AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINESAFRICAN TRADITIONS

NORTH AMERICAN PLAINS INDIANSMESOAMERICAN RELIGION

Primal Religious Traditions

Primal Religions

Unique forms of religions practiced since prehistoric times. Some are still practiced at present.

Religious traditions of non literate peoples who rely on oral tradition rather than scriptures

Tend to be the traditions of tribal peoples, small groups that reside in villages rather than large city populations

Why investigate Primal Religious Traditions?

Primal: Prehistoric, Non-literate, oral tradition

Provide insight into mythic and ritual dimensions of religion that are essential sources of knowledge and power for important aspects of life

All religions stem from or are rooted in primal worship

Native people of AustraliaFoundation

Dreaming Period of the ANCESTORS Still remains in the symbols left behind Rituals reenact the mythic events

Ancestors Supernatural beings that gave shape to the formless world Organized humans into tribes Allocated land

Left symbols of their presence Spirit of ancestors left behind

Australian Aborigines

Ritual

Spiritual essences left behind by the ancestors in symbols Charged with sacred power

Take the same paths originally taken by the ancestors reenacting the mythic events of the dreaming

Cosmology takes a key place in Aboriginal religion- mythic geography

Spiritual essence in humans also. Unborn child is animated by an Ancestor when the mother makes contact with a sacred site. Totem: the natural form of the ancestor in the dreaming Totemism: a system of belief and ritual based on totems

Animation

Ancestors continually nourish the natural world, sources of all kinds of life

Human beings associated with a particular ancestor perform rituals to cause the power to flow into the natural world Reenactment of the myth

Reenacting of the myth recreates the original action Maintaining the social structure of society

Taboo: things and activities set aside for certain members and forbidden to others Gender Training Maturity

Initiation Awakens spiritual identity Death of childhood- birth of adulthood

African Traditions

Several hundred religions among the 400,000,000 inhabitants of the second largest continent, Africa.

Yoruba Religion Consists of 10,000,000 people

and has endured 1,000 years. Produced artwork that is famous

and admired Resides in Western regions of

central Africa Favor city living

Ife is the center of Yoruba religion Orishna-nla began world

creation here http://www.genuineafrica.com/yo

ruba.htm#.TynstWd8Mxc.email

Cosmology

Reality is in two separate worlds Heaven, the invisible home of the gods and ancestors Earth, the world of normal experience, visible home of

humans; also populated by a deviant form of human beings, witches and sorcerers, who can cause disastrous harm if not controlled

Purpose of the religion Maintain balance between the human beings of earth

and the gods and ancestors of heaven while guarding against the evil deeds of the sorcerers and witches

Heaven

Home of Supreme god- Olorun

Primary, original source of power in the universe Distant and remote- not involved in human affairs People do not worship Olorun; other gods serve as mediators

Other deities- orishas Lesser than Olorun but truly significant Are appeased by the rituals carried out by humans Hundreds of orishas exist

Orisha-nla, created earth Ogun, god of iron, originally a human, inhabits border between

ancestors and orishas Esu, most complex, contains both good and evil properties,

worshipped with all other gods- Trickster figure (can disrupt the normal course of life)

Cont’d

Ancestors: Deceased humans who have acquired supernatural

powers They can help or harm the living Worshipped through rituals at sacred shrines

Earned a good reputation, lived to an old age, worshipped only by their own family

Deified ancestors known throughout Yoruba society and worshipped by large numbers of people

Connecting Heaven and Earth

Head of a family: Worships the family’s ancestors in the home at the family shrine

King or chief of a city: In charge of annual festivals and performs other religious functions

Priests Oversee the various rituals carried out at the shrines of each orisha

Diviners Tells the future since this is important in determining how to proceed with

ones life Mediator

Becomes a living representation of an ancestor by dancing at festivals Imitates a dead person and delivers a message from the dead

Importance: Maintains a balance between heaven and earth, boundaries are thin and

can be crossed over

North American Plains Indians

Peoples who inhabited the middle section of what is now the USA.

Migrated from Asia over the Bering Strait and spread out over north and south America

Stretched from Canadian Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico, between Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River.

More than 30 tribes, speaking different languages and forming many cultural groups

Representative of Native American religion in generalShared some basic beliefs such as the vision quest

and the Sun Dance.

Lakota

Inhabited Eastern Montana & Wyoming and the western part of the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska

Reknown for Custer’s defeat Massacre at Wounded

kneeAbout 70,000 live on

reservations in Manitoba, Montana, and the Dakotas.

Beliefs

Supreme Reality- Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit or Great Mysterious 16 different deities (4x4)

Creation of the world and the arrival of the first human beings are explained in various myths that talk about several supernatural beings Inktomi, Lakota trickster figure, taught humans their ways and

customs. His mistakes and errors of judgment are used to teach children what not to do.

Death & Afterlife 4 souls depart from body, one journeys on a spirit path

encounters an old woman who judges it and directs it to the world of the ancestors or back to earth as a ghost. Others are reborn in unborn children or others new bodies.

Ritual

Vision Quest Common primal tradition To gain access to spiritual power that will insure success in

different undertakings Both genders can participate Supervised by a medicine man or woman Begins with purification in a sweat lodge Goes off alone to endure the elements, lack of food and water Performance of certain rituals Near the end the quester receives a vision in the form of an

animal, object or force of nature. Vision gives a message. Message is interpreted by medicine man or woman, that

interpretation influences the rest of the life of the quester. Occasionally the quester receives a guardian spirit

Ritual

Sun Dance: Common to all Plains’ tribes Benefits the tribe rather than the individual Part of the New Year celebration Overseen by a sacred leader (medicine man or a woman of

outstanding character), both an honor and a responsibility Held in a lodge that is carefully constructed and prepared for the

celebration Cotton tree is set upright in a chosen spot as the axis mundi Connects heaven and earth- represents the supreme being Around the tree, 28 poles to represent the 28days of the lunar month Dancing in the direction of the sun accompanied by music and

drumbeats Body mutilation as sacrifice

Populating the Americas

Crossing at Beringia

Mesoamerican Religion

Area includes present day Mexico and extended south to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica

Natives arrived about 20,000 years ago?

From about 2000 BC to 1500 AD home to Olmecs, Maya, Toltec and Aztec civilizations

Aztecs

Defies the common or general description of primal religions- it was a highly civilized population of about 15,000,000.

Urban dwellers in lieu of rural. Lived in Tenochtitlahn, now Mexico City

Like other primal religions it intertwines ritual and myth, practices of human sacrifice

Pre dated Catholicism of 16th c. Aztec influence can be seen in some modern Mexican religious practices

Toltec Foundation

Toltec god “Quetzalcoatl” the feathered serpent presided over a golden age of brilliance

Prince Topiltzin, a priest-king of the Toltecs, was the role model for Aztec authority figures

Toltec myths and tradition influenced AztecsAztecs believed that Quetzalcoatl created and

ordered the world. City of Teotihuancan was origin of the cosmos. “Who will be the sun and bring on the dawn?”

Time and Space

The dawn of the sun was a new age and its destruction the end of that age. The only ;way to delay this destruction was to feed the sun, nourishing it through human sacrifices.

They believed that there had already been 4 suns and theirs was the last one. (center, west, north, south)

Time and space were interrelated.

4 quadrants with the axis mundi in center. Center connects earthly world with heavenly world.

Human Role

Human condition linked to cosmologyHuman is a sort of axis mundiHuman sacrifice was performed about every 20

days. Self sacrifice of the warrior would allow him to enter the highest heaven at his death

Two divine forces Heart

Was cut out of the chest on a sacrificial altar Head

Was severed from the body and strung on a skull rackMany human sacrifices were captive prisoners

Language

Religious power was conveyed through the mastery of language

Spoke Nahuatl, an expressive language with high achievements in poetry

Knowers of things could communicate with the gods and make offerings rather than sacrifice.

Being adept at making or solving riddles meant you came from a good family