Posted by Raymond (other posts) on March 16, 2018 at 20:19:04 Previous Next
In Reply to: Signing Off For the Most Part posted by Native Carolinian on March 15, 2018 at 03:08:20:
People who follow the traditional religions often have long hair for their religious reasons. As an Orthodox Christian, I am permitted to have it and there are ways of carrying my cultures into the Church.
: Since I speak my languages, the enrolled people I have met believe me. I speak an Eastern Algonquian language, Cherokee (both Giduwa and Otali dialects), and a Seminole Dialect of Muskogee Creek that is older since my family did not do the Trail of Tears with much of the Muskogee Confederacy. These are my first languages.
Hey Native Carolinian,
I am a Roman Catholic priest. I am a German, Irish, Italian, English, and a little Seneca Indian American. I have a great great grandmother who is a Seneca Native American. I know little about my great great grandmother and the Seneca people. I am more familiar with the language, stories, and ways of the Dine', the Navajo People because I live in New Mexico and have studied the words and the ways of the Dine'.
From the Catholic perspective: my bishop told me that if I was going to wear my hair long then I was to keep it tied back. The reason for this is that I should be trying to direct people's love and attention to Jesus and not be drawing attention to myself.
From the perspective of my European ancestry: probably most of my male ancestors until the mid-ninteenth century wore their hair long. Long hair on a man was seen as a sign of being in the artisan or noble class. This is because if you had long hair you probably had some means to live a lifestyle to keep it clean. In other words, slaves and prisoners of war would have their hair shaved as a sign that they were not their own masters. The surfs would live in houses with dirt floors and often shared their dwellings with the animals. They would not have had the means to bath often and wash their hair to keep it free of dirt and lice. If you had long hair and maintained it this indicated that you probably lived in a dwelling in which you were not living on a dirt floor and sharing your habitation with animals. You could wash regularly and maintain your hair.
From the Dine' (aka Navajo) perspective: It is traditional for both men and women to wear their hair long and to tie it at the back of the head in a figure eight(8)bun. There is a story among the Dine' that the People used to let their hair grow long. They took great pride in their hair. The holy people told the People to tie their hair in a bun in order to curb their pride. They could grow their hair long, however, they were to keep it tied in a bun. When one (1) of the people should die their bun maybe untied and they maybe buried with their hair untied.
Ni' Yayash,
Raymond