According to the dictionary, a Winnebago is a member of a Native American people formerly living in eastern Wisconsin. Rite refers to a ceremony or an act that can be religious. The Winnebago Medicine Rite is a ceremony that gives the initiate a long and happy life on earth and ensures that they will be able to return in the afterlife. The origin story of how the Medicine Rite first began states that the Earthmaker made the earth and other creatures and later made human beings. They were the weakest creatures on earth and not stronger than a fly. As a result of their weakness, they were preyed on by evil spirits and were near extinction. The Earthmaker sent four men to protect them, but when this failed he sent a fifth man, Hare. Hare took a human form and was able to do the job of the other four men and protect the human beings. However, he soon found out that despite all his efforts, like everything, humans were destined to die. Angered at this fact, Hare started to destroy things around him. Hare was sent out of the earth, but Earthmaker felt pity and told him that he was allowed to return and help humans perform a ceremony in which humans would be granted the ability to be reincarnated and live more than one life. In the ritual, the initiate puts a shell in their mouth and pretends to die and then coughs it up to show reincarnation. They are reincarnated when they die and “shed one’s skin and emerge reborn.” All the struggle in the past life would be gone and they would be able to start over, but still have their former being. They would become members of the Medicine Society. Stanley Diamond is trying to say that joy is not a result of the truth or beauty, but of struggling and finally being successful. The initiate finally achieves emancipation after all he has gone through and the joy was a result of the challenge. He argues that joy is only a result of the growth that was caused by pain. What is truly sublime is earning this joy and honor through all the pain, struggle and realization, not through beauty nor the truth.
Origin story: https://books.google.com/books?id=yUvbvgFakkwC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=winnebago+medicine+rite+definition&source=bl&ots=yY8JBOsSSB&sig=emdzpTgrBDA7EQmxhwk_MJDGdB8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9y67NxInWAhVixoMKHQK2A64Q6AEINTAD#v=onepage&q=earthmaker&f=false
I like this post a lot, especially how you explain how it is sublime at the end.
This was a great post, as you were able to bring an obscure reference to light and also successfully connect it to the overall text.
Your translation of the fable into explanatory terms is great. It really makes the common reader understand what a Winnebago Medicine Rite is.
I found myself coming to the same conclusion when researching my term. Diamond uses the Medicine Rite as an example of how joy can be reached through progress as well as culture.