Orenda

For other uses, see Orenda (disambiguation).
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Orenda /ˈoʊrɛndə/ is an Iroquois name for a spiritual power inherent in people and their environment.[1][2] Activities of nature were seen to be a "ceaseless struggle of one orenda against another, uttered and directed by the beings or bodies" in the environment.[3] Orenda was deemed a motive force behind miracles, soothsaying, divination, prophecy, blessing, cursing, prayer, worship, and superstitions.[4] Orenda is not a collective power and does not have a personification.[5] 19th and 20th century scholars compared the concept of orenda to that of mana.[6][7]

Anthropologist J. N. B. Hewitt notes intrinsic similarities between the Iroquoian concept of Orenda and that of the Siouxan wakd or mahopa; the Algonquin manitowi, and the pokunt of the Shoshone. Across the Iroquois tribes, the concept was referred to variously as orenna or karenna by the Mohawk, Cayuga, and Oneida; urente by the Tuscarora, and iarenda or orenda by the Huron. A related term, otgon, denoted a specifically "malign, deadly, lethal, or destructive use" of orenda.[8] Hewitt notes that orenda was regarded by Iroquoian peoples as distinct from concepts of life, soul, ghost, and mind.[9]

For the Iroquois, a shaman was considered to be "one whose orenda is great, powerful", while a hunter's orenda determined whether he was successful in overcoming the orenda of the game, and in conflicts between nations, orenda determined the outcome.[10] Orenda was also present in nature: storms were said to possess orenda. A strong connection existed between prayers and songs and orenda: through song, a bird, shaman, or rabbit put forth orenda.[11]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Hewitt 1902.
  2. ↑ "orenda". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 41.
  4. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 42.
  5. ↑ nature worship. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  6. ↑ mana (Web ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Rose, Herbert Jennings (1951). "Nvmen and Mana". Harvard Theological Review 44 (3): 109–120. doi:10.1017/s0017816000027760.
  8. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 37.
  9. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 44.
  10. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 38.
  11. ↑ Hewitt 1902, p. 40-43.

References

Hewitt, J. N. B. (1902). "Orenda and a Definition of Religion". American Anthropologist 4 (1): 33–46. doi:10.1525/aa.1902.4.1.02a00050. Retrieved 12 April 2015. 

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