Chapter Review Questions (Primal Religions)

1.     They tend to come before the religious traditions.  Primal religions provide special insight into the mythic and ritual dimensions of religion. They have been traditions of non-literate people. Primal religions tend to be traditions of tribal peoples, organized in small groups, living in villages. Also, primal people tend to preserve a mythic orientation toward life, allowing them to retain power and sources of knowledge.

2.     The Dreaming and through it the Aborigines re-created their world as it existed in the beginning.  The Aborigines inhabit a mythic geography- a world in which every notable landmark, whether a hole or a cave is believed to have religious significance. They left behind symbols of their presence in the form of natural landmarks and rock paintings etc. The spiritual essence of the ancestors is also believed to reside within each individual.

3.     Natural landmarks, rock paintings etc.

4.     Totem is the natural form in which the Ancestor appeared in the Dreaming. Taboo dictates that certain things and activities, owing to their sacred nature are set-aside for specific members of the group and are forbidden to others.

5.     Rituals bring about symbolic death of childhood, which prepares the way for the spiritual rebirth that is necessary step toward adulthood. They are taught to young people in order for them to learn the essential truths about their world and how they are to act within it.

6.     The Aboriginal rituals originated through the Dieri tribe, located in South-central Australia. Their first initiation was with a nine-year-old boy and was for a symbolic death. They would knock out the lower two middle teeth and bury them.  Other rituals followed and were passed down to the Ancestors of the Aborigines.

7.     Initiation rituals were served to show that a young boy that was nine-years-old was becoming a man, through a series of challenges given to him. Initiation for the first one, served as a symbolic death and others served as a way to connect with his relatives. All of them together, allow him to officially become a man.

8.     The knocking of the two lower middle teeth and the boys back and neck being struck by wounds that were intended to leave scars.

9.     Western regions of Central Africa, in Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

10. Because they have maintained independence and that the god Orisha-nla began to first create the world.

11. They believe that reality is separated into two parts: heaven and earth. Heaven is invisible home to the gods and the ancestors. Earth is the world of normal experience, the visible home of human beings, who are descended from the gods.

12. The supreme god of the Yoruba tribe. He is believed to be the primary source of power in the universe.

13. The many deities that they worship. They function as mediators between Olorun and human beings.

14. Ogun is the god of iron and war. Esu contains both good and evil properties because he mediates between heaven and earth.

15. A mischievous supernatural being.

16. Family ancestors gain their supernatural status by earning good reputation and living to an old age. Defied ancestors were important human figures know throughout the Yoruba society.

17. Mediate between the gods and ancestors in heaven and the human beings on earth.

18. Determining/learning about one’s future. It is important because knowledge of one’s future is considered essential for how to proceed with one’s life.

19.  Humans came twenty-thirty thousand years ago and they migrated from Asia, crossing over the Bering Strait and spreaded out into areas of North America.

20. It serves as a model of the pan-Indian religion and representing the American Indian religion.

21. Lakota name for the supreme reality. Translated into “Great Spirit or the Great Mysterious.” Literally meaning “most sacred.”

22. The Lakota trickster figure, a mediator between the supernatural and human worlds.

23. Believe that four souls depart from a person at death, one that journeys along the “spirit path” of the Milky Way. The soul meets an old woman, who judges it and wither allows it to continue to the other world of the ancestors, or sends it back to earth as a ghost.

24. Spiritual power that will ensure greater success in activities such as hunting, warfare and curing the ill.

25. It is a dark and airtight hut made of saplings and covered with animal skins. It is intended to represent the universe. Heated stones are placed in the center and the medicine man or woman sprinkles water over them. The person sweats a lot leading to both spiritual and physical purification.

26. The person undergoing the vision quest experiences it towards the end of the trip. A message is often communicated along with the vision. When the individual returns to camp, the medicine man/woman interprets the vision and the message and influence the person’s life.

27. A sacred leader, usually a medicine man.

28. The center of the universe and the tree is the axis mundi for the Sun Dance.

29. Because they believe their bodies are the only things they truly own and offer their body mutilation as the only suitable sacrifice to offer to the Supreme Being.

30. They were highly developed civilization. Many Aztecs were urban, living in the city of Tenochtitlan or in one of the four hundred towns that spread across Mesoamerica. Like the primal religions, they predicated Catholicism and an interrelationship between myth and ritual.

31. Present day Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

32. Quetzalcoatl and the origin of the ancient cosmos are in Tenochtitlan.

33. He ruled as a priest king and was a role model for the Aztec in their own authority figures.

34. The sun they called it.  They thought the sun would be destroyed.

35. Understood it as having four quadrants extending outward from the center of the universe, which connected the earthly realm to the many-layered heavenly realm above and the underworld below.

36. Because of the potency of these divine forces, especially the head and heart.

37. The heart offered nourishment to the sun. The head was offered to the sky, warrior’s willingness ascends to the temple stairs in his acceptance of his role in sustaining the fragile cosmos.

38. The religion of the Aztecs.

39.  Through festive and spiritually meaningful rituals.

      40. The all-encompassing nature of religion. In primal societies the secular and the sacred are not separate. Rather, the universe is full of religious significance, and humans constantly draw on its sacred and life giving power.

Lakota Sioux History (Primal Religions)

            The Lakota Sioux are well known and represent all of America’s Native people. The Sioux people were the first to inhabit North America. There are mini groups that make up the Lakota Sioux nation as a whole, which are the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota. They originate in South Dakota and have a rich diverse culture centered on the tons of buffalo herds during that time. The Sioux established and sustained tribal governments all across North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Alberta Canada and Montana. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 signed in Wyoming between the United States and the Lakota Nation promised the Lakota people to acquire the Black Hills and the opportunity to hunt, which ended the Red Cloud’s War.

The Circle

Whope

            In the beginning, the gods resided in the heavenly domain and the humans lived in the subterranean world of culture. The chief was Takushkanskan, the sun who is married to the Moon. They have one daughter, Wohpe (“falling star”); Old Man and Old Woman whose daughter Ite (“face”) is married to Wind. Both of them have four sons, the Four Winds. The most important spirit of all is the Inktomi (“spider”), the devious trickster. He conspires with the Old Man and the Old Woman to increase their daughter’s status by arranging a relationship between the Sun and Ite. When the Sun’s wife reveals their relationship, it leads to various punishments by Takuskanskan. Old Man, Old Woman and Ite travel down to earth but Ite and the Wind are separated who along the Four Winds and the fifth wind (supposedly the child from the affair) creates space. The daughter of the Sun and the Moon, Wohpe meets up with the South Wind (beauty of the Lakota maleness) and they adopt the fifth wind named Wamniomni (“Whirlwind”).

Sacred Calf Pipe and White Buffalo Woman

The concept of “Wakan” is the main religious symbol of the Sioux. It is the core belief. Some of the other values believed by the Lakota Sioux is the circle of symbolism, Sacred Calf Pipe and sacred numbers. The circle stood for life that was kept in Wakan’s hands.  The human body, body of the tree, the seasons, time and a bird’s nest represent circles. By sitting in circles for ceremonial events (“Sacred hoop”) was safe and symbolizes wholeness and to remember Wakan. The Sacred Calk Pipe given to the people by the White Buffalo Calf Woman is in charge of all creation. Black Elk symbolizes the Earth, while the buffalo etched in stone represents all the four-legged animals. Sacred Numbers four and seven provide the structure of the Universe; for Example, four divisions of time (day, night, the moon and the year), human life (childhood, adulthood and old age) and all growing things (the roots, stem, leaves and fruit).

Sun Dance

War Paint

The Sun dance is the most popular ritual by the Native American Tribes of the Great Plains. The dance included fasting, singing, dancing, drumming, the experience of visions and self-torture. Other religious dances include the Ghost Dance, Vision Quest, War Paint and the Medicine Bags. The ceremony involved warriors being pierced through the chest or the back with a bone. The dancers would either be tethered to the tree that was chosen by the bravest warrior. This dance lasted almost two weeks starting in the early morning and ending at sunset. Because this dance is so prominent in the Lakota Sioux tribe, it shows that life does not end but is continuous. Another ritual that is told is known as the Legend of the White Buffalo. It is always told at spiritual events. It tells the story about how the people lost their ability to talk and communicate with the Creator. The White Buffalo Calf Woman was sent by the Creator to teach the people how to pray with the sacred animism symbol in the Lakota Sioux. When the sacred teachings were finished she told the people that she would restore peace and spirituality to their troubled land.

The Legend of the White Buffalo

War Dance

Animism was used a lot in the Lakota Sious culture. Animism is based on the fact that spirits not live in humans, but in animals, plans, trees, rocks etc. The belief and culture also extends to geographic features. Spiritually, Native Americans worshiped animals, plants, the sun, wind and rain.  Particularly in parties, prayers and ceremonies they would try to gain favor of the gods. Toteism, taboos which were used during ceremonies, Fetishism and Shamans did take place in the Lakota Sioux culture.

                      

Animism

Toteism

                                                                                   

"Primal Religious Tradition" Chapter Review Questions

1.     They tend to come before the religious traditions.  Primal religions provide special insight into the mythic and ritual dimensions of religion. They have been traditions of non-literate people. Primal religions tend to be traditions of tribal peoples, organized in small groups, living in villages. Also, primal people tend to preserve a mythic orientation toward life, allowing them to retain power and sources of knowledge.

2.     The Dreaming and through it the Aborigines re-created their world as it existed in the beginning.  The Aborigines inhabit a mythic geography- a world in which every notable landmark, whether a hole or a cave is believed to have religious significance. They left behind symbols of their presence in the form of natural landmarks and rock paintings etc. The spiritual essence of the ancestors is also believed to reside within each individual.

3.     Natural landmarks, rock paintings etc.

4.     Totem is the natural form in which the Ancestor appeared in the Dreaming. Taboo dictates that certain things and activities, owing to their sacred nature are set-aside for specific members of the group and are forbidden to others.

5.     Rituals bring about symbolic death of childhood, which prepares the way for the spiritual rebirth that is necessary step toward adulthood. They are taught to young people in order for them to learn the essential truths about their world and how they are to act within it.

6.     The Aboriginal rituals originated through the Dieri tribe, located in South-central Australia. Their first initiation was with a nine-year-old boy and was for a symbolic death. They would knock out the lower two middle teeth and bury them.  Other rituals followed and were passed down to the Ancestors of the Aborigines.

7.     Initiation rituals were served to show that a young boy that was nine-years-old was becoming a man, through a series of challenges given to him. Initiation for the first one, served as a symbolic death and others served as a way to connect with his relatives. All of them together, allow him to officially become a man.

8.     The knocking of the two lower middle teeth and the boys back and neck being struck by wounds that were intended to leave scars.

9.     Western regions of Central Africa, in Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

10. Because they have maintained independence and that the god Orisha-nla began to first create the world.

11. They believe that reality is separated into two parts: heaven and earth. Heaven is invisible home to the gods and the ancestors. Earth is the world of normal experience, the visible home of human beings, who are descended from the gods.

12. The supreme god of the Yoruba tribe. He is believed to be the primary source of power in the universe.

13. The many deities that they worship. They function as mediators between Olorun and human beings.

14. Ogun is the god of iron and war. Esu contains both good and evil properties because he mediates between heaven and earth.

15. A mischievous supernatural being.

16. Family ancestors gain their supernatural status by earning good reputation and living to an old age. Defied ancestors were important human figures know throughout the Yoruba society.

17. Mediate between the gods and ancestors in heaven and the human beings on earth.

18. Determining/learning about one’s future. It is important because knowledge of one’s future is considered essential for how to proceed with one’s life.

19.  Humans came twenty-thirty thousand years ago and they migrated from Asia, crossing over the Bering Strait and spreaded out into areas of North America.

20. It serves as a model of the pan-Indian religion and representing the American Indian religion.

21. Lakota name for the supreme reality. Translated into “Great Spirit or the Great Mysterious.” Literally meaning “most sacred.”

22. The Lakota trickster figure, a mediator between the supernatural and human worlds.

23. Believe that four souls depart from a person at death, one that journeys along the “spirit path” of the Milky Way. The soul meets an old woman, who judges it and wither allows it to continue to the other world of the ancestors, or sends it back to earth as a ghost.

24. Spiritual power that will ensure greater success in activities such as hunting, warfare and curing the ill.

25. It is a dark and airtight hut made of saplings and covered with animal skins. It is intended to represent the universe. Heated stones are placed in the center and the medicine man or woman sprinkles water over them. The person sweats a lot leading to both spiritual and physical purification.

26. The person undergoing the vision quest experiences it towards the end of the trip. A message is often communicated along with the vision. When the individual returns to camp, the medicine man/woman interprets the vision and the message and influence the person’s life.

27. A sacred leader, usually a medicine man.

28. The center of the universe and the tree is the axis mundi for the Sun Dance.

29. Because they believe their bodies are the only things they truly own and offer their body mutilation as the only suitable sacrifice to offer to the Supreme Being.

30. They were highly developed civilization. Many Aztecs were urban, living in the city of Tenochtitlan or in one of the four hundred towns that spread across Mesoamerica. Like the primal religions, they predicated Catholicism and an interrelationship between myth and ritual.

31. Present day Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

32. Quetzalcoatl and the origin of the ancient cosmos are in Tenochtitlan.

33. He ruled as a priest king and was a role model for the Aztec in their own authority figures.

34. The sun they called it.  They thought the sun would be destroyed.

35. Understood it as having four quadrants extending outward from the center of the universe, which connected the earthly realm to the many-layered heavenly realm above and the underworld below.

36. Because of the potency of these divine forces, especially the head and heart.

37. The heart offered nourishment to the sun. The head was offered to the sky, warrior’s willingness ascends to the temple stairs in his acceptance of his role in sustaining the fragile cosmos.

38. The religion of the Aztecs.

39.  Through festive and spiritually meaningful rituals.

      40. The all-encompassing nature of religion. In primal societies the secular and the sacred are not separate. Rather, the universe is full of religious significance, and humans constantly draw on its sacred and life givin