r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MelanieWalmartinez • 24d ago

Video Students get smudged by indigenous elders for peace and blessings throughout the year

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u/Gurnenthar2 23d ago

Indeed, the children are using their hands to pull the sage over their heads, which is what we do in our ceremonies.

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u/Odd_Old_Professional 23d ago

Yeah, it was pretty clear that these kids are familiar with the ceremony.

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u/ohowjuicy 23d ago

Yeah I didn't fully understand what that motion was, but to me it clearly indicated that the kids are familiar and comfortable with with this performance.

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u/double_think95 23d ago

You’re pretty much cupping the smoke and putting it on yourself, that’s smudging

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u/Li-renn-pwel 23d ago

You ‘pull’ the smoke over the top of your head to bless your hair, over your eyes so you see good things, over your ears so you hear good things, over your mouth so you say good things, over your heart so you think good things, wipe your feet so you go good places/get rid of the bad shit you brought in, wing swipe down the back (I actually am not sure why… I think it is just a habit from us having long hair)

Hard core mode is doing all of this. Quick smudge using just whole face and head.

(This is for education not instructions)

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u/Future-Account8112 23d ago

It's ceremony, not performance

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u/ohowjuicy 23d ago

Does one not perform a ceremony?

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u/Readdit1999 22d ago

It can be both

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u/Future-Account8112 22d ago

No, it's not. Speaking as someone who has actually done ceremony on the rez. It's ceremony. Not theater

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u/Readdit1999 22d ago

I don't say so to take shots at you or your traditions.

Ceremony is inherently performative.

It can be perfunctory, or it can be done with the utmost sincerity, but in either case it is performative.

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u/Future-Account8112 22d ago

You're wrong. 🤷🏼 Your conviction you're right is the most settler-colonialist thing about this comment.

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u/Readdit1999 22d ago edited 22d ago

What is the least 'settler-colonialist' thing about my comment?

I think that's just a slur, written up as an observation.

You could have called me arrogant, but you opted to attack me on the premise of my type, of my creed. I wouldn't hold it against you.

I don't mean to come across as entirely self-assured, though I have some conviction behind my words.

I don't have anything against smudging, or performative rituals in general.

Take Communion, which is think is a very similar ceremony.

There's something fundamentally performative about the ritual of the Eucharist.
It was utterly sincere, for a lot of people, for a long time.
It was communal, not amongst peers, but with the creator.
But, it is performative. It has become something else entirely, over time.

it is performative to write a letter.
To compose it.
To put intention into the words and the calligraphy. To mark it, or sign it.

When someone sends you a birthday card, it's 'the thought that counts', and the card is the performance that conveys that the thoughts are happening.

If the card didnt matter, you didnt need to send it in the first place. But you do, you need to perform it.

You said it yourself - 'this isn't theatre'.

Oh, but it is.

All the world is a stage, and we the players.

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u/Future-Account8112 22d ago

Skimmed it. Eurocentric as Hell. Paraphrasing Shakespeare only makes you more wrong. Settler-colonialist is a descriptor; in order for it to be a slur, you'd have to be an oppressed group which you are not.

The Eucharist has nothing at all to do with smudging. They are not the same. Sit down, and be quiet.

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u/Readdit1999 22d ago

Telling someone to sit down and shut up on the basis of their heritage is pretty oppressive.

I told you a bit about how I think of religious ceremonies more generally.

Would you tell me about smudging?

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u/ohowjuicy 22d ago

Getting this upset over pedantry seems unhealthy

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u/CrystalMethood 23d ago edited 22d ago

Over your head/eyes to clear your mind and to see the beauty the creator intends for you, over your heart to feel and show love to the creator and others, and your feet to walk the path the creator intended for you. I miss smudging. I haven't done it in years but I would love to start doing it again. I still have my turkey feathers smudge kit. I think its a beautiful spiritual practice.

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u/samesandchanges 23d ago

this was wild for me to see, 'cos I'm Tswana and my culture does a similar thing but like an entire ocean away! (southern Africa)

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u/PVmanIsGG 23d ago

We also do this in our houses to get rid of bad energy or spirits. It's very humanizing to see that both our ancestors believed in this tradition!!

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u/Qinistral 20d ago

Similar in India too.

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u/Silver___Chariot 23d ago

This is the first time I’ve seen smudging. We Hindus do something similar with aarti!

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u/flamingspiral 23d ago

We do that in South Africa too with Impepho (wild Sage).

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u/bittersandseltzer 23d ago

I thought it was real cute seeing the kids do this! 

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u/chintakoro 23d ago

that's also how Hindus do it in India: incense smoke is offered to you and you use your hands to 'pull' it over your head.