Work

Shamans, Portals, and Water Babies: Southern Paiute Mirrored Landscapes in Southern Nevada

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Delamar Valley is a unique landscape located in southern Nevada that contains places associated with ceremony and Southern Paiute Creation. This ceremonial landscape is composed of volcanic places, a large Pleistocene Lake, and an underground hydrological system that allows for the movement of spiritual beings known as water babies between Delamar Valley and neighboring Pahranagat Valley. Paiute shamans traveled to Delamar Valley to interact with the portals along a volcanic ridge that allowed them to travel to a mirrored ceremonial landscape in another dimension of the universe. While in this mirrored landscape, shamans engaged with elements of Creation. This essay examines the ways in which Paiute shamans interacted with various components of the physical and spiritual landscapes.

Source: Arts

DOI: 10.3390/arts14030056

Authors: Kathleen Van Vlack, Richard Arnold, Alannah Bell

Institutions: Northern Arizona University, Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes de Versailles, University of Arizona

Language: English

Topic: Indigenous Cultures and History

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,689

Funder: U.S. Bureau of Land Management