http://www.rcbc.edu/blackboard
This is God (Take 1), with lyrics, 5:46
https://youtu.be/yBRMFKfWK_E
Review
What is the coolest car in the world? Year, Make, Model, and Series
We have two sheets of paper circulating for each class: Attendance and the "conch." For civil discourse the "conch" represents order.
Lord of the Flies (2/11) Movie CLIP - Whoever Holds the Conch Gets to Speak (1990) HD, 1:12
https://youtu.be/ipkF3xkP63M
Laptops Are Great, Guidelines, and Email Etiquette.
As a class we had a conversation about electronics during class. We agreed to self-limit our access so as to be considerate of our colleagues and not distract them.
Studies and by our own experience electronics have been detrimental to a sound learning environment.
Dedicate yourself to learning well and being considerate of others.
Table of Contents, Fieser
Indigenous Religion
If not already, you should read about Indigenous Religions in Fieser and The Primal Religions, in Huston.
Learning Objectives:
Animism
Sir Edward Tylor
Ancestor Reverance
Shaman
Pantheism
Myth
649 Indigenous Religions
649 Introduction
Indigenous Sacred Ways
Animism (from Latin animus, -i "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.
Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of some indigenous tribal peoples, especially prior to the development of organized religion.
Animism (from Latin animus, -i "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.
Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of some indigenous tribal peoples, especially prior to the development of organized religion.
Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, "animism" is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives.
The Animistic perspective is so fundamental, mundane, everyday and taken-for-granted that most animistic indigenous people do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion"); the term is an anthropological construct rather than one designated by the people themselves.
Sir Edward Tylor was responsible for forming the definition of Animism currently accepted in anthropology.
Sir Edward Tylor was responsible for forming the definition of Animism currently accepted in anthropology.
Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinion has differed on whether Animism refers to a broad religious belief or to a full-fledged religion in its own right.
The currently accepted definition of Animism was only developed in the late 19th century by Sir Edward Tylor, who created it as "one of anthropology's earliest concepts, if not the first".
Animism encompasses the belief that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical (or material) world, and souls or spirits exist, not only in humans, but also in some other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, including thunder, wind, and shadows.
Animism encompasses the belief that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical (or material) world, and souls or spirits exist, not only in humans, but also in some other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, including thunder, wind, and shadows.
Animism thus rejects Cartesian dualism.
Animism may further attribute souls to abstract concepts such as words, true names, or metaphors in mythology.
Examples of Animism can be found in forms of Shinto, Serer, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology, Jainism, Paganism, and Neopaganism.
Some members of the non-tribal world also consider themselves animists (such as author Daniel Quinn, sculptor Lawson Oyekan, and many Neopagans).
The term Animism appears to have been first developed as Animismus by German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl, circa 1720, to refer to the "doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial soul."
The term Animism appears to have been first developed as Animismus by German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl, circa 1720, to refer to the "doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial soul."
The actual English language form of Animism, however, can only be attested to 1819.
The term was taken and redefined by the anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general."
According to Tylor, Animism often includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature"; i.e., a belief that natural objects other than humans have souls.
This formulation was little different from that proposed by Auguste Comte as fetishism.
As a self-described "confirmed scientific rationalist", Tylor believed that animistic beliefs were "childish" and typical of "cognitive underdevelopment", and that it was therefore common in "primitive" peoples such as those living in hunter gatherer societies.
As a self-described "confirmed scientific rationalist", Tylor believed that animistic beliefs were "childish" and typical of "cognitive underdevelopment", and that it was therefore common in "primitive" peoples such as those living in hunter gatherer societies.
In fact, Tylor based his theory of Animism on his experience of modern seances thereby constructing a model of 'primitive thought' (of which he had no first hand experience) from his first-hand knowledge of spiritualism.
Stringer (1999) notes that his reading of Primitive Culture led him to believe that Tylor was far more sympathetic in regard to “primitive” populations than many of his contemporaries, and that Tylor expressed no belief that there was any difference between the intellectual capabilities of “savage” people and westerners.
To Tylor, the fundamental distinction between western and “primitive” cultures was education; and education was a social-cultural evolutionary process that produced differing levels of sophistication, or “progress,” in different places.
A tableau presenting figures of various cultures filling in mediator-like roles, often being termed as "shaman" in the literature.
There is ongoing disagreement (and no general consensus) as to whether Animism is merely a singular, broadly encompassing religious belief or a worldview in and of itself, comprising many diverse mythologies found worldwide in many diverse cultures.
A tableau presenting figures of various cultures filling in mediator-like roles, often being termed as "shaman" in the literature.
There is ongoing disagreement (and no general consensus) as to whether Animism is merely a singular, broadly encompassing religious belief or a worldview in and of itself, comprising many diverse mythologies found worldwide in many diverse cultures.
This also raises a controversy regarding the ethical claims Animism may or may not make: whether Animism ignores questions of ethics altogether or, by endowing various non-human elements of nature with spirituality or personhood, in fact promotes a complex ecological ethics. In modern usage, the term is sometimes used improperly as a catch-all classification of "other world religions" alongside major organized religions.
Characteristics
Tylor argued that Animism consisted of two unformulated propositions; all parts of nature had a soul, and these souls are capable of moving without requiring a physical form.This gives rise to fetishism, the worship of visible objects as powerful, spiritual beings.
The second proposition was that souls are independent of their physical forms.
It gives rise to 'spiritism', the worship of the souls of the dead and the unseen spirits of the heavens.
Others such as Nurit Bird-David, associate Animism with various aspects of shamanism.
Fetishism/totemism
In many animistic world views, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces.Therefore, it is morally imperative to treat these agents with respect.
In this world view, humans are considered a part of nature, rather than superior to, or separate from it.
Totemism (or fetishism) includes one or more of several features, such as the mystic association of animal and plant species, natural phenomena, or created objects with unilineally related groups (lineages, clans, tribes, moieties, phratries) or with local groups and families; the hereditary transmission of the totems (patrilineal or matrilineal); group and personal names that are based either directly or indirectly on the totem; the use of totemistic emblems and symbols; taboos and prohibitions that may apply to the species itself or can be limited to parts of animals and plants (partial taboos instead of partial totems); and a connection with a large number of animals and natural objects (multiplex totems) within which a distinction can be made between principal totems and subsidiary ones (linked totems).
Ancestor reverence
Many animistic cultures observe some form of ancestor reverence.Whether they see the ancestors as living in an other world, or embodied in the natural features of this world, animists often believe that offerings and prayers to and for the dead are an important facet of maintaining harmony with the world of the spirits.
Shamanism
A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds.
Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness.
The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community.
Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements.
The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.
Distinction from pantheism
Animism is not the same as pantheism, although the two are sometimes confused.Some religions are both pantheistic and animistic.
One of the main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do.
As a result, Animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul.
In pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits and/or souls.
Additionally, Pantheism posits a source of this "monism".
This source may or may not have agency.
In contrast, in Animism, the soul or essence or spirit of objects and living things are novel and separate from the whole, while still seen as irrevocably intertwined with one another in a community.
Examples of animist traditions
- Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan, is highly animistic. In Shinto, spirits of nature, or kami, are believed to exist everywhere, from the major (such as the goddess of the sun), which can be considered polytheistic, to the minor, which are more likely to be seen as a form of Animism.
- Many traditional beliefs in the Philippines still practised to an extent today are animist and spiritist in origin in that there are rituals aimed at pacifying malevolent spirits or are apotropaic in nature.
- There are some Hindu groups which may be considered animist. The coastal Karnataka has a different tradition of praying to spirits (see also Folk Hinduism). Likewise a popular Hindu ritual form of worship of North Malabar in Kerala, India is the Tabuh Rah blood offering to Theyyam gods, despite being forbidden in the Vedic philosophy of sattvic Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Theyyam deities are propitiated through the cock sacrifice where the religious cockfight is a religious exercise of offering blood to the Theyyam gods.
- Mun, (also called Munism or Bongthingism) is the traditional polytheistic, animist, shamanistic, and syncretic religion of the Lepcha people.
- Many traditional Native American religions are fundamentally animistic. See, for example, the Lakota Sioux prayer Mitakuye Oyasin. The Haudenausaunee Thanksgiving Address, which can take an hour to recite, directs thanks towards every being - plant, animal and other.
- The New Age movement commonly demonstrates animistic traits in asserting the existence of nature spirits.
- Some Neopagan groups, including Eco-Pagans, describe themselves as animists, meaning that they respect the diverse community of living beings and spirits with whom humans share the world/cosmos.
Myth is a story revealing important truths, in particular, religious truth.
The word "myth" is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος), which simply means "story".
Mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths.
Myth can mean 'sacred story', 'traditional narrative' or 'tale of the gods'.
A myth can also be a story to explain why something exists.
Human cultures' mythologies usually include a cosmogonical or creation myth, concerning the origins of the world, or how the world came to exist.
The active beings in myths are generally gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, or animals and plants.
Most myths are set in a timeless past before recorded time or beginning of the critical history.
A myth can be a story involving symbols that are capable of multiple meanings.
A myth is a sacred narrative because it holds religious or spiritual significance for those who tell it.
Myths also contribute to and express a culture's systems of thought and values, such as the myth of gremlins invented by aircraft technicians during World War II to avoid apportioning blame.
Myths are often therefore stories that are currently understood as being exaggerated or fictitious.
655 Africa
655 Cause of Death
657 King of Death: Angolan Myth
659 Woman’s Search for the High God: Zambian Myth
659 Tree to the Upper World: Tanzanian Myth
660 Dead People Become Clouds: San Myth
661 War of the Gods: Yoruba Myth
665 America
665 Creation: Mayan Myth
668 Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca: Mexican Myth
670 Creation: Hopi Myth
674 Creation: Cherokee Myth
676 Origin of Disease and Medicine: Cherokee Myth
679 Origin of Corn: Creek Myth
680 Oceania
680 The Wise and Foolish Twins: Melanesian Myth
Professor Roland Burrage Dixon wrote an account of the mythology of this region for The Mythology of All Races, which was published in 1916.
Since that time, the region has developed new cults and legends as a result of exposure to western civilisations and their missionaries. These include the cargo cults in which the natives attempt to restore the supply of material goods which were a side-effect of the campaigning in this region during the Pacific War.
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphisation), which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behaviour.
It is suggested by G. P. Hansen that the term "trickster" was probably first used in this context by Daniel G. Brinton in 1885.
The trickster figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by Michel Rodange.
This week, Mike introduces you to Tricksters, starting with Anansi, the West African trickster god who is also sometimes a spider. Tricksters are, well, tricky. They're wise and foolish, they're promiscuous and amoral, but in a lot of ways, they're good guys. We'll also talk about the occasionally tricky Hercules and Atlas, and touch on more recent tricksters like B'rer Rabbit.
https://youtu.be/RW1ChiWyiZQ
682 Maui the Trickster-God: Polynesian Myth
The Turtle and the Shark, 3:57
What is the story here?
What is the problem?
What is the solution by the couple?
What is the resolution?
The Turtle and the Shark is one of the most popular Samoan legends. It tells the story of a man and a woman who are deeply in love. Unfortunately, the man is chosen to be the next meal to the cannibal King Malietofaiga.
To avoid this horrible fate, they flee to another island. However, fearing their act of disobedience would bring dishonor on their families, they willingly gave up their lives at the cliffs of Vaitogi. The gods had mercy on them and transformed them into a turtle and a shark to live together, forever.
Director: Ryan Woodward Distributed by Tubemogul.
https://youtu.be/JBgdbvTpDKA
What is the story here?
The story of a man and a woman who are deeply in love.
What is the problem?
The man is chosen to be the next meal to the cannibal King Malietofaiga.
What is the solution by the couple?
To avoid cannibalism they flee to another island. However, fearing their act of disobedience would bring dishonor on their families, they willingly gave up their lives at the cliffs of Vaitogi.
What is the resolution?
The gods had mercy on them and transformed them into a turtle and a shark to live together, forever.
683 Olofat the Trickster-God: Micronesian Myth
All such myths variously "tell significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local landscape. They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and empower selected audiences with the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to time immemorial".[2]
David Horton's Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia contains an article on Aboriginal mythology observing:
"A mythic map of Australia would show thousands of characters, varying in their importance, but all in some way connected with the land. Some emerged at their specific sites and stayed spiritually in that vicinity. Others came from somewhere else and went somewhere else."
"Many were shape changing, transformed from or into human beings or natural species, or into natural features such as rocks but all left something of their spiritual essence at the places noted in their stories."Australian Aboriginal mythologies have been characterized as "at one and the same time fragments of a catechism, a liturgical manual, a history of civilization, a geography textbook, and to a much smaller extent a manual of cosmography."
685 Division of Labor between the Sexes: Australian Myth
686 The First Death: Australian Myth
687 How Fire became Widely Available: Australian Myth
688 The Rainbow Serpent: Australian Myth
It is named for the obvious identification between the shape of a rainbow and the shape of a snake.
Some scholars believe that the link between snake and rainbow suggests the cycle of the seasons and the importance of water in human life.
When the rainbow is seen in the sky, it is said to be the Rainbow Serpent moving from one waterhole to another, and the divine concept explained why some waterholes never dried up when drought struck. There are innumerable names and stories associated with the serpent, all of which communicate the significance and power of this being within Aboriginal traditions.
It is viewed as a giver of life, through its association with water, but can be a destructive force if angry.
The Rainbow Serpent is one of the most common and well known Aboriginal stories, very important to Aboriginal society.
The Rainbow Serpent is one of the oldest continuing religious beliefs in the world and continues to be a cultural influence today.
The Rainbow Serpent, 2:45 The Rainbow Serpent participates in the creation of the world in so many of the Aboriginal Myths of Dreamtime.
What did the Rainbow Serpent do?
What was created?
What is the human role?
https://youtu.be/pCuuRRrfOXo
280 The Creation of Japan (Fieser)
Review the importance of myth for the development of culture.
Japanese Creation Myth Shinto 3:51 The Big Myth: The Japanese Origin Story!
The Japanese islands have a rich and detailed history, and the stories that they tell to explain where their people came from are a fantastic story to check out.
This video from The Big Myth is a basic, animated look into the origin story of Japan, featuring IZANAMI and IZANAGI, the first deities whose very children were the islands themselves!
http://www.bigmyth.com/ For more world mythology, myth comics, articles, gods, goddesses and supernatural fun, head over to Mr. P's MYTHOPEDIA: https://www.facebook.com/MrPsMythopedia/ http://mrpsmythopedia.wikispaces.com/
We will review the answers after the video.
Between heaven and earth what is there?
In the darkness what was there?
The heavier material became what?
Heavier and lighter became what?
Could they exist without each other?
All things in the world have what properties?
Who were the two first beings?
Since there was no land what happened when Izanagi thrust a jeweled-tipped spear into the waters?
How are Izanami and Izanagi related?
Did the ritual of walking have to be performed correctly?
How many great islands are there in Japan?
Who did Izanami give birth to and who was she?
Who was her consort?
What did the remainder of the children become?
https://youtu.be/XO5D-24g8Mk
Between heaven and earth what is there? Darkness
In the darkness what was there? An enormous egg.
The heavier material became what? Earth
Heavier and lighter became what? Yin and yang.
Could they exist without each other? No.
All things in the world have what properties? Yin and yang, feminine and masculine
Who were the two first beings? Izanami and Izanagi
Since there was no land what happened when Izanagi thrust a jeweled-tipped spear into the waters? Islands
How are Izanami and Izanagi related? Husband and wife
Did the ritual of walking have to be performed correctly? Yes
How many great islands are there in Japan? Eight
Who did Izanami give birth to and who was she? The Sun Goddess, Amaterasu
Who was her consort? The moon
What did the remainder of the children become? gods or elements
The earliest cultures expressed important truths through myths.
Myths are stories which reveal truth, in particular, religious truth.
For the Japanese the creation myth is still important for the Japanese self-understanding.
On the other hand, cultures, as they advance to civilizations, such as Egypt and Greece, an additional element becomes critical for preserving important truths and this is with the establishment of writing.
World View Chart Sample (s)
