Indigenous religions Flashcards
Until a century ago, scholars focused on religions that
Had produced written texts
Holistic cultures
Every object and act has religious meaning
Animism
Everything in the universe is alive and has a soul
In a world that is animated with spirits, human beings must treat all things _________
With care
Tipis
Circular tents made of animal skins and poles
Do native religions believe in preserving nature’s resources?
Yes
In native american traditions, there is little difference between ________
The human and animal world
Sacred time is ________
Cyclical
Sacred space
The doorway through which the other world of gods and ancestors can contact us and we can contact them
Associated with the centre of the universe
Sacred space may encompass?
A mountain, volcano, valley, lake forest, etc.
The tales of indigenous religions origins are usually recited through ______
Ritual and dance
Who is the “ruler” for most indigenous religions?
A High God
Many indigenous religions make little distinction between _________ and an ____________
God
Ancestor
Ancestors are thought to live in an afterlife that resembles?
Earth
The way to appeal angry ancestors is through?
Ritual and sometimes sacrifice
Life-Cycle ceremony examples?
- Birth of a child
- Entry into adulthood
- First menstrual period (menarche)
- Vision quest
- Marriage
- Death
What do rites of passage mark?
An important life event
What is a taboo?
A rule that forbids specific behavior with regard to certain objects, people, animals, days, or phases of life
Examples of taboos
Blood of a menstruating woman is dangerous
Death/spirit of the dead person seeking revenge on the living
Social rank
Food sources
Libation
The act of pouring a liquid on the ground as an offering to a god
Who practiced human sacrifice?
Aztecs, hawaiian religion, New Guinea
Shaman
An intermediary between the visible, ordinary world, and spirit world
Sympathetic magic
An attempt to influence the outcome of an event through an action that has the same outcome to the desired result (ex. throwing water to make it rain)
Divination
A foretelling of the future or look into the past
Spirits may be reached in _______ or ________
Dreams
Trances
True/false
Becoming a shaman does not involve having one or more encounters with the spirit realm in the form of a psychological death and rebirth
False. It does.
Do native artists see their work as “art”?
No, they view it as functional objects to be used in particular settings and special ways
When masked, the dancer is thought to ____________
Become the spirit and can utilize the spirit’s powers
Totem
An animal that is considered to be related by blood to a family or clan and is its guardian or symbol
Totem animals may be memorials to_________
Ancestors
What are common symbols that appear in myths and dreams?
A mountain located at the centre of the universe, the sun and moon, fire, rain, lightning, a bird or wings, death’s head and skeleton, a cross, and a circle
What are the four principal threats to indigenous religions?
- Loss of natural environments
- Loss of traditional languages
- Spread of popular culture
- Conversions to other religions
Ancient religious ways are often referred to as traditional, aboriginal, indigenous, tribal, _______, primal, native, oral, and basic
Non-literate
Indigenous religions exist generally within _______ cultures, in which every object and act may have religious meaning
Holistic
Sacred time is “the time of ________”.
Eternity
Everyday religous activity and practice are significant because their primary purpose is to place individuals in “____________” with gods, ancestors, other human beings, and nature
Relationships
According to the dreatime chart, ceremonies include:
Dancing
Singing
Story telling
All of the above
All of the above
The Dreaming is
The continuation of Dreamtime in the spiritual lives of aboriginal people today
In Australian aboriginal Traditions, humans are
Descendants of the Dreamtime ancestors
What was created in the Dreamtime?
Everything
According to Australian aboriginal traditions, land
has spiritual value
According to the Dreamtime chart, sacred laws
Cannot change
The Dreamtime is
The Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it’s creation, and it’s great stories
In Australia, an Aboriginal person is defined as a person who
Is a descendant of an Indigenous inhabitant of Australia
Identifies as an Aboriginal
Is recognized as Aboriginal by members of the community in which she or he lives
According to the Dreamtime chart, humans have the capacity to
adapt and change
What happened to the ancestors after they created the earth during the Dreamtime?
They went to sleep
What are the three worlds in Dreamtime?
Human, physical and sacred
In Canada, the category of First Nations
Has no legal status
Indigenous wood carvings can manifest religious inspiration. One of these, the totem pole, is found in
The Pacific Northwest
“Wakan” means
Holy/mysterious
Initially, religion scholars
Ignored oral traditions
One way that aboriginal people are keeping their culture alive in Canada include
Teaching cultural languages in schools
In Canada, one indicator of Metis heritage is a sash
True
In many African Traditional Religions, ancestors are to be feared because they always cause trouble
True/False
False
Haitian Vodou is thought to have roots in ________ religion
Yoruba
The term ____________ refers to voluntary, repetitious and stylized symbolic bodily actions.
Ritual
What are the functions of ritual?
To communicate within and outside of a group
To affirm community connections and beliefs
To remember the past
To identify one’s role in the community
Life cycles can be separated into these 4 categories:
- Birth/childhood
- Adolescence/Adulthood
- Old age
- Death
Which life cycle is likely the most important
Death
To help the person’s soul move on
