RELI1009 Midterm

Focuses on indigenous mythology of the Americas.

Great Relocation

From 1000-1400 CE, there was a mass relocation of peoples within North America. This happened elsewhere in the world around a similar time (1000BCE-1000CE).

Violence against women

A common theme in indigenous mythology. Examples include: Sedna (Inuit), Corn Mother (Selu, Cherokee)

Aeteological

A type of myth that explains the origin of something or how it came to be.

Creation myths

Explain the creation of a specific people and identity. Common types include:

• Earthdiver

• Emergence

• Island of Creation

• Cosmic Egg

Defining Categories of Indigenous Religions

In order to be indigenous, the religion must be:

1. Local (not a world religion like Christianity)

2. Tied to geography or an ethnic group

3. Geomythological: how ancient or pre-scientific myths, folklore, and oral traditions describe real geological events and natural phenomena

4. No evangelizing

5. Polycentric: don’t have a single center (unlike Abrahamic religions), usually have multiple sacred sites, polytheism

6. Ritual observance: dependent on the ppl to continue them on: their religions have to do with their lives

7. Practitioners: no central hierarchical body to dictate, and are therefore more adaptable

Virgin Soil Plagues

Diseases brought over to the New World (ex. Smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, influenza/flu)

Demiurge

an artisan, craftsman, or creator god responsible for fashioning and arranging the physical universe

Culture Hero

A mythological individual that gives the people the elements of their culture and then usually depart, often with the promise of return at a vague future date or when the people need them the most.

• ex: Maui, Quetzalcoatl

The Three Parts of Creation

1. The creation of the world

2. The creation of the people

3. The creation of the culture

Time and Space

Westerners think temporally and linearly. Time is linear.

Indigenous peoples think spatially. Time is cyclical.

• Time is not endless in repetition, but, based on moon phases/tides/seasons, it is natural to think in cycles

Epizootic

An epidemic amongst animal populations.

Origin of Disease (Iroquois, Cherokee)

Animals were afraid of humans becoming more numerous, so they tried to control the population by giving them diseases. The plants overhear and make cures (source of medicine)

Syncretic

Combining different religious, cultural, or philosophical beliefs and practices into a single, unified system.

• Ex. Long House Religion combines Christian beliefs with Iroquoian ones.

Tainos

the people Columbus first encountered, occupied the greater Antilles; essentially wiped out in 100 years due to Virgin Soil Plagues

Carib

People who inhabited the Lesser Antilles (NOT the same as the Taino!) Give the Caribbean its name.

Arawak

distinguished the island Arawak Tainos from their Arawak brothers on mainlaind south america

Caciques

chiefs, governors of the Taino people’s governments

Yocahu

The Taino sun god and the giver of yuca.

Atabeyra

The Taino moon goddess of fertility, childbirth, and moving waters.

Opiyel-Guaobiran

The dog deity of the Taino people that leads souls to the land of the dead.

Cemis/zemis

rounded triangular stones, usually with a face carved into one end; religious tradition, are a image/embodiment/dwelling of a deity; is triangular bc if on a canoe, this is the shape of a volcanic island (and also a mound of dirt to plant yuca)

Guanine

sacred substance; gold alloyed with copper

Maya

Indigenous people who inhabited Southern Mexico and Central America. Built large cities with pyramids and reached their peak prior to European arrival. Existed long before the Aztecs.

Used self-sacrifice (cutting and bleeding), but rarely human sacrifice.

Popul Vuh

The council book of a group of Mayans. Told the entire history of the Mayans from creation forward.

Tenocha

the indigenous name for the Aztecs, Indigenous people that occupied all of Mexico and some of Central America. Practiced human sacrifice.

Aztlan

origin place of the Aztecs before the period of mass migration in North America

Toltecs

The name of the native peoples in the area the Aztecs entered (valley of Mexico) when they migrated. Thought the Tenocha were uncivilized barbarians and warlike, so the Toltecs chased them away UNTIL they realized they could use the ppl as mercenaries to fight their wars

Tenochitlan

in 1325, the Toltec allowed the Tenocha to found this city on a swampy island (presently Mexico City)

Quetzalcoatl

Originally Toltec, the Aztec feathered serpent god; culture hero said to return in 1 Reed (1519, when Hernan Cortez arrived)

Huitzilpochtli

god of war, the sun; main god. When the sun sets, he makes his way through the underworld and needs a sacrifice to help find his way.

Windigo

Cannibalistic Ojibwe monster. Said to eat anyone that entered the woods alone in the winter, and could turn a person into one by biting them.

Haudenosaunee Confederacy

grouping of multiple Iroquois tribes, established 1042. Originally consisted of five tribes: Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk. Later added the Tuscarora.

Huron/Wyandot

Indigenous peoples around the Northern Great Lakes.

Degandawida

A Huron prophet who had a vision of a never-ending cycle of revenge/violence between the 5 tribes, which would lead to an extinction, so he preached unity and peace

Hiawatha

Degandawida’s spokesperson

Ne Gayanensagona

the “great law of peace”; Degandawida’s teachings

Orenda

the spiritual energy that pervades everything. An individual’s is small, but a chief has the orenda of everyone they represent

• all the chiefs gathered possess the orenda of the entire Confederacy

Ganiodayo

said he died and went to Christian heaven and met God and Jesus, who gave him a vision saying he could go to hell or go back to Earth and preach reform/never drink again. Helped establish the Long House Religion (via the Code of Handsome Lake)

• his name translates to Handsome Lake

Cherokee

Occupied all/part of 8 states: Virginas, Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee before the 1830s Removal. Part of the Iroquoian language family.

Yowa

The Cherokee supreme being who upholds creation; similar concept to Orenda because it exists in everything and holds it all together. Is the unity of 3 beings: The Elder Fires Above (Yowa’s will/intention in the world, Yowa’s action in the world, Yowa’s love and compassion for the Cherokee).

Ani-kutani

The holy people that could speak Yowa’s name, since it was so sacred. They ruled every aspect of life when the Cherokee were a theocracy (when to plant, when to harvest). Were eventually destabilized by the people for being corrupt.

Any Yv’ Wiya

What the Cherokee people called themselves.

Tsala-gi

What the Cherokee currently call themselves.

Eloh' (EH-loh-ah)

Religion, but also knowledge, power, law, culture

Kituwah

The essence of what it means to be Cherokee: being respectful of other Cherokees, reach consensus in governing, let everyone be heard, don’t fight with each other in public.

Ukten’ (UHK-ten-ah)

The Cherokee horned snake, evil; lives in mountain passes and deep water. Storms are the Ukten’ and Thunder fighting.

• is, phenomenologically, a dragon

Tsisdu

The Cherokee trickster in the form of a rabbit. Mixes with African mythology to create Brer Rabbit

Tseg’sgin’

The Cherokee trickster personification of Andrew Jackson with no redeeming qualities. Attempted to rape death and was killed (similar to Maui).