Indigenous Religions Flashcards
Themes of Native religions
Land based, rituals and chantways
Are indigenous religions diverse?
Yes very!
A common ritual where native dances dance attached to a tree (axis mundi) for 4 days under hard conditions
Sundance
Experiential, going somewhere solitary in nature to have visions to answer questions
-peyote helps
Vision Quest
Enhances visions, purification of self
Sweat Lodge
Prayers on cloth, wind carries them away
Prayer cloths and bundles
Large celebration of culture with lots of dancing
Pow Wow
Intermediaries, ritual specialist, healers
-Usually double spirit
Shaman
Double Spirit
Transgender, taking on qualities of another gender
Role in the universe, distant creator, spirits and ancestors, nature
Cosmology
Spread religion, claim land, overtake communities
Colonialism and missionaries
Document that establishes “doctrine of descovery”
Inter caetera
What was the inter caetera (Doctrine of discovery)
Legal to overthrow lands and bring natives to Catholicism
Built into foundation of U.S
Banning of Native practices like the Ghost Dance
Johnson v M’intosh
Native had the deed to the land, but because they weren’t catholic Doctrine of Discovery won
A social movement among all native tribes in efforts to stop colonialism, ended in a massacre at Wounded Knee
Wovoka started movement
Ghost Dance
An effort to be able to use _____ by taking on a more Christian style church system
Peyote
Native American Church
1990 employment V. Smith
Smith got fired for failing a drug test by using peyote in a religious manner. In favor of employment.
1993 Religious Freedom Act
“ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected.”
time is regarded as circular, not linear. Thus, events that happened at one point on the circle of time are not simply past; they will be experienced again.
Cyclical Time
Ancestral Spirits
may take the form of animals, plants, or humans, represent the spiritually perfect beings that humans become after they die
Kachinas
often an animal who has adventures and engages in all manner of mischief. In many myths, the trickster suffers repercussions because of his failure to follow established rules about social behavior
Trickster
a famous Lakota religious leader
Talks about the interconnectedness of all things
Black ELk
ritualized singing and chants and may take place over several days.
Stories of creation
Chantways
God depicted as a feathered serpent, was thought to possess the sacred power of creation
Quetzalcoatl
mark the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Rites of passage
Kinaalda, It takes place soon after a girl begins menstruating.
