Study Guide - Chapter 2

MC, matching, & short answer

Divination

The use of various techniques for gaining knowledge about an individual’s future or about the cause of a personal problem

*Axis Mundi*

The “center of the world”

Diviners

• Ritual practitioners of the African Yoruba religion

• Requires years of training

• Role usually passed from parent to child

Inktomi

• “Spider”

• Trickster of the Native American Lakota tribe

• Mediator between supernatural & human worlds

• Taught the first humans their ways & customs

• Its mistakes & errors of judgment offer important moral lessons for children

Esu

• An orisha & trickster of the African Yoruba religion

• Good & evil

• Mediates between heaven & earth

Quetzalcoatl

• The Toltec god of the Mesoamerican Aztec tradition

• Believed to have presided over a Golden Age of cultural brilliance

• Created & ordered the world, especially humans

• AKA the “Feathered Serpent”

• Invented the calendar

Sweat Lodge

• Utilized by Native American people throughout North America

• Used for ritual purification & cleansing of the body before someone goes on a vision quest

• Also used for the Sun Dance

Taboo

• A system of social ordering that dictates specific objects & activities used by the Australian Aborigines

• Are set aside for specific groups & are strictly forbidden to others

Religion

• Described as indigenous & “cosmic”

• Is fully recreated in the present through myths & rituals

Tenochtitlan

• Mesoamerican Aztecs lived here

• Now present-day Mexico City

• Designed to be the center of their world (AKA axis mundi)

Totem

A natural entity that symbolizes an individual or group & that has special significance for the religious life of that individual or religion

Trickster Figure (in general)

A mischievous supernatural being who tends to disrupt the normal course of life

Vision Quest

• An indigenous religious tradition of the Native Americans

• A means to seek spiritual power through an encounter with a guardian spirit or other medium, usually in the form of an animal or other natural entity

The Dreaming

• The foundation of Australian Aboriginal religion

• AKA Eternal Time of the Ancestors

• The world was originally formless

• Supernatural beings (Ancestors) emerged & roamed about the earth

  • Gave shape to the landscape & created various forms of life (including the first human beings)

  • When Ancestors had finished & departed from the earth, they left behind symbols of their presence in the form of natural landmarks, rock paintings, etc.

Orishas

• The many lesser, but still significant, deities of the African Yoruba worship

• Function as mediators, Olorun, & human beings

• Are sources of sacred power & can help or harm human beings depending on how rituals are designed

Sun Dance

• One of the Native Americans’ most important rituals

• Occurs at the beginning of summer

• A celebration of the new year

• In the past, also functioned as a preparation for the great annual bison hunt

• A sacred leader (a woman of outstanding moral character) presides over this ritual

• To prepare, all tribes must build a Sweat Lodge made from a cottonwood tree, which is where the ceremony is held

What is the purpose of the @@African Yoruba religion@@?

To maintain the balance between the human beings of earth & the gods & ancestors of heaven while guarding against evil deeds of sorcerers & witches

What is the spiritual essence of the Ancestors for the ==Australian Aborigines==?

Various symbols left behind by them

What is the %%Mesoamerican Aztec’s%% understanding of the *axis mundi*?

Perceived spatial world as having 4 quadrants extending outward from the center of the universe

What is the @@African Yoruba’s@@ belief about heaven?

• One of the 2 separated worlds

• The invisible home of the Gods & ancestors

Briefly explain Wakan Tanka.

• Great Spirit or the Great Mysterious

• Translated to “most sacred”

• Refers to 16 different deities of the Native American Lakota Tribe

For most indigenous religions, boundaries between human & supernatural realms are believed to be what?

Easily crossed over

Describe the role of religion in indigenous societies. What aspects do most indigenous religious traditions share?

• Generally originated with non-literate people

• Don’t depend on scriptures or written teachings

• Instead, depend on the transmission of oral material (myths or stories) from generation to generation

• Tend to belong to tribal people organized in small groups that dwell in villages

• Share totemism, taboo, the trickster figure, the vision quest, & the axis mundi

• The secular & sacred aren’t separate

• Constantly change → very adaptable

What is the purpose of ==Australian Aboriginal== initiation rituals? Give a specific example of such a ritual & explain its symbolism.

• Awaken young people to the spiritual identity & redefine their social identity within the tribe

  • Bring about the symbolic death of childhood, which prepares for the spiritual rebirth that’s necessary for adulthood

• Wilyaru - the main initiation ritual

  • The dried blood that’s caked on the initiate serves to connect the boy symbolically with his relatives

  • The boy’s scars from the strikes symbolize death as well

Describe the concept of the *axis mundi*, & explain how it functions in the cosmology of the Native American & %%Mesoamerican Aztec%% traditions.

***ESSAY QUESTION***

• The “center of the world”

Native Americans

• The cottonwood tree used to construct the Sweat Lodge, as part of the Sun Dance, is the axis mundi

  • Serves as the connecting link between the earth & the heavens as well as represents the supreme being

  • Sweat Lodge is constructed of 28 poles, representing the 28 days of the lunar month, placed in a circle around the tree

  • The finished Sweat Lodge presents the universe with its 4 compass directions

Mesoamerican Aztecs

• Understood spatial world as having 4 quadrants extending outward from the center of the universe

  • Designed Tenochtitlan to be the center of their world

  • The point where the 4 directions met stood the Great Temple, known as the Serpent Mountain

• Also is the Feathered Serpent Pyramid