Ch. 2 Indigenous Sacred Ways

1. Ch. 2 Indigenous Sacred Ways Includes the Native Religions of Africa, Australia, and North America

4. Indigenous Peoples Close Connection • Quote of the Day: Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. What we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things are connected. ~ Chief Seattle 1855

5. Indigenous Sacred Ways Key Terms • Indigenous Lifeway (Faithway) • Great Mysterious Great Spirit High God • Animism Magic Taboo • Divination Orisa Vodu (voodoo) • Myth Cosmogony • Sacrifice Rites of Passage • Ancestor Veneration Dreamtime/ the Dreaming • Vision quest Sun Dance • Spiritual Specialists: Shamans, Medicine persons • Syncretism Mana

6. Intro. to the Study of the Indigenous Sacred Ways • Studying their ways as an Outsider • From a nonspiritual perspective (e.g. scientific, anthropological) • From a Western religion perspective with a much different belief system • Or: • From the inside?

7. Indigenous spirituality • A lifeway, a particular approach to all of life • Spirituality ideally pervades all moments • Spiritual lifeways are shared orally • The doors of understanding are somewhat opening • Elders of the Lakota tribes: prevent the exploitation of their spiritual traditions by “the New Age movement” and other cultists, charlatans, wannabes, etc.

8. Cultural Diversity • Faithways of indigenous peoples as a whole • “Indigenous”-a “catchall” for some scholars • Australian aborigines: complex cosmogonies • Removal of millions of indigenous from their land-led to a loss of identity • Syncretism: Often native practices interwoven with those of global religions, e.g. Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity

9. Basic Religions and Indigenous Sacred Ways Virtually Synonymous • Characteristics of Basic Religions: Animism high god Sacrifice Offerings to spirits Ancestor veneration Oral traditions/transmit Divination Magic Myths Story-tellers Rites of Passage (birth, puberty rites,etc.) Spiritual Specialists (e.g. Healers ) Taboos

10. Diverse yet Share some Characteristics in Common • The circle of right relationships • Relationships with Spirit • Kinship with all Creation • Relationships with Power

11. The circle of right relationships • The circle--symbol of unity for sacred reality; everything in the cosmos is intimately interrelated • Life--revolves around the generational cycles of birth, youth, maturity, and physical death, the return of the seasons, and the cyclical pattern of sun, moon, stars, and planets. • Rites of passage--rituals performed to help keep these patterns in balance

12. Relationships with Spirit(1) • The cosmos—contains/ affected by numerous divinities, spirits, and also ancestors • Many indigenous traditions worship a Supreme Being who created the cosmos. • African myths suggest that the High God was originally so close to humans that they became disrespectful • Africans--believe in a high being but which is too distant, too powerful, or too dangerous to worship or call on for help • African traditional religions, much more emph. tends to be placed on everyday life. Many unseen powers are perceived to be at work in the material world…some mysterious presences who may be benevolent and some malevolent • orisa or vodu—West Africa, a pantheon of deities; each of an object of special cult worship

13. Relationships with Spirit(2) • The spirits are thought to be available to those who seek them as helpers • Shamans--viewed as those most able to call on the spirits for help and who have dedicated their lives for this service • Teachings about the spirits--help the people to understand how they should live together in society

14. Kinship with all Creation(1) • All aspects of the tangible world--believed to be imbued with spirit (animism) • The invisible--numinous field of ancestors, spirits, divinities, and the Supreme Being, all permeate the visible (Josiah Young III) • All things understood as spiritually connected • African traditional lifeways, “we” may be more important than “I”; “we” extended family and ancestral village • Indigenous cultures--the community is paramount

15. Kinship with all Creation(2) • Many traditional peoples view the earth as their mother • Myths which mention certain land features can heighten the perceived sacredness of the land • Intimate relationship indigenous peoples have with their particular environments: forced removal from that environment can be devastating • In contrast to the industrial world’s attempt to dominate the earth, native peoples consider themselves caretakers of their mother, the earth

16. Kinship with all Creation(3) • The earth abounds with living presences--rocks, bodies of water, and mountains—are personified as living beings; “Everything is alive” (animism) • All creatures may be perceived as kin, endowed with consciousness and the power of the Great Spirit • Respect is always due to all creatures • The natural world is dominate, not humans

17. Relationships with Power(1) • “All animals have power, because the Great Spirit dwells in all of them…” Lame Deer, Lakota • In certain places and beings, the power of the spirit is believed to be highly concentrated-- mana by the people of the Pacific Islands, a vital force. • Sacred sites have recognized by the power felt there • Power can be built up through sacred practices-- ritual objects of spiritually developed persons may have concentrated power • Objects: Special stones and animal artifacts; wearing sacred clothing from bear or wolf fur • Women--thought to have a certain natural power

18. Spiritual Specialists (1) • The world of spirit is thought to be dangerous • Everyone is expected to observe certain personal ways of worship • But the many ways of interacting with spirit is best left to those specially trained for these roles • Specialists initiated in the secret knowledge allows them to act as intermediaries between the seen and unseen

19. Spiritual Specialists (2) • Storytellers and other Sacred Roles • Drumming • member of a secret society • the eternal Dreaming • Priests and priestesses • Mystical Intermediaries: Shamans • Divination: a gift highly developed in Africa • Helping spirits • Altered state of consciousness

20. Group observances (Rituals) • Indigenous ways are community-centered • Traditional people honor the sacred, affirm their bonds with each other and all creation, and help maintain the harmony of the universe • Ritual often take people out of everyday consciousness and into awareness of the presence of the sacred • Rites of Passage: for birth, puberty, marriage, and death • Sun Dance: most important Native American communal ritual today

21. Individual Observances • Native America: Vision Quest (Rite of Passage for pubescent boys) • visionary experiences and opportunities for worship are available to all

22. Contemporary Issues • Traditional spiritual wisdom largely obliterated in many parts of the world by those who wanted to take the peoples lands or save their souls with another path to the divine • Indigenous spirituality has become so mixed with Christianity that many Native American Christians are now trying to re-examine their religious lives and identities honestly

23. Discussion Questions • Can indigenous sacred ways be reconciled with modern industrial and commercial pressures? • How is the Native American religion best classified? Monotheistic, polytheistic, or monistic? • Do you consider it wrong for people of any global organized religion to have come in and converted indigenous peoples into their belief systems and new culture, changing them or their culture forever?

24. The following Slides are based onHopfe and Woodward’s Chapter on Native American Religion in Religions in the World: Included here for reference Students at LSSC using the Living Religions text: no test questions will come from the following material

25. Origins of Native Amer. Religion • Their ancestors arrived on North American continent 15,000-20,000 years ago. Its uncertain what their religion(s) were then but we can surmise that it was similar as it was found by Europeans, with many of the basic religions’ features with an emphasis on the natural spirit world.

26. Special Focus: Florida Evidence • The following Florida Museums interpret there being Paleo-Indian in Florida around 20,000 yrs ago:Museum of FL History, • Tallahassee, Florida • Museum of Natural • History • History, UF/Gainesville, Mastodon Jawbone • and Orange Co. Regional History Center, Orlando • The evidence is arrowhead points in fossilized jawbones of Mastodons

27. Sources of Knowledge • Since N. A. peoples were mostly non-literate, we have a scarcity of sources for most of the last 20,000 years • And all surviving forms of N. A. religions have been influenced by European culture and Christianity in particular • The primary source of knowledge prior to the arrival of Europeans is Archaeology • Second source of knowledge (since the arrival of Europeans ) is Missionaries, Reports, other historical documents • The bulk of info. on N. A. religions has been written the last 100 years

28. The Spirit World and Nature (1) • Their religion focused on the animistic belief that all of nature is alive with spirits; • Close at hand are the spirits of animals or plants that appear in visions; • At the heart of nature is Mother Earth, who provides for the bounty of the earth. • Thunder and lightning were believed to be individual beings. • All these reflects a polytheistic belief system

29. The Spirit World and Nature (2) • Yet, many forms of Native Amer. Religion held/hold to a belief in a Supreme Being, as in the manner found in many basic religions, in other words, the High God above all the lesser deities. • However, the High God is separate from the concerns of Earth

30. The Spirit World: The High God continued • Some Native Americans think of the High God as personal being, to some degree); others understand the High God in a more abstract way; for the latter, its not a personality but a divine or sacred power revealed in humans, nature, and the spirit world. This aspect reflects more of a monistic view/belief system • The Dakota (Sioux) belief in Wakan Tanka is an example of this abstract understanding of the High God; the “Great Mysterious” is a creative force found in all beings and spirits. • Note:in this discussion, textbook does not reference the role of the historical influence of monotheism by Europeans starting in the 1500’s thereby we can presume the author is talking about before the European Christian influence.

31. Recapping their Belief in the Spirit World • In addition to the multitude of spirits in nature • The “High God” who is above and beyond the lesser deities • High God is separate from the concerns of nature • Matters of daily life is the business of the nature spirits • For some, the High God or “Great Spirit” is a personal God, for others, its understood in a more abstract way

32. The Animism in Native American Religions (1) • General observation is the perception that Native Americans had/have a reverential attitude toward the land, trees, rivers, & mountains in contrast to the Europeans who exploited the natural resources (this is a generalization since there are examples of opposite cases). Reverence for the land and nature is at least in part as a result of the fact that survival of the Native American cultures depended on living close to and in balance with nature. • Distinguished from classic animism in which animist believes that the spirits exist in nature have power to help or harm, and therefore, they are to offer some form of worship to them. Native Americans did have an animistic belief/understanding of nature, but they generally did/do not offer and worship it.

33. The Animism in Native American Religions (2) • Hopfe/Woodward Textbook concludes that the N. A. religions are animistic in a sense.The Supreme Being lives in & manifests itself in nature and therefore, nature is to be highly reverenced • Nature is not seen as an object to be tamed by humans, but to seek to live in harmony with it • Deep reverence for all animals, even in the hunt (e.g. asking forgiveness for the one they kill), soil, and plants • Reverence for nature was part of their religion/culture prior to contact with Europeans

34. Recapping Components of Native American Animism: • Spirits of animals, kinship feeling with • Spirits of plants • Guardian spirits of various animals • Spirits of the dead (humans) • Mother Earth

35. Contacts with the Spirit World • They do not see the universe as being under the control of one Supreme God in the pattern of such religions as Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. They are primarily interested in the day-to-day life among the multiple kinds of [spirit] beings in the world. The bulk of their religious attention was directed in achieving good relations with the spirits of the earth, forests, streams, and animals on which they depended. For them, the purpose of ritual is not so much to control nature but to communicate and establish good relationships with the spiritual beings that share the world with humans.

36. Sacrifice (1) • Most of the religions of the world have practiced some form of sacrifice as a way of pleasing the deities [continues in the Religion & Violence box]. Throughout history, animals, grain, wine, beer, and sometimes humans have been sacrificed to the gods. Such sacrifices are RARE in the religions of the native peoples of North America (contrast with the Aztec religions that required a lot more human sacrifice. • But there is an element of Sacrifice in the N.A. Sun Dance (tribes of the Great Plains), which required self-torment and sacrifice. This was seen as a way of acquiring the spiritual power necessary for human survival.

37. Sacrifice (2) • Let us define sacrifice (gen. Course definition): The giving up of something that has value or offering to a deity or to the unseen or ultimate power of the universe or spirits on earth or ancestors • Medicine Bundles, made from animal hides & bones, plants, & minerals, are also sources of spiritual & greatly valued by those who make them • In what way is the Sun Dance ritual a sacrifice? • In what way are Medicine Bundles a sacrifice?

38. Taboos(1) • Two main types or categories: Menstruating Women and contact of people who died • 1. Menstruating women: several widely held taboos, particularly strong in the tribes that depended on hunting for survival: one look of a man/warrior upon a woman in her time of menstruating believed would lose his power of hunting for the rest of his life. Her gaze could destroy the magic of hunting weapons. Positive aspect is that she is set upon by the spirit world as one who can participate in the miracle of child production.

39. Taboos(2) • 2. Concerning the Dead/Avoidance of the dead: no matter how beloved a person may have been in life, the fear is that after death the spirit will continue to stay around its former home and perhaps take friends and family or haunt their families, causing bad dreams. This taboo is still widely observed (e.g. Navajo and other tribes of AZ and NM). Dead bodies, their clothing, any possessions, & their houses to be avoided. There are special men designated as corpse handlers who are ritually unclean for a period of time. • These taboos led to the great concern Native Americans have about the final resting places, which includes a separate place, away from where the remaining live. The burial grounds and human remains are both sacred and should beundisturbed.

40. Ceremonies and Rituals:Overview • Vision Quest (also a Rite of Passage) • Dance Ceremonies (w/ drum beating, chanting, etc) • Ordeals • Bathing and Sweat Lodges • Taboo Observance • Burial of the Dead • Rituals for hunting and the planting of crops

41. Ceremonies and Rituals • They often seek to control the forces of the spirit world with ceremonies (thus a magic element) • Their purpose of their ceremonies, rituals, songs, and dances is not necessarily worship; they are a means for renewing partnership between humans and the spirit world • Frequently they involve Dancing, singing, fasting, ordeals, bathing, taboo observance

42. The Dance Ceremony: One of the most common elements (practices) in Native American religions is the use of dance in getting in touch with the spirit world. ·Dance is an event in which the entire community participates ·Hours of rhythmic song/drum beat can be hypnotic · (textbook gives a brief account of a Pueblo ritual before a hunt)A pre-hunt ritual could be called sympathetic or imitative magic

43. The Sun Dance • One of the enduring and common communal practices of the Native American culture, tribes, religions, is the Sun Dance, so named for its occurrence around the summer solstice.

44. The Vision Quest (1) • Definition: They often seek visions that put them in contact with the spirit world

45. The Vision Quest (2) • Two types of Vision Quest: Individual and Communal • Individual: Young people are sent out alone for them to seek vision. The practice of youth getting their vision and the spirit-animal becoming their guardian is called totemism-has a close spiritual bond with the youth and is a Rite of Passage

46. The Vision Quest (3) • Communal Vision Quest: the Sun Dance is an example, or seeking visions through sweat lodges

47. Communal Totemism • The tribe identifies with a certain animal and they have a kinship identity/spirit/feeling with this animal

48. Religious Leadership/Order/Functionaries • No priests and no priesthood (no sacrifices to perform for the laity) • Religious functions are performed by every member of the group (prayers, dances, songs, and visions) • There are the healer specialists which “white men” named “medicine men”

49. Their View of Sickness/Illness • It’s a spirit intrusion that needs to be removed from the body • The healers have the power to heal, they can also bring curses and sickness upon those who incur their wrath

50. Other Agents of their Visions and Contacting the Spirit World • Use of strong sacred tobacco • Use of Peyote