Revitalization movement explained

In 1956, Anthony F. C. Wallace published a paper called "Revitalization Movements"^[1] to describe how cultures change themselves. A revitalization movement is a "deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture" (p. 265), and Wallace describes at length the processes by which a revitalization movement takes place.

Overview

Wallace' model 1956 describes the process of a revitalization movement. It is derived from studies of a Native American religious movement, The Code of Handsome Lake, which may have led to the formation of the Longhouse Religion.

Wallace derived his theory from studies of so-called primitive peoples (preliterate and homogeneous), with particular attention to the Iroquois revitalization movement led by Seneca religious leader and prophet Handsome Lake (1735-1815). Wallace believed that his revitalization model applies to movements as broad and complex as the rise of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Wesleyan Methodism.

Revitalizaton is a part of social movements.

Scholars such as Vittorio Lanternari (1963), Peter Worsley (1968) and Duane Champagne (1988, 2005) have developed and adapted Wallace's insights.

See also

• Ghost Dance

a famous Native American revitalization movement

• Great Awakenings

a controversially named reference to revitalization movements in the USA.

• Christian revivalism
• Language revitalization

Notes

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20121004221923/https://www.sjsu.edu/people/mira.amiras/courses/c10/s2/AFC_Wallace_RevitalizationMvt.pdf Wallace, Anthony F.C. 1956. "Revitalization Movements"

References

• Champagne, Duane (1988). "The Delaware Revitalization Movement of the Early 1760s: A Suggested Reinterpretation." American Indian Quarterly 12 (2): 107–126.
• Encyclopedia: Champagne . Duane . North American Indian Religions: New Religious Movements . Encyclopedia of Religion: 15-volume Set . Lindsay Jones . 2nd . Farmington Hills, Mi . Macmillan Reference USA . 2005 . 10 . https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/north-american-indian-religions-new-religious-movements . Encyclopedia.com.
• Kehoe, B. Alice, The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and Revitalization, Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek, Thompson Publishing, 1989.
• Lanternari, Vittorio. The Religions of the Oppressed; a Study of Modern Messianic Cults. (London: MacGibbon & Kee, [Studies in Society], 1963; New York: Knopf, 1963).
• Lindstrom, Lamont. Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beynd. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1993).
• Worsley, Peter. The Trumpet Shall Sound; a Study of "Cargo" Cults in Melanesia. (New York,: Schocken Books, 2d augmented, 1968).