony (p. 59-142): Cattle, the Hummingbird story, and Christianity

We learn of Josiah’s new cattle business and of the almost wild Mexican cattle he buys. What symbolic associations do the Mexican cattle carry? (Consider breeds and breeding, contrast with Herefords, where they go, and relation to nature, fences etc).

Rather than purchasing the usual Hereford type, Josiah buys a Mexican breed of cattle and crossbreeds these two together. The cattle, when breaking out of their pasture, moved immediately south. The importance of native land is underscored here, lp from the medicine man, Betonie, and find out what is really wrong with him. In the end, the animals end up collecting everything Mother Earth has asked for and the people are foras even the cattle try and return to where they safest. Perhaps the cattle represent, by the mixing of two breeds (cultures), the difficulties of the Indian cultures and the stereotypical American culture to fuse together in harmony. These cattle also represent the freedom that the Indians did not feel as they were being buried under American culture and their national identity was being lost. The fence that the cattle eventually broke through could possibly represent the eventual liberation of Indian culture from the white mainstream. Josiah purchased his cattle herd and, effectively, compromised his way of life. He wanted a method to live easier, much like his ancestors.


We get poetic installments of the Hummingbird tale on p. 42-45, 49-50, 65-66, 76, 97, 104-105, 140 (to this point) How might you relate this story to Tayo’s?

The Hummingbird tale and Tayo's story both lack something that the Indians find vital to survive: rain. Both peoples in the stories feel that the rain's been taken away from them. With Tayo's story, he feels he's prayed it away. With the Hummingbird tale, it's been taken away by Mother Earth as a punishment for neglecting her and being enraptured by a magician. In both tales, the respect the Indians should have for the rain and Mother Earth is paramount. In the Hummingbird story, the people seek forgiveness from Mother Earth just as Tayo seeks forgiveness in his story. Forgiveness, however, is never free and easy, there is a task that must be done or a a price that must be paid. This is also present in both tales. There's parallels between the Shaman and Tayo as well, with both of them trying to get the rain back and end their people's droughts. Tayo also can be compared to the Hummingbird, as both of these characters go on some kind of a journey to obtain their goals. Both stories are structurally similar and Ceremony even goes so far as to begin to blend these stories' beginnings together.


P. 62-63 covers the theme of Christianity as a coercive force of assimilation. By what means does this occur and what feelings does it evoke?

It evokes feelings of bitterness, as the spread of Christianity has effectively raped the Indian culture, spread by the white man. The feeling that this spread was more to gain power over the Indians rather than about "saving their souls" cannot be shaken off here. This religion starts to divide the close cultural ties these people feel with their clan and homeland, effectively making the Indians more complacent tools and trying to assimilate them into mainstream American culture. It's all about control for these priests: controlling temptation, controlling behavior, controlling the fate of these people's souls, etc. Are these people really doing good or just masking another motive? The spread of this religion separated individuals from the clan, something the Indian culture had never experienced in its thousands of years of existence. This, effectively, killed the Indian culture; it was associated with shame instead of cultural pride.