world religions - bethany churchbethanychurch.com/.../2016/01/world-religions-handout-part-2.pdf ·...
TRANSCRIPT
Slide 1
World Religions
Part 2: Indigenous Religious Traditions
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Slide 2
“There seems to be a broadly prevalent idea that the Indians lacked a religion… Rather than being without a religion, every act of his life was according to divine prompting.”
Edward S. Curtis
Cited in Robert M. Wright, “Indigenous Religious Traditions”, Chapter 1 of Religions of the World, ed. Lawrence Sullivan (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 31.
Image Source: http://jeanninecook.blogspot.com/2012/12/lessons-from-photographer-edward-s.html ; accessed 11/12/2015
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Slide 3
What are Indigenous Religious Traditions?
Religious beliefs and practices limited to a particular people group, culture and geographic
area
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Slide 4
Other Terms for these Traditions
Native Religions Oral Religions Folk Religions Primal Religions
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Slide 5
The Challenge of Diversity
Region Language Culture World-view
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Slide 6
Common Assumptions within Most Indigenous Religious Traditions
1. All things share somehow in a universal, animating power (“mana”).
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Slide 7
The Naskapi (Canada)
Image Source: http://www.booktopia.com.au/naskapi-frank-g-speck/prod9780806114187.html; accessed 11/12/2015
“For the Naskapi, the whole world is filled with soul, Mantu. The physical world is real, but just as real are the souls that animate it. Stars, trees, wind, thunder, fish, birds, animals, and humans are all activated by souls.”
Warren Matthews, World Religions, 6th ed. (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2007, 2010), 16.
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Slide 8
The Maori (New Zealand)
Image Source: http://ndla.no/en/node/114008accessed 11/12/2015
“The Kumara does not talk about its own sweetness.”
Maorian Proverb,
cited in http://www.maori.org.nz/tikanga/default.php?pid=sp98&parent=95, accessed 11/12/2015
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Slide 9
Common Assumptions within Most Indigenous Religious Traditions
2. Spirits are everywhere present and active within our world (“animism”).
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Slide 10
Shinto (Japan)
Image Source: Kami can be elements of the landscape or forces of nature. Painting by Morikuni (1679-1748) © http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/beliefs/kami_1.shtml accessed 11/12/2015
“I do not yet understand the meaning of the word 'kami'. In the most general sense, it refers to all divine beings of heaven and earth that appear in the classics. More particularly, the kami are the spirits that abide in and are worshipped at the shrines.”
Motoori Norinaga, 18th century Shinto scholar
Cited in http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/beliefs/kami_1.shtml,Accessed 11/12/2015
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Slide 11
Jarai (Vietnam)
Guardian spirit of a Jarai tomb in KonTum Province
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarai_people accessed 11/12/2015
“Animist beliefs are still strong and the Jarai world is peopled with spirits, the most famous of which are the kings of Water, Fire and Wind, represented by shamans who are involved in rain-making ceremonies and other rituals.”
Vets with a Mission,
http://www.vwam.com/vets/tribes/central.html, accessed 11/12/2015
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Slide 12
Common Assumptions within Most Indigenous Religious Traditions
3. Death marks a transition into another world, a belief that often manifests itself in the veneration of ancestors.
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Slide 13
Zulu (Africa)
“For the Zulu, the ancestors live in the earth under the kraal (the circular arrangement of huts).”
Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013, 222.
Image Source: http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/zulu_kraal_layout.php#.VkSz1uJRKzE, accessed 11/12/2015
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Slide 14
Korean Folk Traditions“Many scholars identify two types of spirits…namely the good or benevolent ancestor and the evil spirit or ghost…The distinction between these two spirits is generally held to be the manner in which they met their deaths.”Lee Kwang Kyu, “The Concept of Ancestors and Ancestor Worship in Korea,” Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 43 (1984), 199.
Image Source: http://koreabridge.net/photo/wrapping-ancestor-worship, accessed 11/13/2015
“A son sends his deceased father a message through the medium of fire at the conclusion of a sumptuous ancestor ceremony called Jaesa (제사). Just a few minutes later we devoured every last scrap of food on the table, and then some.”
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Slide 15
Common Assumptions within Most Indigenous Religious Traditions
4. Certain individuals are gifted and often trained to engage with the spirit world and work with the universal life force (“Shaman”).
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Slide 16
Algonquin Tribes (USA)
“The Algonquian tribes of the Northeast (for example, the Ojibwa and the Cree) share a special shamanistic rite called the shaking tent ceremony. The shaman performs this ritual as a service for clients of his tribe.”
Corduon, 247.
Image Source: http://www.the8thfire.com/ , accessed 11/14/2015
Pete Bernard, Algonquin Medicine Man
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Slide 17
Cachoeira Uapui (Brazil)
“We pledge...to create new programs (such as shamanic art courses) and to explore ways in which the Western biomedical knowledge and the metaphysics of shamanism can benefit each other.”
Robin Wright, cited in http://www.treehugger.com/culture/school-for-shamans-to-save-culture-from-extinction.htmaccessed 11/30/2015 .
Image Source: http://www.treehugger.com/culture/school-for-shamans-to-save-culture-from-extinction.htmaccessed 11/30/2015
Anthropologist, Robin Wright (left) attends the inauguration of a School for Shamans
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Slide 18
Common Assumptions within Most Indigenous Religious Traditions
5. Traditions regarding the spirit world are best preserved through oral and ritual transmission from one generation to another. Mythologies are therefore a rich source of inspiration and direction.
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Slide 19
Yoruba (West Africa)
“According to a very ancient Yoruba hymn, the story goes that 1700 Orisagathered together to conspire against Olodumare, and to challenge his absolute authority and power over everything.”
Corduon, 247.Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_religion accessed 11/30/2015
Yoruba artist, Stool for Eşu Priest or Priestess, late 19th-early 20th century, in the Princeton University Art Museum
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Slide 20
Tlingit (Alaska & Canada)“Tagaban blends commentary, story, vision, spirit and honor. The performance features song, dance, music and regalia, as Tagaban shares contemporary and traditional Native American anecdotes.”
Image and text Source: http://asaihl.keuka.edu/distinguished-performers/gene-tagaban-the-raven-dancer/accessed 11/30/2015
Gene Tagaban, The Raven Dancer
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Slide 21
Reflection Question #2
Do Indigenous Religious Traditions correctly assume that the world is filled
with spirits with whom we must interact? Why or why not?
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