REL1300 Exam 1 Study Guide Chapter 1 Monotheism and polytheism o Monotheism The doctrine theory that there is only one God Judaism Christianity Islam o Polytheism belief in more than one God Missionary and non missionary religions o Missionary religion a religion that actively seeks converts Christians and Muslims views the others as different and encouraging them to join them on their side o Non missionary religions Jews do not actively seek new members of their family but welcome those who seek them Pluralism verses secularism o Pluralism in the context of religion the principle that all religions are equally valuable should be treated with equal respect and should have an equal opportunity to play a role in public decision making Down plays the specific commitments of individuals religions and concentrates instead on shared values o Secularism the principle that no religious group or institution should receive public support or play any role in public decision making Anthropology s study of religion structuralisms Levi Strauss Geertz s theory Otto s theory o Clifford Geertz theory on religion A religion is A system of symbols that acts too Establish powerful pervasive and log lasting moods and motivations in men by Formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and Clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that The moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic o Levi Strauss French anthropologist structuralism approach o Otto s theory Numinous term coined by Rudolf Otto to describe the overpowering sense of mystery that he believed to be a part of all religions Eladis theory extensive work in the area of comparative religion drew particularly on Hindu and tribal traditions Saw religion as a response to a transcendent reality a reality that he called sacred cult Dualism a conception of the universe that postulates two ultimate principles set in opposition to one another and more or less evenly matched these principles are usually though not always personified as a good god and an evil devil Chapter 2 Indigenous Religions Problems with understanding indigenous religions as oral primitive etc o Oral traditions narratives myths histories legends fables proverbs and riddles that are transmitted verbally from generation to generation within a community and are seen as authoritative sources of knowledge o The word traditional is unsatisfactory because many other kinds of religion have existed for millennia o The word oral does not work because some indigenous peoples have had written traditions for over a thousand years o The word primal suggests either infancy and raw emotion or the earliest stage in an evolutionary model of development leading towards some preconceived notion of what a religion ought to be Native American religions Iroquois Hiawatha Handsome Lake Waken Tanka Earth Diver Myths Axis Mundi o Iroquois Hiawatha North Central America Hiawatha Iroquois oral tradition Hiawatha lived in the 15th century and was devastated by the death of his wife so he retreated into the woods and lived as a thief many say a cannibal One day he reached his lowest point and saw his reflection and did not like it he saw the god Dekanawaidah The god told Hiawatha that he must persuade the nations to unite so they can form the Iroquoid confederacy Hiawatha abandoned his antisocial behavior and persuaded 49 chiefs to gather oat Onondaga and commit their five nations to stand together as one extended family provided a model for later prophetic figured including handsome lake o Handsome lake taught that the Iroquois should only worship Tarachiawagon not his destructive twin Tawiskaron Realized this after he went into a comma and woke up this was during a time of American land annexation the decline of the fur trade and the spread of diseases Story is called the Gaiwiio of Handsome Lake Religion emphasized a new division between good and evil Urged people to avoid the four evils whiskey witchcraft love magic and abortion medicines o Waken Tanka The Lakota conceived of a universe permeated by a life enhancing power called wakan Their supreme being was named Wakan Tanka o Earth Diver Myths Myth that suggests that in the beginning all was water and without form then an animal or a god dives under the water and returns with earth to build land Iroqoius say that first two animals that attempted this were duck and fish they both failed Then a muskrat succeeded o Axis Mundi the central point where the spiritual realms of the heavens and the underworld intersected with the earth believed by Zuni and Hopi Sun dance From the Lakota Sioux they would firs purify the participants with a sweat lodge constructed of branches and animal skins with an opening towards he east source of all life and power All the participants smoked a tobacco pipe that symbolized the model of the universe Before the pipe was smoked the master of ceremonies offered tobacco to the four directions to the above and below inviting all the beneficent powers of the universe to be present Then elders search out a tall cottonwood tree to serve as the focus of the sun dance ritual the tree was cut own by young girls who had not yet married or had sexual relations The tree was erected in the center of a circle after four days of and four nights of fasting and dancing those who had pledged to make the sacrifice would have the skin of their chests pierced through with ropes which were tied to the central pole until the ropes broken through their skin They then told their visions from the Sun God to the people Ghost Dance Battle of Wounded Knee Wovoka had experienced a vision in which he was told that his people could hasten the restoration of their old way of life if they performed a Ghost Dance for their ancestors this was during the 1874 when the Lakota lost their land He prophesied that the white people would disappear the ancestors would return and the lost buffalo and other game would be restored Vision Quest a powerful indicator of the roles that young people will assume in their societies usually required for boys as their transition into adulthood a young man is purified in the sweat lodge and hen goes into seclusion often on a hilltop to fast and await a vision that will shape the rest of his life this can happen for up to 4 days Girls can take vision quests but usually men Keepers of the game Enforced the rules of hunting when the rules were violated the Keepers of the game could remove the animals from the
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