The discovery that two events, symbols, thoughts or texts, while so utterly separated by time and space that they could not “really” be connected, seem, nevertheless, to be the same or to be speaking directly to one another raises the possibility of a secret interconnection of things that is the scholar’s most cherished article of faith.
– Jonathan Z. Smith, “The Bare Facts of Ritual”
With this observation, the famous historian of religion touches on my favorite aspect of scholarship: seeing connections in disparate things. While Smith was commenting on the coincidental that is at the heart of ritual and scholarship (seemingly disparate things that have much in common), I am often reminded of the connection when one thing mysteriously leads to another, forming a train of novel thought which excites.
This happened to me after reading How the Power of Positive Thinking Won Scientific Credibility, in which Hans Villarica interviews psychologist Micheal F. Scheier. Scheier’s 1985 study, “Optimism, Coping, and Health: Assessment and Implications of Generalized Outcome Expectancies,” demonstrated that dispositional optimism is variable and healthy, leading to a range of better outcomes across life domans. A raft of subsequent studies have confirmed these findings. In evolutionary terms, it appears that dispositional optimism is adaptive.
When I read about Scheier’s studies, I was just finishing Two Leggings: The Making of a Crow Warrior, an extraordinary book that transports us into world of the Wyoming-Montana Crow just before their buffalo hunting way of life disappeared. Although many books attempt to take us there, few succeed. Most were written by anthropologists after conducting interviews many years after the fact, and while comprehensive in terms of describing culture, they are short on biographical and personal detail. They give us comprehensive ethnographic pictures that don’t really bring people or culture to life. Historians often do better on this score but too often focus on big people and events, making it hard to imagine what Plains peoples were doing, saying, and thinking on a daily basis. Two Leggings does this.
The story behind the book, which reads like a historical novel, is remarkable. In 1918, businessman William Wildschut moved to Billings, Montana near the Crow Reservation. He soon got to know several elders and became particularly interested in Two Leggings (1847-1923), who had been a fairly typical Crow warrior-hunter who never became an important or famous chief. Over the next few years, they often met with Wildschut recording the details of Two Leggings’ life. When finished, Wildschut deposited nearly 600 pages of rough and detailed notes at the Smithsonian, where they languished until Peter Nabokov discovered them in the 1960s. Realizing the value and potential of the notes, Nabokov painstakingly worked the material into a coherent life-story told from the first person perspective.
Two Leggings was an ambitious man born into a culture that strongly encouraged male ambition, whether on the hunt or warpath. Ambition, however, was not enough — one obtained success and rose to prominence not by deeds alone, but through deeds that were directed and validated by spiritual help and guidance. If the spirits bestowed gifts through visions, one could be confident — or optimistic, that success was to be had. If the spirits were neither generous nor favorable, confidence would plummet.
Not lacking personal ambition, Two Leggings throughout his life sought spiritual assistance and validation, though with only limited success. This seriously affected his confidence, and at times he was less than optimistic about his prospects. Due to lack of success with the spirits, a minor sense of dread pervades his life. He watches others seek and receive spiritual sanction. In nearly all cases, these fortunate ones set forth with boundless optimism, sure in the fact they were doing the right thing and would be successful doing it. In many cases, they were. All the major chiefs had strong visions and powerful spirit helpers.
I can’t help but think that here we have a unexpected connection. Scheier’s psychological studies on dispositional optimism surely says something about Crow and other Plains Indians cultures. Because it is healthy to have confidence, and one gains confidence through visions and signs, I see this as one of those connections of which Smith speaks.