Artifacts and healing
There are various fetishes, totems and symbols found in the Gilcrease museum describing different cultures of different people. Rainbow horse and superstition are examples of totems used to describe the cultures of Native Americans and Americans respectively.
American culture
Culture include many things for instance the food of the people, dressing code, religion, the way activities are carried out, music, ceremonies, different rules, customs and beliefs just like the woman who is holding a pot in a colored place with a man on the cross signifying religion. The American culture is diverse since it has millions of people who live in different states and from different places of the world (Naylor, 1998). The American culture has been influenced by cultures of other different parts of the world since inhabitants of the US are immigrants from other parts of the world. This culture has been influenced by other different cultures including then Native American, African, Asians and Latin American cultures. American culture has been influenced by other different cultures but currently the American culture is seen to influence other cultures all over the world. There is no specific official language in America since different people speak different other languages such as Germans, French and Spanish. Language is not defined according to the American culture since there is no specific language used in America even though most official businesses are conducted in English (Naylor, 1998).
Religion is also free in American and according to the American culture. The culture does not define specific religion since people are diverse and thus have different religious beliefs. Most of the people are either Muslims or Christians though other religious groups also exist and are not prohibited since freedom of religion is allowed according to this culture. Americans do not have specific dressing codes since it depends on the social status, religion, climate and other factors. American dressing is often influenced by the celebrities and the media personalities (Naylor, 1998). American food has been widely influenced by Europeans and the Native Americans and thus some foods are identified with the Americans such as macaroni, hot dogs and other different foods. Americans are known to be movie and television producers who come up with new production and movies. Thus the American culture is widely influenced by other cultures and influences other cultures as well.
Native American culture
Rainbow horse can be used to describe the Native American culture and thus one can understand the culture better focusing on the painting since the culture is a mixture of other cultures just like the rainbow horse which is a mixture of different colors and two animals. Most of the Native Americans were either nomads, semi nomads while others did not move. The people lived in North American and shared almost similar beliefs and traditions (Pritzker, 2000). The culture was not altered before the Europeans came in the northern part of America and started changing this primitive culture. All the people believed in a religion known as animism where people believed that everything that exists has a soul regardless of the object. Things such as plants and animals also have souls unlike those who believed that it was only human beings who had souls. Thus they believed that even the thunderstorms and other natural resources such as the sun, wind all had souls. They ended up worshipping the animas, sun and other natural phenomenon they believed possessed souls. The Native American culture was not contaminated compared to the American culture and was based mainly on the traditional beliefs and customs since the people were not civilized (Pritzker, 2000). The culture was based on tradition customs, religion, dressing, food and the way they handled their activities in a traditional manner compared to the American culture.
Superstition was an art by Ernest Leonard who was a well known artist and was painted back in 1921 in order to show how the American culture was viewed in those early days. The painting is about a woman holding a pot with someone on the cross who signifies religion. The object is an oil painting type and is painted in wonderful colors. The woman looks so modern therefore showing that the American culture is a modern culture which has been influenced by a number of other cultures. Rainbow horse too was an art by Woodrow Wilson showing two animals which are colorfully painted and used to signify the Native American culture which is one of the oldest cultures. The painting is oil and was carried out in the mid 20th century in order to show the originality of the Native American culture. The animals signify how dearly people believed in the animals and even made animals their gods since they believed animals had souls just like human beings have.
Superstition would be used in the healing practice since Americans believed in religion. In this case the religion signified is Christianity where people believed that when they ask their God for anything. The people have medical knowledge and thus attend to diseases through vistimng various hospitals until they get good medical care (Loustaunau & Sobo, 1997). On the other hand, according the Rainbow horse would be used in the healing practice since the native Americans believed that the animals were their gods and would heal them when they called they called out for help. This religion was based on traditional beliefs where people believed the gods would heal them and help them throughout their activities (Spector, 2013).
According to superstition which is mainly based on Christianity, the people believed that their supreme being who was God would heal them. According to this culture, sick people can visit different hospitals and get treated for them to get healed. Most people visit the doctors and pray to their God that He can heal them through the doctors attending to them. The American culture is modern and thus requires people to seek good medical care without depending or relying on traditional herbs (Graham, 1999). Modern medicines have been manufactured which ensure that people are healed once the doctors prescribe prescriptions to be taken by the patients (Fontaine, 2015). Thus modern research has been carried out in the field of medicine so as to ensure all diseases are by the medicines present. On the other hand, Native Americans believed in traditional herbs which healed them. They had traditional herbs and roots which healed them as they prayed to their gods for healing. Traditional medicine men had adequate knowledge on the types of herbs that would treat certain illnesses. People got sick and were healed through use of the herbs and prayers they made to their gods and believed that the gods would hear them. Thus Native Americans had no modern doctors yet they existed and lived for many years through depending on medicine men and traditional herbs.
Work cited
Spector, R.E. (2013) Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness 8th Edition. Appleton & Lange.
Fontaine, K. (2015) Complementary & Alternative Therapies for Nursing Practice, 4rd Edition Prentice
Graham, H. (1999) Complementary Therapies in Context: The Psychology of Healing. Stanford, Connecticut.
Loustaunau, M. and Sobo, E. (1997) The Cultural Context of Health, Illness and Medicine, Bergin & Garvey, West Port Connecticut.
Pritzker, B. (2000). A Native American encyclopedia: History, culture, and peoples. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press.
Naylor, L. L. (1998). American culture: Myth and reality of a culture of diversity. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Bergin & Garvey.
