Cherokee Upper World Research Paper

1. The characteristics of the Cherokee upper world are similar, in part, to the Christian conception of heaven. The upper world, or Galunlati, exists above the great stone sky arch that hovers over the middle world. It is a place of peace, harmony, and sacred powers characterized by stability, consistency, and the structured security of limits and boundaries. Galunlati is far more magnificent than the human world and is untainted by the immorality and depravity inherent in human behavior and the negative forces within the cosmos as a whole. The Cherokee strive to maintain balance in all aspects of their lives and between the three worlds. Therefore, it is quite logical that their idea of an idyllic realm would be one of order, regularity, predictability, and the known comfortable commodity of past time. Even the denizens of the upper world appear within the Cherokee world as recognizable reflections or representations. For instance, animals and chiefs and councils are of similar construct or function in both worlds and the earthly counterpart of the
The characteristics of the Cherokee lower world are in stark contrast to the upper world. The lower world is an overturned version of the upper world and the opposite of the middle world. Waterways connect the lower and middle worlds, allowing travel between worlds. The physical position of the lower world is also indicative of its metaphysical or negative attributes. It is a place of chaos and disorder. For the Cherokee, this world exemplifies an upending of the natural order resulting in imbalance, lack of control, madness and the unpredictable and unstable specters of change. The uncertainty of fertility and the unforeseeable mutability of the future serve to connect these ideas to the lower world as well. The inhabitants of the lower world include evil spirits, monsters, ghosts, witches and cannibals, some of whom revel in traveling through waterways and caves to enter the middle world and cause