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Religion in Indigenous Oral Cultures

Religion in Indigenous Oral Cultures.

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Religion in Indigenous Oral Cultures

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  1. Religion in Indigenous Oral Cultures We Sioux spend a lot of time thinking about everyday things which in our minds are mixed up with the spiritual. We see in the world around us many symbols that teach us the meaning of life. We Indians live in a world of symbols and images where the spiritual and commonplace are one. We try to understand them not with the head but with the heart. --John Fire Lame Deer

  2. General Themes • Local, Land-Centered Outlook / Center of World • Lack of Historical Perspective / Cyclic Time • Immersion in Nature • Reciprocal Interrelationships • Animism (anima = “soul”) / Spiritism • High God • Dreamtime • Altered States of Consciousness • Harmony

  3. Typical Features • Shaman • Totem • Taboo • Fetish • Omen • Divination • Rites of Passage and Cosmic Renewal • Hunting Rituals

  4. Papua New Guinea

  5. Why does Jacka say this? It is critical to understand how notions of conservation and environmental protection are conceptualized and formulated by local communities for successful conservation to occur (26)

  6. What’s the Point? Berkes urges us to move beyond reductionist visions of ecology by embracing moral perspectives and spiritual aspects often embedded in traditional knowledge systems and local resource management practices (27)

  7. Porgeran Eco-Cosmology & Ritual • Environmental zones • Spirits who regulate nature and human behavior • Lemane, ancestors, “grease” (ipane) • Sky people, earth mother women • Rituals of replenishment • “Humans control the flow of grease through the land by appealing to spirits that regulate the flow of water” (34) • Auwalo anda: pig sacrifice to “autochthonous” Lemane • Pig sacrifice to ancestors in the ancestral pool • Punishment for misbehavior

  8. The “Sugar Islands” There were 60,000 people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? --Bartolomé de Las Casas (1531) The history of a cube of sugar is an entire lesson in economy, politics, and also in morality --Augustin Cochin (1823-72)

  9. The Taino

  10. c. 2000 Year-Old Taino Caves Pomier Caves in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic

  11. CemiTaino Deity / Ancestral Spirit / Icon

  12. The Taino Revival

  13. “Indigenous” Religion in Hispaniola:Some Relevant Dates • 400 BCE-1500s Taino (Caribs) • 1492 Columbus • early1500s Beginning of Slave Trade in Caribbean • 1697-1804 Saint-Domingue • 1791 Bois-Caiman & Haitian Revolution • 1804 Haitian Independence

  14. VodouSome Important Themes • A “new religious movement” • West African spirit and ancestor cults • New spirits/deities revealed in the New World • Catholic saints identified as new manifestations of African spirits • Spirit possession and divination • Shaman ritual specialists: manbo (female), oungan (male) • Many spirits (lwa) reside in natural phenomena, especially (and ironically) trees.

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