Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Sacred Site; An Operational Definition

Nonnewaug Falls
A sacred site is a place in the landscape, occasionally over or under water, which is especially revered by a people, culture or cultural group as a focus for spiritual belief and practice and likely religious observance.
In addition, to satisfy this stem definition and reflect its wide and rich variety, a sacred site must also have one or more of the following nineteen characteristics found under the headings: Descriptive, Spiritual, Functional and Other. Having more or less of these characteristics does not imply that the site is more or less sacred but it may usefully reflect the complexity and rich variety of its sacred qualities.
1. Descriptive
Nonnewaug Stone Fish Weir
Literally, "Fresh Water Fishing Place"

a.     It is a specific focus within a wider and possibly dynamically interconnected sacred landscape.
b.     It is, or is founded upon, a natural topographical feature, e.g., a mountain, mound, rock, cave, tree, grove, forest, spring, well, river, lake, the sea, an island, etc.
c.     It is recognised as carrying special manifestation of wildlife, natural phenomena and ecological balance.
d.     It is embellished with man-made symbols or artifacts, e.g., rock-carvings, painting, holy or religious objects.
Tobacco Sacrifice Stone
Bear's Head Effigy "Rocking Stone"

e.     It is partially or wholly man-made, e.g., menhir, temple, church, wayside shrine.
Great Turtle Effigy
tûnuppasuonk kodtonquag - "turtle effigy in stone" (Nipmeuw). 

f.      It is a memorial or mnemonic to a key recent or past event in history, legend or myth, e.g., a battle site, creation or origin myth.
2. Spiritual
a.     It is recognised as having a palpable and special energy or power which is clearly discernible from that of a similar landscape or surrounding.
b.     It is recognised as a special place which acts as a portal or cross-over to the spirit world.
c.     It is recognised as the dwelling place of guardian or ‘owner’ spirits which care for and oversee the site and possibly its wider environs.
Great Snake Effigy
Also: 
Qusukqaniyutôk: (‘stone row, enclosure’ Harris and Robinson, 2015:140, ‘fence that crosses back’ viz. qussuk, ‘stone,’ Nipmuc or quski, quskaca, ‘returning, crosses over,’ qaqi, ‘runs,’ pumiyotôk, ‘fence, wall,’ Mohegan, Mohegan Nation 2004:145, 95, 129) wall (outdoor), fence, NI – pumiyotôk plural: pumiyotôkansh.)

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 77, No. 2

Fall 2016

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas

d.     Its spiritual forces or ‘owner’ spirits are in a mutually respectful dialogue with local people with specialist knowledge acting as guardians or custodians, who play important roles as mediators, negotiators or healers between the human, natural and spiritual dimensions.
The now desecrated grave site of Sachem Nonnewaug,
"the Keeper of the Peace at the Fresh Water Fishing Place." 
(Destroyed mid 1800s)

Possibly:
 
Káhtôquwuk  (Narragansett), allegorically, a 'stone prayer.'
 a pile, a heap, that which is heaped high, by placing one (stone) above another.

Possibly:

Wâunonaqussuk or ‘Honoring Stone’

“Individual deaths and memorial services for those persons are marked with waûnonaqussuk (Natick Nipmuc wâunonukhauónat – ‘to flatter,’ Trumbull 1903:202, verb stem wâunon- ‘honor’ + qussuk ‘stone’ = wâunonaqussuk – ‘honoring stone’ + quanash pl., also Narragansett wunnaumwâuonck – ‘faithfulness, truthfulness,’ wunna, ‘good,’ wáunen, ‘honor,’ + onk, abstract suffix, O’Brien 2005:37, Wawanaquassik, ‘place of many honoring stones,’- Nochpeem Mahikkaneuw/Wappinger, Ruttenber 1992b:373).”

A Quantitative Assessment of Stone Relics in a Western Massachusetts Town

Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas

 

See also:

 
See also: 

e.     It is identified as a place where the ancestors are present and especially respected, e.g., burial grounds.
f.      It is a place of spiritual transformation for individual persons or the community, e.g., healing, baptism, initiation, religious conversion, rite of passage, funeral, vision quest.
3. Functional
a.     It is a special place where relationships, both interpersonal and throughout the whole community, can be expressed and affirmed, often through a specific form of observance, e.g., prayer, songs, chants,  dance, ritual or ceremony.
The Stone Fish Weir known as Nonnewaug (circa 1996)

b.     It is a place especially associated with resource-gathering or other key cultural activities, e.g., gathering medicinal plants or material for sacred or ritual ceremony or objects, fishing, hunting, cultivation, burial of ritual objects, giving birth.
c.     It is a specific pathway or route between significant or sacred places, e.g., songline, sacred pathway, pilgrimage route. It is a focus of past or present special visits of religious observance or pilgrimage.
d.     It is a cultural sacred-secret, with its location and/or specific religious function only known to a limited number of people.

e.     It has a significant relationship with astronomical order and/or calendrical phenomena, e.g., astronomical alignment, celestial-Earth correspondence, seasonal ritual or festival.
4. Other
a.     It clearly satisfies the stem definition but has unique cultural features that are not represented in the previous eighteen characteristics.
Using the definition, a sacred site could then be described as satisfying the Thorley/Gunn definition (TGD) in one or more characteristics out of the four categories. These could be, if necessary, reduced to a briefer encoded form, e.g., TGD categories 1, 2, etc. To give two practical examples, Stonehenge in England could be represented as “TGD categories 1. a, d, e; 2. a, e; 3. e, f” and a sacred beach for fishing in New Zealand Maori culture might be represented as “TGD categories 1. b; 2. e; 3. b.”
                                                                                            Thorley and Gunn, “Sacred Natural Sites: An Overview.”

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