Mescalero Apache: A Spiritual Analysis

Religious Symbols are visual pieces of art or iconic presentation, used to represent a specific religion. A taboo is an act that is prohibited by the mainstream mostly based upon lack of social acceptance. This may due to its profound nature and how people analyze and interpret it morally. When looking at the Mescalero Apache, the base metaphor Farrer states ,that it represents the daily movement of the sun east to west and its annual movement south to north. “Balance and harmony are expressed in circularity” (Farrer 29). The correlation with puberty rites I feel has to do with the significance of the number 4, as there are 4 days of creation, which correlates with the girls circling the basket in order to represent the 4 stages of life. Essentially …show more content…
This brings circularity to the Mescalero Apache beliefs and mythology.
In the article “Mother Cow” we see how the people of India love and respect the animal the cow. Not only do they refuse to slaughter these animal for subsistence reasons but the mer thought of it brings them absolute disgust. They look up to the cow as their spiritual mother in a sense, they pray, care for, and love theses animal, almost like a God. When the people of India heard about what was going on in Europe, as seen in the movie “Maharaja Burger,” they were not only disgusted but angered. Some of them made the comparison to how Dogs were treated as pets and asked why cows were not treated the same. Some Indians demanded that we send our sick cows to india were they would take care of them for free. This really shows the amount of love and deviation that the people of India display when regarding cows. Not only do they find it unethical to simple breed cows for subsistence or food but they claim they have found more pragmatic uses for these animals. These animals serve greatly as a replacement to the motorized farming tools used in other countries I.E. tractors, mechanical plows. They argue that the cow is a great replacement to