Sticks as scripts: Literacy, Celestial Order, and Ritual Artifacts in Pawnee Ceremonies
Résumé
In Native North America, prayer or offering sticks are artifacts elaborated during a ritual action, often ephemeral and small. They are usually painted, sometimes engraved, and most often composed of an assemblage of selected materials, such as tobacco, pigment, beads, and hide. Manipulated and arranged by an officiant according to a set of precise instructions, sticks are commonly intended to address certain entities or classes of beings to convey a message, supplications, or prayers, along with more substantial offerings. The use of this type of instrument has been noted in many populations, but rarely examined. 1 In this article, I will explore the nature, function, and contexts of ritual sticks (rattaru') among the Chaticks Si Chaticks (Pawnee), based on ethnographic descriptions produced around 1900
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