Final Exam Review Flashcards - Unit 2

Final Exam Details

  • The final exam is worth 25 points out of the total 100 points for the semester grade.
  • The exam consists of 75 objective questions, covering the major units studied.
    • 15 questions from the Islam material (Part 1).
    • 25 questions from the Judaism unit.
    • 10 questions from each of the first four units (Units 1–4).
  • Students are encouraged to review the material carefully and ask questions in class for clarification.

Unit 2 Material

I. Key Terminology

  • Recognize and apply these terms in context:
    • Qafzeh Cave
    • Red Ochre
    • Löwenmensch
    • Totemism
    • Talisman
    • Shamanism
    • Liminal space
    • Venus figurines
    • Baghor Stone
    • Animism
    • Göbekli Tepe
    • Megalith
    • Ayn Ghazal statues
    • Yangshao culture
    • Newgrange
    • Stonehenge
    • Cuneiform
    • Massebah (Standing Stone)
    • Enuma Elish
    • Eridu Genesis
    • Epic of Gilgamesh
    • Dreamtime
    • Songlines
    • Popol Vuh
    • Orisha
    • Olodumare
    • Ashe
    • Syncretism
    • Axial Age

II. The Earliest Religious Expressions – Prehistory

1. Ritual Burial & Symbolic Thought

  • Qafzeh Cave (c. 100,000 BCE):
    • The oldest known intentional human burials.
    • Use of red ochre, grave goods, and body placement indicates early ritual and spiritual awareness.

2. Sacred Objects and Artifacts

  • Löwenmensch figurine (c. 40,000 BCE):
    • An early totemic or shamanic symbol.
  • Venus figurines (38,000–10,000 BCE):
    • fertility symbols, possibly precursors to mother-goddess figures.
  • Baghor Stone (India):
    • Sacred outdoor ritual site with feminine symbolism.

3. Sacred Spaces and Shamanic Practices

  • Lascaux & Trois-Frères Caves:
    • Home to some of the world’s earliest religious art.
      • Bird-Man of Lascaux: potential shaman in a trance.
      • The Sorcerer: complex hybrid deity/figure in Trois-Frères.
  • Liminal spaces like caves:
    • Believed to bridge the human and spirit worlds.

III. The Rise of Sacred Sites and Institutional Religion

1. Megaliths and Astronomical Temples

  • Göbekli Tepe (c. 9600 BCE):
    • the first known ritual complex, built before agriculture.
  • Newgrange (Ireland) and Stonehenge:
    • Aligned with solstices; reflect sky-watching and seasonal ritual.

2. Ancestor Worship and Urban Complexity

  • Ayn Ghazal statues (Jordan):
    • early ancestor veneration.
  • Yangshao culture (China):
    • ancestor worship, dragon symbolism, matrilineal burial.
  • Urban complexity:
    • Helped crystallize religious doctrine and social hierarchy.

IV. The Indigenous Sacred Way

1. Defining Indigenous Religion

  • Indigenous religions are:
    • land-based, orally transmitted, and community-centered.
  • Practices are:
    • integrated into daily life — no separation between the sacred and profane.

2. Core Concepts

  • Animism:
    • all elements of nature are alive with spirit.
  • Oral tradition:
    • knowledge passed through story, song, dance, art, and ritual.
  • Spiritual specialists (e.g., shamans):
    • guide the community through vision, healing, and balance.

3. Ethics of Reciprocity and Balance

  • Ayni (Inca):
    • give back what you receive.
  • Ashe (Yoruba):
    • spiritual energy must be honored.
  • Mitákuye Oyás’in (Lakota):
    • “All My Relations” — interdependence and respect.

4. Indigenous Cosmologies

  • Dreamtime (Australia):
    • ancestral beings shape and inhabit the land; time is non-linear.
  • Popol Vuh (Maya):
    • humans made of sacred maize; blood offerings maintain cosmic balance.
  • Yoruba:
    • Orisha embody forces of nature; rituals honor Ashe and sustain community order.

5. Diversity and Syncretism

  • Indigenous traditions:
    • varied and adaptable.
  • Syncretism (e.g., Vodou, Santería):
    • blends local practice with dominant religions for cultural survival.

V. The Emergence of Writing and Myth

1. Proto-Writing and Religious Authority

  • Earliest writing in Mesopotamia (Uruk):
    • began with accounting, then expanded to religious and legal texts.
  • Writing:
    • centralized power in temples and made myth portable and permanent.

2. Sacred Texts and Cosmogonies

  • Enuma Elish (Babylon):
    • Marduk defeats Tiamat; creates cosmos from her body.
  • Sumerian Flood Story / Gilgamesh:
    • Utnapishtim survives divine flood — precursor to Noah.
  • Writing:
    • gave myth sacred authority and helped build religious institutions.

VI. The Development of Israelite Religion

1. Standing Stones and Canaanite Origins

  • Massebah (standing stones):
    • were common in Canaanite worship.
  • Genesis 28:
    • Jacob’s dream at Bethel reframes a Canaanite sacred site as Yahwistic.
  • Name Bethel (“House of El”):
    • reveals a layered theological history.

2. Merging El and YHWH

  • El:
    • chief god of the Canaanites; YHWH may have started as a southern tribal deity.
  • Biblical writers:
    • merged El with YHWH, creating continuity through divine names (El Shaddai, Elohim).

3. Mythic Parallels and Editorial Rewriting

  • Creation and flood stories in Genesis:
    • reflect motifs from Mesopotamian texts.
  • Psalm 74:
    • echoes Marduk’s chaos battle; Genesis 1 shares cosmic separation themes.
  • Editors:
    • reframed earlier stories to claim YHWH as the one true God from the beginning.

4. Egyptian Influence

  • Pyramid Texts:
    • reference resurrection, divine judgment, and heavenly ascent.
  • These ideas echo in biblical texts:
    • like Psalms, Daniel, and the Exodus narrative.
  • Pharaoh’s “divine sonship”:
    • is paralleled in Psalm 2:7.

VII. The Axial Age – A Turning Point in Religious Thought

1. What Was the Axial Age?

  • Coined by Karl Jaspers, the Axial Age (800–200 BCE):
    • a global pivot point in religious/philosophical history.
  • Traditions turned inward:
    • focused on ethical transformation, personal salvation, and universal truths.

2. Axial Transformations Around the World

  • India:
    • Upanishads, Buddhism, Jainism — karma, liberation, renunciation.
  • China:
    • Confucianism and Daoism — virtue, harmony, cosmic order.
  • Greece:
    • Philosophy (Plato, Aristotle) — reason, ethics, metaphysics.
  • Persia:
    • Zoroastrianism — cosmic dualism, judgment, salvation.
  • Israel:
    • Prophets (Amos, Isaiah) — ethical monotheism, covenant justice.

3. Why It Matters

  • Many of today’s dominant religions and worldviews:
    • trace their foundations to the Axial Age.
  • It marks a shift:
    • from tribal ritual to universal ethics, from mythic storytelling to self-reflection and transcendence.