Ch. 2 Indigenous Religions

Traditional religion

Present in various societies around the world before European and American expansion

Primitive (primal) religion

not derived from other religions

Animism

Belief that individual spirits exist in people and individuals things in nature

Totemism

Spirt of one primary source in nature provides the basis of human life in one’s trible

Manaism

belief in an impersonal spiritual power that permeates the world as a whole

Shamanism/holy man/ medicine man, and healer/ witch doctor

based on the work of shamans

small-scale religion

held by relatively small societies

nature religion

has a stronger connection to the natural environment than other religions

Genocide

killing of an entire racial/ethnic/religion group

noble savages

Rousseau’s term for indigenous peoples, who, he held, are naturally good

indigenous religion

• religion of the people, usually a tribe, original to an area

• Present in a given place for centuries before the arrival of other cultures with different religions

features of indigenous Religions

• Importance of place'

• Global distribution

• Many gods and spirts

• influenced by other cultures

• based on orality, story, and myth

• oriented more toward practice than to belief

Features of Indigenous Religions (1)

• In-group based

  • Does not seek converts

  • Does not allow full entry to people who are not thier group

• goodness of the world

  • Indigenous people believe that all parts of nature have a spiritual aspect

  • All things in the world are related to humans in a cosmic natural balance

Features of Indigenous Religions (2)

• Religious specialists

  • Known by many names such as:

    • Holy men, medicine men, healers, priest/priestesses, and Shamans

    • Tricksters: God, spirt, human, or wily animal that acts in unconventional ways often for the goo of others

• Continuing vitality

  • Native peoples’ numbers and cultural influence have risen dramatically in recent generations

Native American Religion- Lakota

• Sioux- Seven tribal groups organized into three main political units

  • Originally lived in the western Great Lakes area and later moved to the plains

  • Name is derived from the term Nadouwesou, meaning “poisionous snakes”

  • Call themselves the Seven Fire Places People

Features of Lakota Religion

• Black Hills of South Dakota

  • Sacred place of creation and life

• Wakan Tanka

  • “All that is mysterious, sacred”

  • Spirit world of the Lakota, which created the universe

  • Wakanpi: Gods and spirits within Wakan Tanka who have power and control over everything

• Pass down their religion to each new generation in story form

• Tribal history is passed along orally

  • Guided by myths of origin

• Death and the afterlife in the spirit world is assumed to be a natural part of life

Lakota Rituals

• Vision quest

  • Ritual passage to adulthood through which one undergoes a symbolic death and rebirth and gains a guardian spirit

• Spirit stones- Protect against danger or illness

• Scared Pipe: Used to forge a link between Wakan Tanka and humankind

• Sweat lodge: Ritual sauna meant to cleanse participants’ spirits

• Use of peyote

  • Peyote: Mild hallucinogenic cactus bud used in rituals

• Sun dance festival

  • Main festival ceremony of Plains tribes

  • Ritually enacts continuity between life and death and renews the tribe’s life as connected to the earth

Native American Church

Church mainly composed of Native Americans, featuring a blend of indigenous American religions and Christianity

Lakota Culture and Religion- Decline and Signs of Revival

• Reasons for decline

  • Confinement to reservations

  • Voluntary and forced assimilation into mainstream culture

• Signs of revival

  • Growth in tribal identities

  • State recognized casino gambling is bringing in financial resources for tribal uses

African Religion- Yoruba

• Originated in west-central Africa

  • Varies significantly in different regions but shares similar structure and purpose

    • A supreme but remote god rules the world along with hundreds of lower gods who have specific areas of rule

    • Gods guide believers to find their life’s destiny, which is determined at the moment of reincarnation but forgotten

High Gods and Other Gods of the Yoruba

• Olorun: “Ruler of the Sky”

  • Olodumare- “All-powerful One”

• Orisha: Deities that control relations between the earth and the high god

  • Form vast group of supernatural beings, numbers being between 401 and 601

    • Myth- Orishala and Odudua created the world and humans

  • Ogun: Highest orisha

    • Chief god of war, ironworking, and hunting

  • Shango - Storm god

    • Was brought to the New World by African slaves

  • Shokpona- God of smallpox

    • Became important during the smallpox plagues that arose during the west African intertribal wars

  • Trickster gods blur lines between good and evil

Yoruba- Religious Specialist

• Babalawo: Male priests

  • “Father of secrets”

• Iyalawo": Female priests

  • “Mother of secrets”

• Help people understand the destinies they chose in the spirit world

  • Empower people to make their destines come true

Yoruba- Spirits of the Ancestors

• Dead ancestors are venerated

  • Some groups believe that dead ancestors become semidivine figures

• Possession of one’s body by the gods

  • Priests act as mediums and take on the individual characteristics of the deities

Afro-Caribbean Religion- Vodou

• Vodou originates from West African Ewe Fon language

  • Means both god and worship

• Concerned with bringing followers into harmony with the Gods that control the natural world

• The African version is not blended with Roman Catholicism as it is in the Americas

• Centered on different groups of gods, or loas

• Fon myth- Different deities reign in each one of the three regions of the world

  • Sky- Where the creator god lives

  • Earth- Where Vodou gods live

  • Clouds- Where souls of dead humans and spirits that have never been tied to matter live

Vodou Groups

• Gods and rites are divided into groups according to their geographical regions of origin

  • Rada and Petro

• Priests may support both groups

• Believers of one group can take part in ceremonies of the other

Vodou Worship

• Vodou is described as a possession cult

  • Animal sacrifice and trance dances forge and maintain possession by the gods

  • Rites are practiced by initiated members (hunsi), presided over by priests and priestesses (hugan and mambo)

  • Worship is held in sacred cabins or temples with a central post to enable deities to descend

• Zombie- Human revived after death by a powerful magician

  • Can be used as a slave with no mind, will, or soul

• Baron Samedi: “Lord of the Dead”

  • Appears like a corpse prepared in a Haitian-style for burial

  • Charged with sexual energy and is known for obscenity and debauchery

  • Worshiped in order to keep him at bay

Voudou- Spells and Counter- Spell Rituals

• Magic is used to seek deliverance from the difficulties of life

  • Difficulties are seen as the effect of demonic spells

  • Gris-gris: Cloth bags containing items gathered under the direction of a god for protection

• Vodou has been a subject of exoticism

Kapu

Hawaiian laws for forbidding moral and ritual impurities

Cosmogonic myths

Story about creation that explains the origin of existence

etiological myth

Story that explains how things have come to be as they are now

Semihistorical myth

elaboration of an event usually involving a tribal hero