Sun Dance Analysis

Inmates have been placed here for both short and long term sentences. Segregation has a significant impact on inmates with preexisting mental illnesses. According to Arrigo and Bullock?s (2008) research, ?the extreme isolation that was characteristics of the early prisons?ultimately resulted in serious physical and psychological consequences for convicts.? The SHU has become the way prisons control troublesome inmates. Solitary inmates are only out of their cells for weekly showers and recreation time, but they are still heavily restrained. These inmates have no contact with the general population including dining and religious gatherings. This method of isolation leaves no remove for communication with other

With the major religions constantly crashing together, the principles and customs of each religion seem to always build similarities each time you study them. This is what occurred to me when i began reading “Living religions” studying practices and rites. Beginning with the traditional indigenous groups - descendants of the original inhabitants of lands now controlled by larger political systems in which they may have little influence (33) -, I observed the common rites performed by the different indigenous groups. Many groups lean on the word “spiritual”, rather than “religious”. There’s really no clarification as to why this is the case, but the author, Fisher addressed that religion has

Sun Dance is a highly sacred ceremony for many sects of Indigenous peoples in North America. The Sun Dance ceremony is practiced mainly within Plains tribes and has survived as a tradition for hundreds of years. The nations amongst which it was created include the seven tribes of the Lakota nation, the Blackfoot, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. Over time the ceremony spread to the southern Plains tribes, the Kiowa and Comanche, as well as the northern Plains peoples, such as the Crees of Saskatchewan and Sarcees of Alberta. Many others across the Plains region now practice Sun Dance, including the Ponca, Hidatsa, Ute, Ojibwa, Pawnee, and more. The original name derives from the Lakota term Wi wanyang wacipi, meaning “sun gazing dance.”

Leonard Peltier is a Native American man currently imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. Peltier is currently serving time in Leavenworth, Kansas, and it is likely that he will live the rest of his life in prison. Examining Peltier’s experiences through several different community systems frameworks will push human service professionals to help not only individuals but whole communities as well. In particular, the ecological systems theory, historical trauma, and the theory of social capital are helpful in making sense of Peltier’s experiences, and seeing them not as random events but as the culmination of years of mistreatment, oppression, and marginalization.

They had experienced a lot of abuse and neglect. The short story “Returning to Harmony” by Richard Wagamese demonstrates that the energy used for anger and frustration can turn into passion and devotion.

Greg Dobbs is a journalist, professional public speaker, and ABC News correspondent. Dobbs argues in agreeance of keeping solitary confinements in the prison systems for way of punishment. He first talks about Rick Raemisch’s, Department of Correction boss, experience as he stayed in solitary confinement for twenty hours at the Colorado Prison. Dobbs quoted Raemisch when he said, “I sat with my mind”. Raemisch brought a lot of attention to the evil side of solitary confinement says Dobbs. He then reminds the reader that convicted criminals

Solitary confinement has had a long history in the American prison system. America is the first country to adapt solitary confinement into the prison regiment. Pennsylvania had the first special housing units for inmates or “SHU”. When Europeans came to America to look at the new model for prisons in Pennsylvania they wrote reports describing to the European parliament on how prisoners were treated like caged animals. Many of them quickly realized that this was not what prisons were set out to accomplish. The purpose of a prison is to rehabilitate criminals and bring them back into society as an individual that has the best mental tools and skills to make their respective communities better. Putting inmates in solitary confinement for more than 48 hours can only lead to awful emotional pain and mental problems which can result in self-destructive behavior to regain the self-control that is being deprived through this process of isolation and expulsion.

The religion detailed and examined throughout Don Talayesva’s “Sun Chief” can be difficult to understand and near impossible to appreciate. At first glance to the casual reader it can appear shallow and ridiculous; a religion created around the wants and needs of the Hopi but not based on any empirical or even supposed sacred evidence. When coupled with The Sacred Canopy however, the reader begins to understand the simplistic beauty of their religion providing necessary guidance and support to the Hopi tribe. The reader also is able to relate to Don’s religion in terms of the love one has for his or her own dogma and the importance it plays in an individual’s life.

The Dreaming is communicated through songs, stories and rituals, in which is explains how the “creator ancestors shaped the land and brought it to life” (Gammage, 2011, p. 1419). All of life, from religion, geography, life and more, are explained and connected to the Aboriginal people’s spirituality, land and family through this form of communication. The Dreamtime “shapes the Aboriginal people’s view of the universe and themselves” (Wierzbicka & Goddard, 2015, p. 43). The passing on of the Dreaming stories from one generation to the next was a “most important aspect of education” (Edwards, 1998, p. 83) and is seen as the fundamental reality. Edwards stated that through ritual, humans are able to “enter into a direct relationship with

In his essay “Space”, Thomas Tweed characterizes spaces for religious practices as “differentiated” locales that are sensually encountered and imaginatively figured. They are “more or less ‘special,’ ‘singular,’ or ‘set apart’” from “undifferentiated” or unnamed generic places (Tweed 2011: 119). He also states that spaces are “always interrelated with ‘nature’ and with ‘culture,’” and they are shaped by political processes, social relations and economic forces. Furthermore, defining religions as “confluence of organic-cultural flows” about “dwelling and crossing, about finding a place and moving across

Over the last couple of decades, prison systems have adopted the use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment and have progressively depended on it to help maintain obedience and discipline inside the prison structure. Solitary confinement is a form of incarceration in which a prisoner is isolated in a cell for multiple hours, days, or weeks with limited to no human contact. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States represents only 5% of the world's population yet houses 20% of the world’s prisoners (ACLU). Two of the biggest problems with our modern day criminal justice system is the overwhelming number of people that are incarcerated in the United States and the overwhelming number of convicts who return

Since the early 1800s, the United States has relied on a method of punishment barely known to any other country, solitary confinement (Cole). Despite this method once being thought of as the breakthrough in the prison system, history has proved differently. Solitary confinement was once used in a short period of time to fix a prisoners behavior, but is now used as a long term method that shows to prove absolutely nothing. Spending 22-24 hours a day in a small room containing practically nothing has proved to fix nothing in a person except further insanity. One cannot rid himself of insanity in a room that causes them to go insane. Solitary confinement is a flawed and unnecessary method of punishment that should be prohibited in the prison

I was surprised that Redmond’s drumming group fulfills the criteria for the classification of a new religious movement. When I think of religious communities, the world’s main religions come to my mind. Apparently, my perception of a religious community is more concerned with size and popularity than purpose. As I have discovered while writing this paper, Redmond’s drumming group provides, in fact, the same benefits to participants as traditional religions. For example, a place of belonging and a way to derive meaning from religious practices, thereby growing spiritually as an individual. Looking at the autobiographies by Heilmann and Padre Carney, it also became apparent to me that religion can be an intimate and personal thing. Religions

* How does the ritual seek to change the participants? –Protect them from future sufferings, provides more insight into meditation

Conceived in eras of uncertainty and strife, many people weave through the contradictions and inner struggles within communities, while also indulging themselves in the broad concept of redefining themselves just to feel accepted by the society around them. In “Homo religiosus” Karen Armstrong brings out the materialized definition of an “individual” through concepts such as religion, activities like yoga, the artistic features of caves, and most importantly the image of Brahma. The detailed notions placed on each concept yields the reassuring meaning that religion symbolically is a safe harbor, in which individuals can feel comforted and relieved. However the question that always comes up is if an individual is willing to exclude themselves from the harsh realities of society. As the essay progresses, Armstrong 's usage of words such as kenosis—emptying—, junzi—maturity—, and anatta—dethrone—broadens the idea on how an individual’s illusion of an identity can be renewed and reached (14,17). However with the brutish imagery that is brought up throughout the essay a sense of isolation and hopelessness, making for a mood of muted panic and dread questions the truth behind the meaning of a “being”. Yet in the end the idea that there is a world outside the circles of human existence, gets the individual going as they search for something worth living for.