Native American Spirituality and Eurasian Metaphysics: An Essay in Ceremonial Research

Abstract: Ideas of spirit and spirituality are obstacles to better appreciation of Indigenous experience and culture among scholars trained in contemporary Euro-American philosophy. Part of the reason is not appreciating philosophy's own concept of spirit, which is a word for anything that endures, develops, or evolves; for instance, songs, stories, dances, aromas, speech, consciousness, feeling, memory, and the vital processes of life. The author's argument connects this metaphysical theme in European and Asian philosophy with an Indigenous understanding of spirit. Allen addresses the relation between spirituality and religion and distinguish two aspects of Indigenous spirituality. One is the fundamental idea of spirit as something existing and active, conscious and tending. This idea finds resonance in Asian and European thought. A second aspect of the Indigenous understanding recognizes these qualitative powers as persons and governs interaction by social norms. Here the Eurasian comparison collapses, but in a way that reveals something Euro-American traditions can learn from an Indigenous sacred ecology.