Brano: [...]senso che gli attribuisce Adario. Ma la
26 La questione è naturalmente di grande complessità. Mi limiter() a registrare quanto scrive in proposito D. JENNEss, The Indians of Canada, Ottawa, 19553, p. 171: « Although the great body of the Indians lingered in a polytheistic stage, yet in several parts of Canada, particularly on the plains, the more speculative had arrived at a true monotheism. Their AllFather was not the omniscient and benevolent Being of the Christian religion who created and governs this universe to fulfil some unknown purpose. Neither was it an intellectual principle, like the 7Lóyos or vows of Greek philosophers. Rather it was the personification of the mysterious powers operating in man's environment, forces that were conceived as emanations from some higher force ». Lo studioso fa notare come tali concezioni, a contatto con i colonizzatori europei, abbiano subito alterazioni e modificazioni (ibid., p. 183): « The principal adjustment was in the direction of pure monotheism. Every tribe had possessed a skygod who ranke[...]
[...]rs. Rather it was the personification of the mysterious powers operating in man's environment, forces that were conceived as emanations from some higher force ». Lo studioso fa notare come tali concezioni, a contatto con i colonizzatori europei, abbiano subito alterazioni e modificazioni (ibid., p. 183): « The principal adjustment was in the direction of pure monotheism. Every tribe had possessed a skygod who ranked among the higher supernatural beings, even if he did not always occupy the foremost place. In reaction to Christian teaching the Indians exalted him into a `Great Spirit' of righteousness, the master of the universe and the direct author of all that happens here below. It is true that the Hurons and the plains' tribes had almost reached this conception in preEuropean days [It is not impossible that the imperfect monotheism of these Indians was itself a very early reaction to vague Christian ideas carried from tribe to tribe across the continent before any white explorers reached the far interior (nota di D.J.).], but they faile[...]