Kickapoo Ceremonies as a Factor of Group Cohesion

Abstract

What is significant about Indigenous peoples is their ceremonies, through which group cohesion emerges, strengthening their identity and ethnic consciousness. This phenomenon is the key to their endurance throughout history, because, through unity with
other members of the group, greater reflective strength is achieved, especially when it is based on the spiritual; namely, ceremonies are religious celebrations of the community rooted in ancient history. For this reason, they serve as an instrument for rejecting outside influences. However, in times of globalization, and even before, foreign cultural elements have been integrated into an acculturation process that does not eliminate identity. This work focuses on the ‘Relationship between ceremonies and group cohesion.’ In the second section, this relationship is examined in greater depth in ‘Kickapoo ceremonies and their importance for group cohesion in the Great Lakes.’ The third section deals with ‘Kickapoo ceremonies in danger due to confinement on reservations and their exodus to Mexico,’ and the fourth addresses ‘Kickapoo ceremonies in El Nacimiento.’ Finally, this work concludes with ‘Problems of disarticulation in the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas as a result of integration into the capitalist system.’