lest account of the religions of the ancient Near East is to be
found in Thorkild Jacobsen’s The Treasures of Darkness: A
History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven, Conn.,
1976). An extremely useful collection of material from all
over the world, both ancient and primitive, is the Mythology
of All Races, 13 vols., edited by Louis H. Gray (Boston,
1916–1932), published under the auspices of the Archaeo-
logical Institute of America. Martin P. Nilsson brings to his
Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 3d ed., 2 vols. (Munich,
1967–1974), a wealth of information from archaeology and
comparative religion. Still the most complete collection of
mythological material is to be found in Ausführliches Lexikon
der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, edited by W. H.
Roscher (1866–1890; Hildesheim, 1965), in articles entitled
“Helios,” “Sol,” and “Sonnenkulten.” The “Sacred Books of
the East” series, containing the religious writings of India and
Persia collected by F. Max Müller in 1884, has been reissued
(Delhi, 1965). Maarten J. Vermaseren, in Mithras, the Secret
God (New York, 1963), presents a detailed account of the
cult of Mithra in the Roman world.New Sources
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda. The Sun-Gods of Ancient Europe. Lon-
don, 1991.
Bailey, Adrian. The Caves of the Sun: The Origin of Mythology.
London, 1997.
Fideler, David. Jesus Christ, Sun of God; Ancient Cosmology and
Early Christian Symbolism. Wheaton, Ill.., 1993.
Goodison, Lucy. Death, Women, and the Sun: Symbolism of Regen-
eration in Early Aegean Religion. London, 1989.
Heilbron, J. L.. The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Obser-
vatories. Cambridge, Mass., 2001.
Hornung, Erik. David Lorton, trans. Akhenaten and the Religion
of Light. Ithaca, N.Y., 1999.
Orcutt, William Tyler. Sun Lore of All Ages: A Collection of Myths
and Legends Concerning the Sun and Its Ages. San Diego,
Calif., 1999.
Saran, Anirudha. Sun Worship in India: A Study of the Deo Sun-
Shrine. New Delhi, 1992.
Taylor, J. Glen, ed. Yahweh and the Sun: Biblical and Archeological
Evidence for Sun Worship in Ancient Israel. Sheffield, U.K.,
1994.
Titcomb, Sarah. Aryan Sun Myths: The Origin of Religions. San
Diego, Calif., 1999.
JEAN RHYS BRAM (1987)
Revised Bibliography
SUN DANCE [FIRST EDITION] is currently used
as a generic term having reference to a rich complex of rites
and ceremonies with tribal variations specific to at least thirty
distinct tribal groups of the North American Plains and Prai-
rie. Although tribal variations of beliefs, traits, and the struc-
turing of ceremonial lodges are significant and of great im-
portance to the groups concerned, there are nevertheless
sufficient similarities to justify use of the generic term. Since
these distinct tribal groups represent at least seven mutually
unintelligible language families, understandably there is also
present the once-universal sign language, a rich means by
which even subtle and complex matters could be communi-
cated to all the tribes. Traditionally the peoples have been
divided into four major groupings: the northern tribes; the
southern tribes; the village, or eastern, tribes; and the Pla-
teau, or western, tribes. Each tribe within these groups gives
the Sun Dance its own specific term, which has reference to
particular ritual emphases. The Shoshoni and Crow, for ex-
ample, refer to the complex as the Thirst Lodge, or Thirst
Standing Lodge; for the Cheyenne it is the Medicine Lodge;
and for the Siouan peoples it is known as the Dance Gazing
at the Sun.
The precise tribal origin of the Sun Dance within the
North American Plains groups cannot be determined with
certainty, in part because calendric rites of world and life re-
newal involving sacrificial elements and shamanic-type acts
of healing are very widespread throughout North America.
Leslie Spier’s extensive yet inconclusive study (1921) sug-
gested that the complex possibly originated among—or dif-
fused from—the Arapaho and Cheyenne. In terms of more
ancient origins outside North America there are compelling
parallels with the Tunguzic peoples of Siberia, who had new
year festivals of renewal with ritual emphasis on a world tree
as axis joining heaven and earth; offerings made of ribbons
and sacrificed animal skins were made to this tree. Other sha-
manic elements described by A. F. Anisimov involve the
rhythmic power of drums, the inducing of trances, visions,
and curing ceremonies, all of which are strongly reminiscent
of the North American Plains Sun Dance traits (Anisimov,
1963).
It is unfortunate that the early anthropological accounts
of Native American religious practices were usually flat, ig-
noring or paying insufficient attention to the spiritual reali-
ties underlying religious beliefs and practices as the peoples
themselves understood them. The rich values and sacred
meanings encoded within cultural forms such as the arts,
crafts, and architecture were also largely ignored. Even Rob-
ert Lowie, who was very familiar with the early history of the
Crow Sun Dance, was able to write in 1915 that the Sun
Dance “in large measure served for the aesthetic pleasure and
entertainment of the spectators.” The Swedish scholar A ̊ke
Hultkrantz, commencing his early studies in 1947, chal-
lenged these prevailing reductionist perspectives; by giving
proper recognition to religious beliefs and practices of primal
origin and by integrating the perspectives and methodologies
of both anthropology and the history of religions, an ap-
proach now found increasingly within current ethnohistori-
cal studies. It is essentially this approach that is respected in
the following descriptions.
The rich diversity of beliefs and traits specific to the Sun
Dance traditions in some thirty distinct tribal groups, each
of which manifests varying levels of acculturation and cre-
ative adaptions, can hardly be encompassed within a brief
essay. Judicious selection must therefore be made of essential8844 SUN DANCE [FIRST EDITION]