Rituals Of The Pueblo Indians

The culture of the Pueblo Indians differentiated itself from all of the different cultures that surrounded it in the Americas. The Pueblo Indians lived upholding the values of sobriety and inoffensiveness and their culture was centered around a complex ceremonial life. Benedict in this chapter tells us that the Pueblo Indian’s rituals and ceremonies were more important than any other activity to the Pueblo. All members of the Pueblo community would partake in the rituals and tremendous time and effort was put into preparing a perfect ritual. Every detail to the ritual from the type of feather that was attached to the ceremonial mask to the pronunciation of the words was believed to have magical efficacy and importance. For example, if the ceremonial feathers were taken from the shoulder of an eagle rather than the breast of an eagle than the Pueblo would deem the ceremony as imperfect. Outsiders may look upon these practices and deem the attention to detail as unnecessary. These minor details would most definitely be overlooked by an outsider, but to the members of the Pueblo community the details of these rituals were everything. …show more content…
The Pueblo’s dependency on rainfall was the basis for their rituals and ceremonies. They are praying to the gods for rain and the Pueblo believe that every detail must be perfect in the ceremonies in order for the rainfall to come. If the gods were offended by imperfect rituals than they may not bless the Pueblo Indians with rain which would lead to the desecration of their crops. From an outsider’s point of view some of the Pueblo’s religious practices may seem strange and over the top, but they do not understand that these ceremonies are everything to the Pueblo Indians. The Pueblos Indians dedicate so much time to these rituals because without them they believe they would not be able to survive in their arid