I. Citing SourcesII. The upper middle and upper classesIII. Inequality and mobility in the U.S.IV. The working poor in Nickeled and DimedI. The founding myth of religious freedom in the U.SII. What counts as a religion?III. Changing views of Native American religiona. White Shamans and Plastic Medicine MenThe founding myth of religious freedom in the U.SPuritans and Quakers were persecuted and motivated to come to the United States for religious freedomHowever, the majority of colonists came to the U.S for other reasons such as business opportunitiesCatholics and Jews have been discriminated against in the past by not being able to participate in politics (voting etc.), started to change in the 19th centuryWhat counts as a religion?Tax exempt: officially recognized by US government as a religious organizationThose in power decide what counts as religion and what is not religionScholars of religion (who are not usually the ones in power, who are deciding what counts as religion) do not agree on how to define religion. Nevertheless, common themes in different definitions include:Beliefs about the universe and the beings that inhabit itRituals and other kinds of activities that are repeated regularlyCommunities of people who identify with the religionEthical or moral guidelines or precepts“The moral of Leuba(Psychological Study of Religion) is not that religion cannot be defined, but that it can be defined, with greater or lesser success, more than fifty ways” Jonathan Z. SmithChanging views of Native American ReligionThe religions practiced North America before the arrival of Europeans varied widelyMost of these religions focused not only on a creator god but on intermediary gods and sprits. They also tended to stress myth and ritual over codified doctrineAll of these religions would qualify as religions for scholars of religion today. But how have others viewed Native American religions?Christianity split into two main sectsCatholic/ orthodoxProtestantProtestant reformers believed that Native American religions were similar to CatholicismSuch as ritual, and intermediary gods and spritsChristian missionaries usually saw Native American religions as diabolical or inferior if they saw it as a religion at allEfforts to convert Native Americans were often aggressive, as religion played a large role in the process of cultural colonization. Many also adopted Christianity and often combined it with their own religionsCultural colonization: missionaries played a role in telling the Indians that what they believed was not the truth or diabolicMany Native Americans resisted the missionariesOthers played along and used the missionaries as trading networksSome turned to Christianity for their own purposes, such as treating everybody as equalsGovernment Agencies:US authorities generally saw Native American religions as the irrational superstitions of savages that held back people from embracing civilizationThe Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was committed to protecting Native American interests in theory, sought to forcibly assimilate Native Americans.They believed that the best way to protect Native American interest was to force them to assimilateNative American boarding schoolsMissionaries and Government Agencies did not recognize Native American religions as religionsPeople who did recognize Native American religions as religions:Early Anthropologists:Tended to see Native American religions and cultures as examples of the primitive religions of the first humansThis places Native Americans on a lower rung of the evolutionary ladder than Europeans. Although anthropologists sought to document Native American religions and cultures, in practice this resembled “butterfly collecting”Represented in museums as objects in glass, frozen in timeSeekers: people who are seeking religious experiencesAlthough non Native Americans have always been interested in Native American religion to some extent, participation in these religions (in some form) increased with the emergence of the counter culture of the 1960sSome seekers believe that Native American religion will save our industrial capital from itselfWhite Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men looks as this phenomenon from the NA point of viewWhite Shamans and Plastic Medicine MenWhat are the problems that come up when white people practice Native American religions?Some Native Americans are welcoming to others to join their religionThe film argues that Native Americans are the only authentic practitioners of these religions and white people are invading on their religionImperialist nostalgia: the thing that was destroyed may have been the very thing that could save usChicago erects statue to the very Indians that were expelled“Wild Child” by The DoorsWhen Jim Morrison (the lead singer for The Doors) was a child, he witnessed a car crash on the highway that involved a Native American family. He claims that the soul of one of the dying Indians entered his body and he became a kind of shaman. The video for Wild Child begins with footage of Native American dances (most are images of groups from the Northwestern U.S. taken by the anthropologist Franz Boas), then fades to Morrison in the recording studio. The rest of the video switches between images of Morrison singing and an apparently Navaho boy dancing in native garb. The song begins with the line "Wild child, full of grace, savior of the human race," an obvious adaptation of a Christian prayer.This casting of Native Americans as saviors is of course better than kidnapping children and forcing them to give up their religion and culture. Wild Child relies on the old idea that the Wild Child is ultimately uncivilizable.AMST-A100 1st Edition Lecture 14 Outline of Last Lecture I. Citing SourcesII. The upper middle and upper classesIII. Inequality and mobility in the U.S.IV. The working poor in Nickeled and DimedOutline of Current Lecture I. The founding myth of religious freedom in the U.SII. What counts as a religion?III. Changing views of Native American religiona. White Shamans and Plastic Medicine MenCurrent LectureThe founding myth of religious freedom in the U.S- Puritans and Quakers were persecuted and motivated to come to the United States for religious freedom- However, the majority of colonists came to the U.S for other reasons such as business opportunities- Catholics and Jews have been discriminated against in the past by not being able to participate in politics