Place, Performance, and Social Memory in the 1890s Ghost Dance

Abstract

This study examines the role of place and ritual performance in the construction of subjectivities and social memories in relation to the 1890s Ghost Dance, a North American pan-Indian ritually-centered social movement that began in western Nevada and spread from the West Coast through the Great Plains during the last decade of the nineteenth century. This dissertation also explores efforts to alternatively preserve, promote, and eradicate practices representing two inherently contradictory spatial regimes, or ways of living as Beings-in-the-World. Such an analysis is done through the study of ritual and social responses to the spatial disruptions and collective identity ruptures evinced by Westward expansionism on the native peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau called the Numa. This research is designed to advance knowledge of Ghost Dance ceremonial sites and ritual praxis in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. This is done through the isolation of physiographic characteristics, performance characteristics, and cultural inscription practices contributing to the selection, valuation, and use of particular ritual settings for Ghost Dance performances. I hypothesized that three types of sites, World Balancing Places, Regional Balancing Sites, and Local Balancing Sites, or Regions of Refuge, were used for ceremonialism associated with the Ghost Dance among Numic people. Type I sites are ceremonial sites that were used consistently before the arrival of Euroamericans and continued to be used during the late nineteenth century for the performance of the Ghost Dances. Both World and Local Balancing Places are Type 1 Sites. Type II sites are defined as places that were selected as ceremonial sites after encroachment activities made the performance characteristics of Type I Sites nonviable. The social unit of the present analysis is the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. The current methodological framework has been formulated with the intent of producing a holistic treatment of Numic ritual landscapes as evidenced in Ghost Dance ceremonial sites. To this end, I have adopted an intersubjective and iterative approach that utilizes performance and narrative studies, behavioral archaeology, cultural landscape studies, and phenomenology. This research aims to contribute to the theory and methodology underscoring National Historic Preservation efforts.