This chapter investigates the links between the Iberian subterranean saunas and similar sweat houses among the Pueblo Indian kivas. The question is also: how do they bring echoes of Neolithic Old Europe? Contrasting the archaic saunas with Pueblo Indian kivas yields important information about the shared ritual meaning of sweating in the past, despite some differences. This section includes comparisons of kivas, pedras formosas and other sauna types in light of the proxemics of space and ritual purposes. This involves both mentifacts and artifacts, material objects and elements of a worldview. The section focuses on the meaning of sacred darkness, directional alignments and the role of decorations and symbols which also carry traces of Celtic symbolism. The maxim, “as above, so below” is also explored as part of the sacred architecture of the archaic structures. The chapter complements the previous sections of comparative sauna studies by reflecting on Russian banyas and ovens and the notion of a hearth as a feminine space of renewal and creation. Further comparisons of world sauna culture involve temascals in South America with their echoes of feminine deities. Finally, the reader is introduced to the shifts in mental structures and world view that accounts for the changes in the types of saunas in Galicia, with a matricultural past being changed into a patriarchal one with very different symbols (the Northern saunas).

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Old Europe and Pueblo Kivas, “as Above, so Below”

  • Kaarina Kailo

摘要

This chapter investigates the links between the Iberian subterranean saunas and similar sweat houses among the Pueblo Indian kivas. The question is also: how do they bring echoes of Neolithic Old Europe? Contrasting the archaic saunas with Pueblo Indian kivas yields important information about the shared ritual meaning of sweating in the past, despite some differences. This section includes comparisons of kivas, pedras formosas and other sauna types in light of the proxemics of space and ritual purposes. This involves both mentifacts and artifacts, material objects and elements of a worldview. The section focuses on the meaning of sacred darkness, directional alignments and the role of decorations and symbols which also carry traces of Celtic symbolism. The maxim, “as above, so below” is also explored as part of the sacred architecture of the archaic structures. The chapter complements the previous sections of comparative sauna studies by reflecting on Russian banyas and ovens and the notion of a hearth as a feminine space of renewal and creation. Further comparisons of world sauna culture involve temascals in South America with their echoes of feminine deities. Finally, the reader is introduced to the shifts in mental structures and world view that accounts for the changes in the types of saunas in Galicia, with a matricultural past being changed into a patriarchal one with very different symbols (the Northern saunas).