After reading the responses to our original posting, I have become interested in the idea that religion could be the mechanism that the O'odham people use to fulfill their basic needs (food, water, and shelter). I think our trip to Arizona is the perfect opportunity to answer this question. The pre-contact subsistence lifestyle was very community-centric, while the post-contact lifestyle has become more individualistic--it would be interesting to inquire more about this in AZ. I am also wondering how to best integrate the other topics of water and health (the food aspect of this topic) into our broader "subsistence" topic. For example, the water rights that Joe and Sara discussed had a huge impact on life on the rez. How have the O'odham adapted farming/livestock techniques in response to repeated abuse by the government? Does this abuse have any long-term repercussions? I read about livestock reduction techniques in one of the articles and it mentioned that people are still really angry about this and have developed something like a post traumatic stress disorder...Anyway, I am learning more about our topic every day and I hope to have an extensive list of questions to answer on our trip next week.
Posted by baccaryj at April 25, 2005 09:01 AMI think your post is an excellent one and points out some of the most important issues. While I think it will be difficult to prove by interviewing the Tohono O'odham people, I feel that the religion is based around the fulfillment of the needs. For example, corn plays an important role in the ceremonies. I think because of corn's importance, the ceremony was developed. Not that the corn's importance developed because the ceremony already took place. Excellent question about livestock/farming.
Posted by: Haynes at April 26, 2005 08:54 AM