Orenda/ˈɔːrɛndə/is theHaudenosauneename for a certain spiritual energy inherent in people and theirenvironment.It is an "extraordinary invisible power believed by the Iroquois Native Americans to pervade in varying degrees in all animate and inanimate natural objects as a transmissible spiritual energy capable of being exerted according to the will of its possessor."[1][2]Orenda is a collective power of nature's energies through the living energy of all natural objects: animate and inanimate.[3]
AnthropologistJ. N. B. Hewittnotes intrinsic similarities between the Haudenosaunee concept of orenda and that of theSiouxanwakanormahopa;theAlgonquinmanitowi,and thepokuntof theShoshone.Across the Iroquois tribes, the concept was referred to variously asorennaorkarennaby theMohawk,Cayuga,andOneida;urenteby theTuscarora,andiarendaororendaby the Huron.
Orenda is present in nature: storms are said to possess orenda. A strong connection exists between prayers and songs and orenda. Through song, a bird, a shaman, or a rabbit puts forth orenda.[4]
See also
edit- Manitou,similar concept among Algonquian peoples
- Mana
- Indigenous American philosophy
- Ecopsychology
- Spiritual ecology
References
edit- ^Hewitt 1902.
- ^"orenda".Merriam-Webster Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.Retrieved12 April2015.
- ^nature worship.Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015.Retrieved12 April2015.
- ^Hewitt 1902,p. 40-43.
Sources
edit- 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.JSTOR658926.
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