Editing Rainmaking (ritual)

{{Short description|Weather modification ritual}}
{{Redirect|Rain dance|the song|Rain Dance (song)|the album|Rain Dances{{!}}''Rain Dances''}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
[[Image:Harar Dance.jpg|thumb|A rain dance being performed in [[Harar]], Eastern Ethiopia]]
[[File:Potawatomi rain dance.gif|thumb|''Rain dance, ca. 1920'' (from the [[Potawatomi]] agency, presumably [[Prairie Band Potawatomi]] people)]]
'''Rainmaking''' is a [[weather modification]] [[ritual]] that attempts to invoke [[rain]]. It is based on the belief that humans can influence nature, [[Spirit (animating force)|spirits]], or the [[Ancestor worship|ancestors]] who withhold or bring rain.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Chirikure |first1=Shadreck |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pa7CgAAQBAJ&dq=kingdom+of+mapungubwe&pg=PT6 |title=Mapungubwe Reconsidered: A Living Legacy: Exploring Beyond the Rise and Decline of the Mapungubwe State |last2=Delius |first2=Peter |last3=Esterhuysen |first3=Amanda |last4=Hall |first4=Simon |last5=Lekgoathi |first5=Sekibakiba |last6=Maulaudzi |first6=Maanda |last7=Neluvhalani |first7=Vele |last8=Ntsoane |first8=Otsile |last9=Pearce |first9=David |date=2015-10-01 |publisher=Real African Publishers Pty Ltd. |isbn=978-1-920655-06-8 |language=en}}</ref>

Among the best known examples of weather modification rituals are North American '''rain dances''', historically performed by many [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes, particularly in the [[Southwestern United States]]. Some of these weather modification rituals are still implemented today.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rain Dance|url=http://www.indians.org/articles/rain-dance.html|work=Indians.org|publisher=American Indian Heritage Foundation|access-date=4 September 2011}}</ref>

==American Rainmakers==
[[File:George Catlin - Rainmaking among the Mandan - 1985.66.476 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|thumb|''Rainmaking among the [[Mandan]]'' by [[George Catlin]], 1830s]]
Julia M. Buttree (the wife of [[Ernest Thompson Seton]]) describes the rain dance of the [[Zuni people|Zuni]], along with other Native American dances, in her book ''The Rhythm of the Redman''.<ref>Julia M. Buttree (Julia M. Seton) ''The Rhythm of the Redman: in Song, Dance and Decoration''. New York, [[A.S. Barnes]], 1930.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/native/dance/rain_zuni.htm |title=Rain Dance of Zuni |publisher=Inquiry.net |date=2013-07-03 |access-date=2014-03-05}}</ref> Feathers and [[turquoise]], or other blue items, are worn during the ceremony to symbolize wind and rain respectively. Details on how best to perform the Rain Dance have been passed down by oral tradition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indians.org/articles/rain-dance.html |title=The rain dance helped native Americans get through dry summers |publisher=Indians.org |access-date=2014-03-05}}</ref> In an early sort of [[meteorology]], Native Americans in the midwestern parts of the modern United States often tracked and followed known weather patterns while offering to perform a rain dance for settlers in return for trade items. This is best documented among the [[Osage Nation|Osage]] and [[Quapaw]] tribes of Missouri and Arkansas.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Guyette|first1=R.P.|last2=Spetich|first2=M.A.|date=July 2003|title=Fire history of oak–pine forests in the Lower Boston Mountains, Arkansas, USA|journal=Forest Ecology and Management|volume=180|issue=1–3|pages=463–474|doi=10.1016/s0378-1127(02)00613-8|bibcode=2003ForEM.180..463G |issn=0378-1127}}</ref>

In April 2011, Texas governor [[Rick Perry]] called the [[Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas]], asking that Texans [[prayer|pray]] for "the healing of our land [Texas]" and for an end to [[2010–2013 Southern United States and Mexico drought|the drought]].<ref name="Perry">{{cite web
 |url=http://governor.state.tx.us/news/proclamation/16038/
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150111135905/http://governor.state.tx.us/news/proclamation/16038/
 |archive-date = 2015-01-11
 |title=Gov. Perry Issues Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas
 |last=Perry
 |first=Rick
 |date=April 21, 2011
 |publisher=Office of the Governor
 |accessdate=2018-01-23}}</ref><ref name="Leonard">{{cite news|url=http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/04/21/texas_wildfire_days_of_prayer/index.html|title=The Texas climate change solution: God|last=Leonard|first=Andrew|date=April 21, 2011|work=[[Salon.com|Salon]]|accessdate=April 22, 2011}}</ref>

In the Ozarks, multiple methods of attempting to call rain have been documented:
{{quote|Other hillmen try to produce rain by burning brush along the creeks, or hanging dead snakes belly-up on fences, or killing frogs and leaving them in the dry road, or putting salt on gravel bars, or suspending live turtles above the water. [..] In some localities people imagine that they can cause a rain by submerging a cat in [[sulfur water|sulphur water]]—they don't drown the animal, but make sure that it is completely under water for a moment at least. I once saw this tried at Noel, Missouri, but without any success.<ref>{{cite book | last=Randolph | first=Vance | title=Ozark Magic and Folklore | publisher=Dover Publications | date=2012 | isbn=978-1-306-33958-2 | oclc=868269974}}</ref>}}

==African Rainmakers==
Rain is a central concern of [[Climate of Africa|low-rainfall]] African societies outside [[Equatorial Africa]], which depend on it for their sustenance and that of their animals. The power to make rain is usually attributed to [[List of kingdoms and empires in African history|African kings]]. In a number of African societies, kings who failed to produce the expected rain ran the risk of being blamed as scapegoats and killed by their people.<ref>Simonse, Simon. 1992. ''Kings of Disaster: Dualism, Centralism and the Scapegoat King in Southeastern Sudan''. Brill. Lw</ref>

===Maghreb===
==== Tunisia ====
{{Main|Omek Tannou}}
[[Omek Tannou]] is an ancient [[Tunisia]]n rainmaking ritual  which was inherited from  [[Punic]] and [[Berbers|Berber]] traditions<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|author1=AZIZA Mohamed|title=Les formes traditionnelles du spectacle|publisher=Société Tunisienne de Diffusion|year=1975 |url=https://www.abebooks.com/formes-traditionnelles-spectacle-AZIZA-Mohamed-Tunis/19867372218/bd#&gid=1&pid=3}}</ref> involving invocations of the goddess [[Tanit]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://anti-artanit.medium.com/ommek-tangou-e8af94b6c39c | title=Ommek Tangou | date=19 June 2021 }}</ref> It is now all but extinct.

===Southern Africa===
==== San people ====
Among the [[San people|San]], [[Shamanism|shamans]] enter a trance and go into the spirit world themselves to capture the animals associated with rain.<ref name=":0" />

==== Lobedu people & the Mashona people ====
A famous rain making monarch is the [[Rain Queen]] of [[Balobedu]], [[South Africa]]. '''Queen Modjadji''', or the '''Rain Queen''', is the hereditary [[Queen regnant|queen]] of [[lobedu people|Balobedu]], a people of the [[Limpopo Province]] of [[South Africa]]. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Davidson|first1=Patricia|last2=Mahashe|first2=George|date=2012|title=Visualizing the Realm of a Rain-Queen: The Production and Circulation of Eileen and Jack Krige's Lobedu Fieldwork Photographs from the 1930s|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41940661|journal=Kronos|issue=38|pages=47–81|jstor=41940661 |issn=0259-0190}}</ref> She is known as a mystical and historic figure who brought rain to her allies and drought to her enemies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=South African Balobedu People Crown 'Rain Queen' |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2003-04-11-7-south/393407.html |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=Voice of America}}</ref> The [[Lozi people]] are closely related to the Balobedu and therefore also have rainmaking abilities. Queen Modjadji is believed to have come from the Shona. The [[Shona people|Shona]] have some of the most powerful rainmaking abilities of the [[Southern Bantu]] as it was mainly practiced there until the late 1500s

====Mbukushu people====
The [[Mbukushu|Hambukushu]] are renowned for their rain-making abilities in the [[Okavango Delta]], earning them the title "The Rain-makers of Okavango."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Larson |first=Thomas J. |date=1984 |title=The Rengo Harvest Festival and the Legend of the Rain Chiefs of the Hambukushu |url=https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=189568992 |journal=South African Journal of Ethnology |language=en |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=10–15}}</ref>

==Asian Rainmakers==
[[File:Dumagat_Rain_Dance_(City_of_SJDM)_06.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A [[Aeta people|Dumagat]] rain dance being performed in [[San Jose del Monte]], Philippines, 2023]]
{{Main|Hae Nang Maew}}
In Thailand and Cambodia, various rites exist to obtain rain in times of drought. The most peculiar of these is probably the procession of Lady Cat, during which a cat is carried around in procession through the streets of villages while villagers splash water at the cat, in hope that as water has come on the cat, water will fall on humans as well.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porée-Maspero |first=Eveline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2qOAAAAAMAAJ |title=Étude sur les rites agraires des Cambodgiens |date=1962 |publisher=Mouton |pages=264 |language=fr}}</ref>
===China===
[[Wu (shaman)#Wu-shamans as rainmakers|Wu Shamans]] in ancient China performed sacrificial rain dance ceremonies in times of drought. Wu anciently served as intermediaries with [[nature spirits]] believed to control rainfall and flooding.<ref>Schafer, Edward H. 1951. "Ritual Exposure in Ancient China", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 14:130-184.</ref>
"Shamans had to carry out an exhausting dance within a ring of fire until, sweating profusely, the falling drops of perspirations produced the desired rain."<ref>Unschuld, Paul U. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. University of California Press. pp 33–34.</ref>
==European Rainmakers==
Roman religion had a ceremony called the {{lang|la|aquaelicium}} (Latin: "calling the waters") which sought to produce rain in times of drought.<ref>Sir [[James Frazer]], ''[[The Golden Bough]]'' ch. 5, "[[s:The Golden Bough/The Magical Control of the Weather|Magical Control of the Weather]]" (Abridged edition, MacMillan, 1922)</ref> During the ceremony, the {{lang|la|[[pontifex|pontifices]]}} had the {{lang|la|[[lapis manalis]]}} ("Water-flowing stone". [[Sextus Pompeius Festus|Festus]]<ref>Sextus Pompeius Festus, ''[http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/Festus/m.htm De verborum significatione]'', sub. tit. ''manalis'' (Latin and French text)</ref> distinguishes it from another {{lang|la|lapis manalis}}, "stone of the [[Manes (Rome)|Manes]]") brought from its usual resting place, the [[Temple of Mars in Clivo]] near the [[Porta Capena]], into the [[Roman Senate|Senate]].  Offerings were made to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] petitioning for rain, and water was ceremonially poured over the stone.<ref>Cyril Bailey, ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18564/18564-8.txt The Religion of Ancient Rome]'', ch. 2 (Archibald, Constable & Co., London, 1907)</ref>

''[[Caloian]]'', ''[[Dodola and Perperuna]]'', among other terms, refer to a family of [[Slavs|Slavic]] and [[Romania]]n rainmaking rituals, some of which survived into the 20th century.{{citation needed|date=June 2011}}

== See also ==
* [[Green Corn Ceremony]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Rainmaking}}
* [http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/michi/cgi/detail.cgi?dasID=D0004200019_00000 Dragon Festival for rainmaking in Nio, Japan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526133531/http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/michi/cgi/detail.cgi?dasID=D0004200019_00000 |date=26 May 2015 }} [[NHK]] (video)
* [http://e360.yale.edu/features/the_long_strange_journey_of_earths_traveling_microbes The Long Strange Journey of Earth's Traveling Microbes] (2011). [[Fred Pearce]]. [[Yale Environment 360]].

{{Superstitions}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Rainmaking (ritual)| ]]
[[Category:Native American dances]]
[[Category:Native American religion]]
[[Category:Ritual dances]]