Cajete's Words on Concentric Rings

"Tracking A Myth: The Concentric Rings of Indigenous Education"

"The working of a metaphor is a creative way to explore the teaching processes by using myth in Tribal societies. Such a process is a foundational dynamic of Indigenous teaching and learning. This working evolves around the symbols and metaphors in myth and is a way of asking for knowledge.

"The metaphor of tracking and the symbol of concentric rings are examples of Tribal analogies that can be worked to present verbal and visual images as profound teachings. It is exactly this working in the context of myth that leads to profound and highly creative Tribal expressions of teaching and learning.

"Tracking involves observation, common/natural sense, following an intuitive yet discernible direction, and developing intuition and visual thinking. Tracking in the literal sense involves observing the rings that are coming into you and quieting the rings that are going out from you. Tracks can be read at many different dimensions and from many perspectives.

"Tracking strategy begins with scanning the rings of a landscape with a macro-vision. Such scanning eventually leads one through smaller concentric rings down to a micro-focus on a specific animal.'

"The rings I refer to in this discussion are those that comprise observable interrelationships in Nature and social psychological processes. Every process in Nature and society, occurs in a context of concentric rings.

"Concentric rings radiate from every thing and every process. The concentric rings provide a visual symbol of relationship; it is a way of visualizing how all processes radiate concentric rings, which in turn affect other rings of other processes. The symbol of concentric rings is useful in seeing how one thing affects another, how one thing leads to another, and how one thing is connected to another.

"The concentric ring is also a basic symbol of wholeness. It allows for representation of wholeness as the interconnection of many concentric rings of relationship. The mapping of concentric rings of relationship is a major activity that occurs in primal people's mythology, ritual, and adaptation to their respective natural environments. In all these concentric rings of wholeness, there is the awareness of a particular aspect of Nature, reordering it, and then representing it in some form. This process is one of the universals of the creative act and as such is a primary dimension of science and art.

"Tracking from this perspective is intimately involved with learning how to see connections between concentric rings. The analogy of tracking is useful to illustrate an essential process in Indigenous learning; that is, the process of seeing connections, being aware of concentric circles of interrelationship and following the tracks of a parable or mythic process. The process of tracking is itself comprised of a group of concentric rings beginning with the physical, followed by the psychological then the social and metaphysical. These rings of tracking represent interrelated dimensions of process and field thinking.

[. . .]

"Within the contexts of Native American mythologies, certain geographical features personify ties between natural processes. Generally, such features are looked upon as sacred places. These natural features may be specific formations, springs, lakes, rivers, mountains, or other natural places. All these features, physically, visually, and metaphysically represent concentric rings in Nature. Many are symbols of life sustainers such as corn, deer, buffalo, fish, rain clouds, and forests. An understanding of the relationships inherent in these ties is essential to survival. Therefore, much attention is given to ways of knowing and learning about important natural phenomena.

"Myths present a way of mapping a particular geographical landscape. Relating the stories associated with a particular geographic place is a way to begin developing a cognitive map of that place and of its concentric rings of interrelationship. Migration myths, for instance, are tracking stories through a geographical landscape. In many Native American migration myths, it is implied that the ancestors left representations of themselves in natural forms or phenomena to remind people how to act and how to relate to the natural world.

"Through the symbol of concentric rings, myth is able to give us a visual image of how one thing in reality is like something in myth and vice versa. Every myth has its concentric rings of meaning and is told and retold in this way. The telling of a myth begins with a simple version for children, then moves to a slightly more complicated version for adolescents, to a deeper version for initiates, and to a still deeper version for the fully mature.

"The symbol of concentric circles, in its many manifestations throughout the cultures of the world, seems to connote a process event. The concentric ring, when it is used in primal myth, ritual or art, denotes that something happened here, or that something is happening here - it might be a waterhole, a ceremony, a distinct natural phenomenon, or an important life activity.

"The concentric ring represents a major process symbol in the mythology, ritual, and art of the Australian aborigine. As represented in Aboriginal traditional art, the concentric ring is a place of an important event of sacred significance and great insight. The mandala and the medicine wheel are other symbolic exemplifications of significant process events. Since myth mirrors and analogizes natural processes, it is no wonder that one of the simplest symbols represents one of the most complex processes of both Nature and the human psyche -that of interrelationships."

(Cajete, 1994, p. 118-121)