Chapter 2 Test Flashcards
Aborigines gods/leaders
Ancestors: supernatural beings
Aborigines location
Australia
Aborigines rituals
totemism
initiation rituals: awaken young people to spiritual identity & redefine social identity
Aborigines origins
The Dreaming, when the Ancestors created everything: gave shape to landscape and created various forms of life
Aborigines other features
totems: natural form which Ancestors appeared
taboo: certain people forbidden from certain rituals
Aztecs gods/leaders
Quetzalcoatl: presided over golden age of cultural brilliance
Topiltzin/feathered serpent: earthly devotee, priest-king
Aztecs location
Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
Aztecs ritual
human sacrifice: divine forces in head & heart is potent nourishment for the sun & cosmos
Aztecs origins
Teotihuacan: origin of the entire cosmos, space & time
Aztecs other features
Age of the Fifth Sun: the last sun
4 directions & axis mundi: connected earthly realm to the many-layered heavenly & underworld realms
big cities
Plains Indians gods/leaders
Wakan Tanka: 16 separate deities
Plains Indians location
Rocky Mts., Mississippi River, Canada, Gulf of Mexico
Plains Indians rituals
vision quest: seeking spiritual power through an encounter with a guardian spirit
Sun Dance: celebrate the new year
Plains Indians origins
myths: celebrate activities of various supernatural beings
Inktomi: thought humans ways & customs
Plains Indians other features
axis mundi: center of the universe
nomadic
Lakota: remembered for Battle of Little Bighorn
Yoruba gods/leaders
Olorun(supreme god) & orishas (deities)
Yoruba location
Nigeria,Togo, Benin, Western Central Africa
Yoruba origins
orish-nle is the creator of everything
Yoruba rituals
divination: ritual to learn one’s future
Yoruba other features
lived in small cities
trickster figures: supernatural being tends to disrupt the normal course of life
What historical coincidence contributed to the fall of Tenochtitlan?
Cortez went to Mexico (wearing a feathered hat) and the Aztec mistook him for the Feathered Serpent & he conquered them
According to the interpretation of the latest evidence, when and how do scholars think human beings first came to America?
40,000 years ago, humans came over from Bering Straight from Russia and Asia
Briefly describe the Yoruba understanding of the cosmos.
there are 2 realms
- heavens: invisible home of gods & ancestors
- earth: world of normal experience - humans and tricksters
What purposes are served by Aboriginal initiation rituals?
they turn boys into men through spiritual awakening then rights & ceremonies
