• Post your response to these questions: As suggested by Fisher (2005) in Living Religions, consider the interrelatedness of everything in the cosmos as it is expressed in many indigenous religions. How do you think the importance of these relationships developed? What spiritual purpose do you think they serve for indigenous peoples?…
David Phillips Hansen’s new book, Native Americans, the Mainline Church, and the Quest for Interracial Justice (Chalice Press, $29.99), is a sobering and important exploration of the historical, theological, and social relationships between the church and native peoples.…
DQ 1: Find two Web sites dealing with indigenous cultures or religions. Discuss how modern civilization has affected the spiritual lives of the indigenous peoples you explored. Are indigenous religions still practiced today? If so, how have the practices changed over time?…
In the academic study of Native American spiritualties, the scholar often provides the lens through which one examines various worldviews. This lens can influence a reader’s interpretation of spiritual practices, creating a biased body of knowledge. Often, mass generalizations are then made about diverse groups of indigenous people. Whether the nature of these generalizations is positive or negative, they distort the image of the group being studied based upon the author’s approach or motives.…
Native Americans have long been interested in maintaining cultural traditions they inherited from their ancestors. For Native American tribes with strong oral traditions, the primary sense of history comes from the narratives, stories, and accounts told by tribal elders. Indigenous peoples' stories are as varied as the clouds in the sky and yet have many common elements, whether told by the Cherokee in North Carolina, or the Chimariko in California. In the assortment of Native stories, we find legends and history, maps and poems, the teachings of spirit mentors, instructions for ceremony and ritual, observations of worlds, and storehouses of ethno-ecological knowledge. They often have many dimensions, with meanings that reach from the everyday to the divine. The stories fill places with…
Powers, William K., James Garrett, and Kathleen J. Martin. "Lakota Religious Traditions." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 5295-5298. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 October, 2012.…
The Oxford English Dictionary (n.d.) defines religion as a particular system of faith and worship. It is interesting to note that faith and worship are the two components of religion. Religion has eight elements according to (Molloy, 2010); belief system, community, central myths, rituals, ethics, characteristic emotional experiences, material expressions, and sacredness. Each religion has its own belief system and ideas. There are three indigenous religion cultures that will be described; the Igbo, Pueblo people, and the Hawaiian…
Second, the religion of the Native American is remarkable. The religious of Native American is syncretism. All tribes made their centre of life is spirituality to keep a connection to religious principles through verbally. Indians believed in a mysterious force in nature or the power of Gods. It is said that the Native American can't live without the Shamans who had close contacts with the spirits. They are religious people and can treat sick people by medicine method or plant while singing and dancing around the room. If Indians would like to have enough food and rain, they would hold many ceremonies such as harvest festivals and organised rain dances. Ceremonies may be performed by feasts, music, dances, and other activities. Animals also…
The Aboriginal people believe in myths but do not have faith in a creator. Instead, they believe in a spirit world, they say that after death there is another world beyond, they trust in ideas of reincarnation. The spirits are active in this world but they also live on in a world after death. The Aboriginals use rituals as a way of communicating between the two worlds. Communities or tribes gather to take part in dances, story telling, art making and other practices. They group for these rituals at sacred sites, these are places or areas that hold great significance for the Aborigines. These fascinating beliefs are very deep and complex views of how the cycle of life on our Earth occurs.…
Native American religions and culture are very complex and that is largely due to the fact that there have been many Native American tribes. In this essay, I will focus on the largest most major religions and give an idea of the Native American culture and traditions. The first major Native American religion would be the Earth Lodge religion which originated in northern California and southern Oregon tribes such as the Wintun but then it reached tribes such as the Siletz, Achomawi and Shasta.…
A common saying within our society is that history repeats itself. This expression, although short and simple, is more accurate than one would think. This repetition is seen in all corners of history, in all walks of life, and in every single time period. It is almost exactly like the circle of life; an idea is born, the idea grows and develops, the idea is accepted, the idea is rejected, but the idea never dies. Instead, it haunts society until it is once again needed by the community. In the past, one sees how capitalism aided in the removal of Native Americans, now, today this is seen once again as history repeats itself.…
There are more than 2,000 primary religious organizations in the United States, taking a number of different forms including churches, sects, cults, temples, societies and missions. Their origins are wide and derive from many sources. Before the introduction of Christianity from Europe to the United States, Native American religion was disparate, separated by tribes, clans or nations. It was unstructured but in general spirituality was inherent in every aspect of their lives; religion was characterized by a oneness with nature and the intense relationship between the indigenous people and their environment.…
The Native American’s where the first to inhabit the Americas. When we speak about religion in the America’s the first people we will look back to are the Native Americans. We will always look to our history to know where we come from and our backgrounds.…
I think that how we started our studies in this class, with indigenous religions we learned the basics of beliefs and where they originated. I think that because the essence of animism’s “everything is alive” theory we start to see how people first connected with God and nature. I think that most religions believe that God, or whatever they call him in that religion, is everywhere, that His hand was in the creation of all living things and that there is a purpose for everything. I also find it interesting that although most indigenous people never came into contact with anyone else, and lived in different regions of the world, many of the beliefs are similar. I understand more…
The Inuits believed in what is called Animism. Animism is a belief that all things-biotic and abiotic-have a spirit. In this religion, it was said that if a spirit died, it continued its life in the Spirit World. Only the leaders, called the Shamans, could communicate to the Spirit World. During the rituals to speak with the spirits, the Shamans would were carved masks. The leaders would summon the spirits was by charms and dancing. The Shamans would request good things such as an successful hunt or good weather.…