Search for the Image of Forefather in Dreams
Among Former Bedouin Now Living in Town
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Search for Dreams that Transfer Agnatic Sagacity among Bedouin in an Urban Setting
Gideon M. Kressel
Preface
In some traditional societies, particular kinds of night dreams are searched for and once occur to individuals, their group mates feel about them as events that may bear importance for the group as a whole. Among former Bedouin now living in a town that I happened to know and work with, one’s paternal kin, mostly male elders, (i.e., his agnates) are as well one’s circle or forum that counts as the inmost group of kin. Tribal ascription lasts after half a century of living in town. At the same time, encounter in a dream with a person (usually one in a dream), belonging to this group’s elders, once occurred, is taken as a telling to be noticed by the group’s living elders. The event is therefore related to others who are requested to become aware of it. Often the content of a dream is brought to the attention of the group as a whole.
Known elders who passed away not long ago, or ones who lived generations ago, are expected to appear in dreams and relate things of importance to their progeny. In this social environment “archetypal” dreams do largely reckon if revealed in them are bearded men, viz. Great Grand Fathers (not Great Mothers). Beseeched dreams once occur, are recognized as carryings a message coming from the divine to the living, be it to worn one’s group of agnates or shake their attention to their unity of fate, prepare jointly for a forthcoming event.
Tracing down messages out of their concealed, dream dressing calls for training or basic experience with psychoanalysis. It implies unclothing of less-important details that dress up dreams and remain with a simple, palpable massage. Once hidden, divine messages appear it is thought of as crucial for the group’s survival to decipher and mind what it is. Why does God favor this pattern of transferring his directions to tribes’ consideration is a secret. Dreams’ messages need deciphering or ‘pilling’ out of their convoluting dress. They are disguised in dreaming materials of the group members and as riddles games are awaiting to be found and taken into consideration. Viewed as though sent thus arrive from the Divine (from above), this kind of dreams are a matter of public concern. They are carrying messages, which tell the group both right and wrong. Recommend as well as reprimanded behavioral patterns in view of objective group assignments, copping with its forth-coming challenges.
The quest for agnatic visions among the Bedouin is a personal concern and once such a dream occurs it remains an individual occurrence that has no ritual expression. A person having a dream but rarely gains publicity as to relate the dreamer supernatural power. Personal contact with the supernatural occurs to elders, females and men alike, though men are more susceptible to have them. Visions are not expected or quested by all though e.g., youngsters, also girls, may surprise their elders and have it. A visionary encounter with a Grand-Great Father is rightly ‘archetypal’. Not as (per C.G. Jung)
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About the Book
On evaluating dreams as the most important source of information concerning the unconscious, we are to bear in mind the contemporary cultural conscience that effect both the capacity of dreams and their interpretation. Dreams reflect memorized occurrences that have an impact on people’s psyche. Although human minds are shaped alike and dreams may occur, confronting them with a self-same manner, the analysis of dreaming materials and the sense given to dreams are culturally varied. It is the cultural accent tested at a Middle Eastern society that promotes the appearance of elderly men while conceals speaking on the presence of women (mothers or others) in dreams. Assimilation of the fundamental insight causing psychic life is founded on two poles, maternal and paternal. It is the accent of cultural life that differentiates estimation of the image of each parent when appearing in dreams; whether the first or the second is left largely “unobserved”, the other obliges a perceiving attention. Primordial images of The Great Mother find an outward expression in the ritual, mythology and art of early man. Revealing in track of The Golden Bough of J. G. Frazer, present-day accounts of dreams evince its relevance in tackling with modern man’s dreams. We call attention to selective concerns with Great Fathers appearing in dreams, a pattern born in mind following the ancient ‘matriarchal era’, that causes an avoidance of talk of dreams engaging the visit of mothers in dreamers’ minds.
About the Author
Kressel G. M. is a researcher of communities (anthropology, cultural & social), of work places and social institutions. His works were managed in Israel (mainly) and as regards of other societies of the Middle East, East Africa, India, and post-socialist Europe. His foci of study were: — Ideas and practice of co-operation; of ‘intentional communes’ (Kibbutz like bonds), in rural and in urban settings. — Pastoral and other kinds of nomads (e.g., Romma traders), on move or once settled. — The lasting social organization based on a tribal infra structure and the settling of urban quarters. — Distinctive patterns of inter-tribal cross cutting ties and the causes of blood feuds. — Handling of labor migration and commerce across borders; — Return to capitalism in post-communist Europe. — Applied anthropology for towns’ planning, implying wealth, creed and gender distinctions of residents.