"Drunkenness and dreams". Inebriation and the dream quest among North American indians
Abstract
This paper argues that, along with dreams, drunkenness is perceived by North American Indians as a means of communication with the world of spirit. Early Christian missionaries explained the natives’ passion for drink by their inflated self-esteem and urge for power, regarding alcohol and dreams as the main obstacles on the way to theIndians’ conversion to Christianity. On the other hand, indigenous explanations of drunkenness differ from those of white observers. Drawing on the examples ranging from the Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Ottawa and twentieth-century Montagnais-Naskapi, to the early seventeen-century Micmacs and contemporary Numa and Tarahumara, the author demonstrates that the Indians account for the connection between drunkenness and dreams by a temporary absence of the soul that travels in the world of spirit. That is why a drunken person can even be regarded as ‘sacred’. Alcohol itself does not cause hallucinations but the sound sleep it induces can be a way of experiencing ‘sacred visions’.
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