Primal Religions 2018

When reading Hyde's " Beyond logic – entering the realm of mystery: Hermeneutic phenomenology as a tool for reflecting on children’s spirituality" I learned about how to understand oral religions. One of the kids that he interviewed, talked about how Dream Time is 'beyond logic'. This is a good way to understand myths from Dream Time. If talking to people of a literate culture, describing Dream Time this way would be useful. It helps explicate that this is a mystical realm that is outside of reality and holds spirits. Hopefully in portraying Dream Time this way, more people will not shut out the myths that it delivers.

When reading Peter Hiscock's, " Beyond the Dreamtime: Archaeology and explorations of religious change in Australia" I noted a slightly ethnocentric tone. He discusses how the stories of the Aboriginal people seemed like they had little meaning and were long winded. He makes the assumption that this is their version of an epic novel. The meanings of these myths are of utmost importance to the oral peoples. The meanings might seem dull to Hiscock, but to the orator these are revered. My question is, because it is hard to be objective and/or impossible, is it even possible to grasp an oral religion completely? I do not think so.

In class we talked about when oral and literate cultures collide. One of the things we talked about was land ownership. When someone of the oral culture feels a place is reverent and is owned by no one, but should be respected and someone of the literate culture owns this space, it can be an issue. There was a man that owned some hill and was mining it, but oral people said that it was their sacred place. He asked for them to show him when the land was marked to signify ownership. To the oral people, showing the man the space and marking the space would have been irreverent so they could not do it. The man thought that they could not own the space if they had no written element showing this. So the man kept using the space how he wanted. My question is, who's purpose for the land is more important? I think it is hard to determine this, but it could go either way. The law has to decide this anytime a dispute for land is brought to court. I am afraid that often the literate culture w...

When reading many of these books, I was surprised at the way they were written. As an anthropology major, I am used to academic ethnographies that are essentially a compilation of notes taken during research. These books were either technical in their discussion of language or story-like in their interpretations of events and texts. It made many of the books easier to read and opens up the audience. My question is, do we lose some of the important facts and events if the book is not written in an ethnographic way? I think that it is possible the weight of many events might be lost. I also think that information might miss important pieces because they were not very interesting so they were not included. Unfortunately, I think anytime someone studies a group of people or social trend, it is easy to miss important pieces from the outside looking in.

One of the researchers we read about did not belong to either a missionary standpoint or an anthropologist standpoint. Since he interfered with the people he studied, the anthropologists would not recognize him. Since he did not teach the people Christianity in the exact way it read in the Bible, the missionaries would not accept him. I think that the stringent distinctions academia and religion put on themselves closes them off to knowledge and members. If both spheres were more open to bending the rules they would have much to gain from 'outsiders'. I understand why anthropologists do not want researchers to interfere with the people they are studying, however if the researcher does do this, it should not discount their work. Same for missionaries, unfortunately in Christianity it is important that the believer understands who Christ is and about the Trinity before many denominations will agree that they are a true disciple.

In multiple classes we discussed how people often try to write down an oral language for research purposes. My question is, how does the translator determine what characters to attribute to oral pronunciations? I think that it would be important for the oral people to determine the alphabet for their language and if they want it written down at all. When writing myths and stories from oral religions, I also think it is impossible to grasp the whole story in writing if the story is meant to be spoken. Much like writing down lyrics to a song.

When reading "Social Life and the Dreamtime: Clues to Creation Myths as Rhetorical Devices in Tiwi Mortuary Ritual" by Eric Venbrux, I realized how much the oral culture has impacted the literate world. He discusses totem poles and how they are highly important to the rituals of the Aboriginal people he studied. In the paper, he comments on how the totem poles can be rented out to preform the rituals and are specially crafted for each ritual. Also, non-specific totem poles are also made for anyone to get for celebrations and events. I thought about how commonplace a totem pole is for people of the literate culture. They can be found in front of campsites, restaurants, and in backyards for cookouts. It is crazy to notice how pieces of the oral culture has affected our own. I wonder if we are missing the reverence in our adaptation of these items.

When watching the documentary on the Navajo, I was very interested. I grew up relatively cognoscente of the traditions of my tribe (Black Foot), but was rarely introduced to those of other nations. I really liked how the film showed how matriarchal the tribe was and how strong the women appeared. Often, I feel women from oral cultures are misrepresented as submissive and quiet. These women in this film were very out spoken. I also liked how the film showed the literate culture clashing with the oral one when the 'hippie' teens were singing on the ritual grounds. I felt this was a very important scene because it shows that different groups of people can peaceably understand each other.

While watching this film I was struck not only by the interactions between the literate cultures and the oral one, but also by the distinct gendered roles. In both cultures, it is common that women are more domestic and men are in the public sphere but this film made the Native American tribe very gender specific. The men were in positions of power and took care of all the decision making. The women cooked and cleaned and took care of children. This however seems widely inaccurate. When the men are gone, how would the women get by if all they know how to do is maintain the domestic sphere? I am not sure if the films interpretation of the gender roles in this specific tribe are accurate, but I feel that within oral cultures and cultures that rely heavily on every individual it would be hard to have such distinct roles.

Dream Time is very fascinating to me. The understanding and use of it in oral religions versus literate ones is so different. The concept of a mystical realm with spiritual ancestors/gods reside and where stories come from is consistent throughout religions. In oral religions, Dream Time holds the truth and serves as the foundation for rituals and myths useful to those that follow the religion. In literate religions, it is very similar except many consider Dream Time to be fables and actual dreams. With literate religions it seems that Dream Time is related to fiction novels with good moral information unlike in oral religions. It is crazy to see that the understanding of such a similar concept can be so different between an oral culture and a literate one.

When I think of language, I think of oral along with written. Ong says there are 3000 languages in the world and 78 have written text. This blows my mind because with all of the literature out there one would think that most of the languages would be represented. It also shows me how shut off we are as a society to so many other parts of the world. A huge amount of people do not think about language the way we do with a literate language. Along with this, a lot of people relate and understand the world in ways that I do not. Without literature it makes so many other aspects of language so much more important. Things like dialect, tone, speed of speech, and body language have increased meaning in languages that do not contain literature.

Growing up, I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I never felt like I had community. I still get jealous when I hear people talking about how close they are with their family or how they have such a close group of friends. I could never make connections like that and I could never understand having those kinds of connections. After learning about different cultures in this class, I see that a lot of them do have community but they also get their sense of belonging from nature. That is something I can relate to. I have always felt the most relaxed and the most at home when I am in the mountains. It doesn't matter if I'm hiking, laying in my hammock, or just laying out looking out at the stars. I have never felt more of a connection to anything else than I do when I am out in nature. Nature is just this incredible force that feels like it can do just about anything. I may not feel like I belong in any one particular place, but I always feel some sense of belonging in nature and ...

Growing up, I always heard grown ups talking about things that were sacred in church or in our family. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find out what made these things so sacred. I could not understand the religious sacred items because I was never really religious. I just went with the flow. The items that my family considered "sacred" were not important to me because I never had much of a connection with the people in my family. So I was left wondering what sacred actually meant. Eventually I realized that sacred referred to something of great importance or value to a person. Something that was sacred was significant to that person. Recently, I have done some self reflecting on what I would consider sacred. What I consider to be important and significant to me is not an object. To me, my sacred item is music. It is my essence, my soul, my heart. Music will always be the most important thing in my life because when I am at my worst moments, just overwhelmed by everythin...

People in western cultures, especially in the United States, do not know much, if anything at all, about any oral tradition. They probably wouldn't be able to name one primal or oral religion. I know for the longest time, I couldn't name any. My knowledge of different cultures is still very limited. However, after taking this class, I've noticed how often oral cultures pop up in western culture. We see them in movies, TV, and videogames. I see them a lot in videogames. Far Cry 3 had a fictional one that seemed to be based off of multiple real life cultures. The tatau in the game was based off of the Samoan tatau (tattoo). A lot of videogames will have fictional oral cultures but they had to be inspired by something real. That is the way all fiction goes. A lot of it is based on some form of truth. It's just amazing to see how oral cultures inspire things in our culture even though we do not actually know anything about them. It just shows how powerful spoken word is. St...

Being a person that is truly addicted to music, I find myself constantly listening to anything and everything in an effort to hear as much of the world as I can. In my searching of different music, I came across the drum music of the African Burundi tribe. Primitive in nature, their music reflects the same. The songs played are very heavy, repetitive drum beats that combined with the backdrop of chants creates a truly submerging sound that takes the mind and ears on an adventure into the primitive world of the Burundi people. When listening to this music, I find my mind also thinking about the discussions we have had in class and how even though the primitive world is basic (just like their music) it still holds a great depth and complicated system of creation. I believe that this is music that should be the background music for the class and truly one of true art

Ong made a point in the beginning of his book that I found interesting. He said that there are around 3000 languages spoken in the world today but only 78 have literature. When I usually think of other languages, I always think about languages that have a written language. I usually think 'oh they have books and magazines just like we do in English' but for a majority of languages. There are far more more languages than I could have imagined. I may never get to hear most of them and I most certainly will never see them. It's just fascinating that all of these languages and traditions tied to them have lasted for so long without a written form of the language. We've become so used resorting to reading a book or a website to gather information that we forget that it is possible to learn by listening. Reading is mostly an independent activity. You do not need another person to read a book unless you are a toddler who hasn't learned to read yet. When you speak, there...

Discussing the weapon technologies of the primitive world, I watched a video in which scientists take a look at the weapons used in these primal cultures. We start viewing the tribes in the amazon in which they use long spears that double as a fishing tool as well as a weapon for self defense. The scientists note that for these tribes, they lack any modernized technology used to craft weapons so they rely on the nature around them as their tools. These tribes use rocks, sticks, twine and other naturally found things in their ecosystem in combination with other natural materials to create weapons that legitimately work with effenciacy. I find it to be truly amazing for a majority of these tribes, they lack any sort of technology and are still abel to craft tools that they can use for their worldly needs. I find this video to be truly a great source of information about the weaponry used in these primitive societies and I truly find it to be surprising as the great things they can craft ...

In an article published by The Universal Life Church Monastery , the author defines primal religious as well as discussing their history as well.  Primal indigenous religions  though not a single, organized religion, accounts for the belief systems of 300 million people in Africa and Asia. These religions are the outcome of traditional, native world views and infiltrate every aspect of the lives of whom they are practiced.  Due to variations in tradition, region, and ethnicity, there are many surface differences between the diverse primal religions, though they share basic overlying concepts. Anthropologists and academics have previously compared primal religions to paganism, shamanism, and animism, and while they do share similarities, these comparisons have largely been abandoned. I find that this article does a great job especially in describing the spiritual world of primal religions, writing that,  Followers of primal indigenous religions are henotheistic, that ...

In most of the primal cultures we have studied throughout the semester, nature has been one of the most important things in their existence. Discussing the importance of nature, different cultures hold different beliefs regarding the importance of nature in their lives. Sadly, for most of the modern world, the Earth is the backdrop of mankind's existence and not something that holds its own essence and importance. In comparison, we see primal cultures that literally worship nature.  Earth-centered religion or nature worship  is a system of religion based on the veneration of natural phenomena .  It covers any religion  that worships  the earth, nature  or  fertility and goddesses , such as the various forms of goddess worship  or matriarchal religion . Some find a connection between earth-worship and the Gaia hypothesis . Earth religions are also formulated to allow one to utilize the knowledge of preserving the earth. I find that these relig...

In a video posted by CNN, the crew is taken to the heart of an Aborigines cannibalistic tribe that has been around for thousands of years. Throughout the video, we see the gruesome traditions of this tribe. We watch as they describe the spiritual significance in eating their fellow society members. I find this to be pretty horrific to watch as it truly is a pretty gruesome culture but, I find that one cannot be too quick to judge their culture for just like the rest of the world, anyone and everyone holds their differences and cannot truly pass judgment without knowing the details of their faith. I find that this video portrayed this tribe as one that practiced out of traditional ritual and felt that eating their fellow man was nothing more than a ritual. I believe that this video can be scene as a good source of information regarding cannibalisitc tribes as well as giving a great insight into cultures that are very different than the modern world.

Watching a video entitled, The Zulu African Tribe , this particular African tribe is dissected in every aspect of their lives. From their history, ethics, culture and religion to the sports, stories and music they do, this video delves into the world of the Zulu tribe.  The Zulu are an African tribe living in a region known as Zululand. The Zulus live in huts and are organized in clans that are composed of several families. Polygamy is still practiced. The dowry or lobola, as it is called in their language, is four or five cows for a middle-class girl and about 20 cows for the chief’s daughter. The women of this tribe are naked in the village. Its above all a warrior nation that settled in these lands fighting and defeating anyone who got in their way. I find that this video is a great source of information regarding the Zulu tribe especially when researching of their religious views. I find that just like other articles discussed in class, the Zulu tribe can be seen in their primi...

Discussing the relationship between nature in the comparing worlds of primal vs modern culture, an article published by Rabble.ca describes this exact idea. The author poses the question of what our world would look like if primal culture became dominant. Defining the fundamental differences between the two cultures, the article writes  their differences in views concerns spirituality versus religion, as well as their relationship surrounding land and the environment, their economic activities, the use of tools, work, "industrialism", technology and "science". This was a great article to read when trying to figure out the true differences between primal and modern cultures. I find that the author did a particularly good job describing the vast differences throughout the culture, especially focusing on the religious differences that they each shared. I find that just like discussed in class, it can be seen that as for the primal religions, the individuals throughout ...

A writeup posted by the United Nations entitled, O ral Traditions and Expressions, describes how oral traditions help keep culture alive. The article describes how  oral traditions and expressions encompasses an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. The author describes that Oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. Because of all of this, the author concludes that they play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive. Diving deeper into the topic, the author describes that l ike other forms of intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions are threatened by rapid urbanization, large-scale migration, industrialization and environmental change. Books, newspapers and magazines, radio, television and the Internet can have an especially damaging effect on oral traditions an...

While researching for another class, I came across an article published by ABC entitled, Indigenous Traditions - Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. In this writing, it described Australia of having two indigenous peoples – Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. They then write that it is not possible to speak of one Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander religion, as there were many. There are, however, shared cultural traits, economic and ceremonial dealings, and a customary system of land-tenure law. This article wrote of the great variety of religious beliefs Australian holds; describing in particular, inhabitants that happen to be one of the oldest societies in the world and the truly interesting beliefs they hold. Although indigenous beliefs and cultural practices vary according to region, all groups share in a common world-view that the land and other natural phenomena possess living souls. The collection of stories of these powerful beings and the repository of k...

After reading an article entitled, Primal Religions by author, Caroline Myss, the journal helps create a better  understanding of the religions and spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples of the world of primal cultures. In her writing, she states that,  “The primal consciousness has not been altered by the conditions and dichotomies” of modern, technological society, writes one observer. As a result, it “is not fragmented but remains whole. All of life is a symbolic paradigm of the sacred. Divine worship, for example, would not be regarded as an ‘activity’ to be separated or isolated from other ‘activities.’ Life as lived is a sacred ‘activity’ in and of itself. One worships as one breathes. Work and play (not ‘leisure’) are not so much opposites but simply two sides of the same coin.” I really liked this passage in her text for I feel as though she truly captures a lot of what we discuss in class. The individuals living in these societies do not practice religious...

In the 1984 Documentary entitled, Seasons of a Navajo, the story follows a year in the life of Dorothy and Chauncey Neboia, an elderly Navajo couple and their extended family who live on the vast Navajo Reservation. What this documentary showed to me was the Navajo's real respect for our Earth. The film shows how these people go about their everyday life, still holding true to their mythical/spiritual body and keeping respect for the mother Earth to be the most important part of their lives. I find that this is a film that really teaches its viewers how to live a lifestyle that respects the Earth as much as possible. I find that this film changed my views on a lot of things, especially how to live a eco-friendly life like the Navajo. To me, t he Navajo way of life looks a very good life and I wish all humans would follow the Navajo's path in respecting the earth and appreciating all the nature that sustains us.

In Victor Turner's Book entitled,  The Ritual Process , the idea of rituals is at the forefront of the author's focus. Turner divides his work  into two sections. The first half deals with the structure and the role of symbolism in Ndembu rituals, and the second, forming the main theoretical argument of the book, meditates on the relationship between the concepts of  liminality  and  communitas  that arise from his analysis of rituals, and their codependence with the concept of  structure . Conducting further research into the text, I learn that the majority of Turner's idea of the understanding  of ritual relies on the theoretical framework developed by Arnold van Gennep in his 1909 book  The Rites of Passage. I like how both authors break down the action of ritual into 3 categories; 1) Seperation, 2) Liminality and, 3) Reintegration. I like how Turner defines each section as well as I find the most interesting idea in the text is Turne...

After watching the movie Black Robe, I found that it truly did an astounding job articulating the relationship between the Algonquins and the Jesuits who were coming into their territory and trying to convert them. I find that for me, it perfectly illustrated the truer side of the history with the interactions between the Christians spreading the Gospel to tribal peoples in order to save them; as well as the evident bloodshed and hatred that shortly followed. I personally believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior but, still being a Christian, I truly do not think a person should impose beliefs on anyone else. God truly works in mysterious ways, and with that as a belief, who are we to say what is truth and who is saved? By simply watching this movie, we can see the true variety of viewpoints that were shared in this time. God being the creator, designed a world of different cultures and religions that I believe comes together as a cohesive unit. I found that this movie i...

As one of my favorite readings in this course, Bruchko written by Bruce Olson was truly one that I feel should be read by everyone.  Bruce Olson’s autobiography  Bruchko  contains much more than his life story. Olson’s work with the primitive Motilone Indian tribe of South America brings up missiological questions of utmost importance. He writes questioning  what the Gospel look like in a culture that is radically different from ours?  What traditions and customs can a culture preserve while maintaining a Christian identity?   How much do missionaries need to be immersed in a culture before they can effectively share the gospel? I find that these are all questions that we have discussed in class and ones that I believe give an astonishing story. The book  tells of the story of Bruce Olson’s truly difficult journey to the dangerous Motilone Indian tribe of South America. It was through his assimilation into Motilone culture as a main role in the en...

In the book,  The Spell of the Sensuous, author David  Abram discusses how a tribal culture in Asia performed magic to ensure their land was protected and was producing food. Throughout the text, Abram tackles the question of, h ow Western civilization become so estranged from nonhuman nature that we condone the ongoing destruction of forests, rivers, valleys, species and ecosystems?  Abram's venture to answering this dilemma led him to interacting with shamans in Nepal and sorcerers in Indonesia, where he studied how traditional healers monitor relations between the human community and the animate environment.  Coming to the conclusion that the alphabet has t riggered a trend toward increasing abstraction and alienation from nature, I find that he makes great arguments throughout the text showing how exactly advances in the technological world has produced an even more distant connection between individuals and the world in which they live in. I really enjoyed this ...

So my inspiration for this blog post is the ridiculous amount of handmade, African drums that my roommate has lying around our house. I finally took the time to look at them and observe the craftsmanship behind them. These are similar to drums used in many African oral cultures and it is just amazing how much time and skill was needed to make them. With that considered, music had to be an important part of their culture for them to take the time to make these instruments. It is easy to see why they would put in the effort, though. Music is the gateway to a person's soul. It can help you feel emotions more deeply or it can even help you express them. In oral cultures, music brought people together. It was used in rituals and it was a part of celebrations. It was and still is a big part of those traditions and who they are. Music doesn't even need words to touch your heart and your soul. You just feel music. It is a part of these cultures. Without it, there is a big empty hole th...

At the beginning of the semester, we talked about communicating with nature. This concept seemed familiar yet foreign to me all at the same time. I guess that's just because I never thought about nature in that way. I have always felt at home and at peace when I am in nature, more specifically in the mountains. I always enjoy being out there and just seeing all the beauty that nature has to offer. However, I never thought about how nature was actually trying to communicate with me and how I should be listening to it. It would be crazy to think that you can have verbal conversations with trees and plants. If you're talking to a flower and it starts talking back, I would suggest being a bit concerned about that. But it is interesting that nature is communicating with us by the things it does everyday. It gives us oxygen to breathe. It gives us a feeling of peace and relaxation. It gives us beauty to look at every day. It is just us who choose to ignore what nature provides for us...

Nature is seen differently depending on where you are from.  For people of a oral religion, nature is a sanctuary that is meant to be preserved and protected for the spirits.  For someone who is of a literate religion, nature is something given to man by god to do his bidding.  This can be seen where you look.  It is quite rare that you find a plot of land that has not been affected by literate religion's ideals.  Even where I live, where it is less populous, there are a plethora of farmland.  This land has changed from its original wetland/forest that it started out as before the Europeans came over.  I wonder what Europe would look like if the oral religions that preserve nature would have not had been relinquished by the literate religions like Christianity.  Would we have seen more preservation in Europe?

Horses have been a key factor in civilization for thousands of years.  People who lived in the America's didn't have horses until a little over 500 years ago.  The introduction of this new animal changed how they lived.  Before the horse, the people of the great plains followed the massive bison herds by foot, but when horses were introduced they had new means of travel, making it easier to travel long distances.  We have relied on horses as a means of transportation until about 100 years ago.  That is a long time for people to have a connection.  Horses have had multiple connections with people across the globe, from being the staple in a successful army, to being the "workhorse" that plows the field.  With the domestication of horses, people most likely wouldn't have come as far as the have or maybe it would just take a lot longer to do so.

I was reading this article about the Dakota Access pipeline when I noticed something peculiar.  It started talking about sacred space.  It said that where the pipeline was going to be built was where they had rituals to get people on their spiritual path.  The problem is that there are no physical locators in this area for a non-native to see this as sacred space.  This is hard for non-natives because all things sacred in western culture are shown with some kind of symbol but with these people, the nature itself is the symbol.  Even the archaeologists didn't put the area down as a sacred site.  This is because they didn't find any ruins, bones, or tools in the area.  It seems that the archaeologists that they were dealing with only deal in absolutes. 

In the Yanomamo culture, the women don't have the bet life.  The are essentially just there to breed new men for the camp and make new women to be traded with.  This can be seen with the origin myth being that women were at first a fruit with a gigantic vagina that all the Yanomamo procreated with.  The women are used a bargaining chips between tribes and when one attacks another tribe, they usually take their women.  If a women is walking in the woods, she is in danger of being kidnapped.  The women are only safe if they are old because then they have no use for procreation.  That is why on several occasions, the anthropologist was led by a elderly lady in the forest.  Are there groups out there that share similar aspects about women?   

While reading the second to last chapter, I noticed that the people on the Island were split up into three groupings.  These grouping were the Northern people, the Central people, and the Southern people.  I noticed that all of these had different variants of each other but they shared one key concept.  This concept are rock and cave drawings.  It is said that paintings serve as incarnations of sacred powers responsible for the world and have then become the human beings.  From this it seems that the people were created from the cave drawings.  Are there other religions with origin stories coming from caves?

When reading chapter 4,  I came across a part about south African themes in African religions.  One of these is that we know how much life has changed for the Zulu before the whites arrived.  For starters, women had it a lot worse then.  They were required to do a majority of the labor and their culture was polygamous.  This means that a man could have many wives.  This is different than some of the other places we've looked at in our class.  I wonder if there are any polygamous primal religions still out there today.

While reading chapter 2 of this book, I came across a section about the Natives that live in the far north of North America.  I thought this section was interesting since we didn't cover any of these in class.  These people have a deep connection with their land.  How they act is most likely what would be seen if the Europeans would have never crossed the Atlantic.  The question is how much have we changed the natives culture and are there any in the southern parts of north america that have had minimum changes since the Europeans arrived.

One of the recurring themes in the film In Light of Reverence was the inability for many individuals on the side of the mainstream American culture to recognize the significance of traditional native spaces. In the case of the Lakota Sioux and Devil's Tower, the locals expressed scorn and frustration when speaking of the Lakota's position regarding the climbing of the rock face in June. In many cases, this seems like simple ignorance on the part of climbers, but I wonder to what degree the literate/oral culture divide play in the failure of communication. One member of the tribe compared their relationship with Devil's Tower and the surrounding areas to the Christian concept of a church. Would the judge have sided with the climbers in the official court ruling had he considered the tribe's claim on the land in the same way he would the members of his own church?

American Gods is a show on STARZ that came on last spring.  In the first few minutes, they show how different gods ended up in america.  They used a slave ship for Anansi (African god of trickery and wisdom) and the vikings landing for Odin.  In one of these beginning minutes.  They showed a primal religion.  It was a group of indigenous people from the arctic area between North America and Asia.  Their god was a mammoth skull.  Since they were struggling were they were, they traveled south.  Their shaman prayed to their god.  They kept moving south and cam across a Bison with burning eyes that was white.  This Bison stabbed the Shaman in the heart and walked off.  After, the native who followed the Bison came out welcomed the Mammoth worshipers.  The mammoth worshipers dropped their mammoth skull and fallowed the Bison people.  Then it shows the gradual decomposition of the skull.  My question is I wonder how many go...

While I was reading Chapter Two in this book, I got quite fascinated by the part of the chapter where it discusses the native Americans that lived in the area in which we live today.  This is of coarse the Eastern Woodlands.  One of the interesting things I learned was that these people would attack the people who were different than them.  If they were able to communicate through language, they were less likely to go to war.  If they couldn't communicate, they would join with the people that the could talk to and wage war on the people who couldn't speak to them.  Another interesting thing I saw was that the eastern woodlands people had a concept of an all Father like we see in European religion.  The two most common known of these are Odin and Zeus.  The difference was that for the Eastern Woodland people, the all father was more of an abs tact concept, not really having a form. 

Tricksters are seen in all types of religion.  The most common form in primal religions in america is the Coyote.  We talked about how he helped form the rivers, waterfall, and creeks by stealing the water from the frog people.  Even though he tricked someone, it helped out many.  An example of this in popular culture is Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  In these movies, he fits the role of an anti-hero by causing destruction in the first Thor and Avengers movies, but by helping Thor in the next films in his series.  In European folktales, the trickster takes the form of a Fox.  This man is called Reynard the fox.  In these stories, he uses his trickery to get out of trouble from other animals in the forest.  Reynard's stories were so popular, the word for fox was changed from its original form goupil to what is now renard.  This is just an example of how even though there was a sea between these two cultures, they still picked a s...

There are a lot of sacred places in primal religions.  Many of these places were have been destroyed by outside forces.  This saw many examples of this in class.  One of these was when the Hopi's sacred peaks were destroyed by people excavating the land for rock.  Another was when a tribe sold their water and coal to a company.  They didn't think this was going to affect them but it has caused their sacred places to get water to drop drastically.  Sometimes its hard for the people not in the primal religions to find the sacred sites because they could not have any physical sign of sacredness in the eyes of a literate religion.  A question is how do we find a way to better respect the sacred places of primal religions in the United States without infringing on people rights?

One Group that we didn't focus on in our class were the primal religions from Africa.  It is interesting that in the book, it talks about how the Pygmies saw bloodshed as an abomination.  This is different than the other primal religions were it is seen as a positive thing to kill another of a warring tribe.  African culture and religions has been around longer than any other and so they have had the most time to become complex.  The problem is that the European countries colonized Africa and caused them to convert to Christianity.  If this wouldn't have happened, then maybe these religions, could have developed into something more complex and created a different kind of Africa than what we know today

We touched briefly in class on Buber's famous I/Thou formulation of intersubjective relationships, specifically how application of the concept can inform a discussion of Merleau Ponty's views on the constructed self. The distinction between experience and encounter is raised when dealing with intersubjective contact. Experience includes those moments of contact that result in empirical knowledge about some objective state of affairs. Most activities then can be considered experience, as they deal with objects in a way that is singularly one-sided. Encounters, however, only occur in instances of contact between two thinking subjects or something that breaks some conceptual scheme. Encounters are foundational to conception in that they provide the opportunity for growth and relationships between two subjects. In this way, experiences contribute and populate and individual's Life World, but do not change it meaningfully. Encounters are those moments of contact with the Other t...

In most primal religions, the jaguar is usually seen as clumsy, but in some cases it is not.  In the Yanomami had the approach that they were dangerous but also clumsy.  In the Yanomamo culture, the Jaguar is a relative to them and that a jaguar eating humans is cannibalism.  The story goes that Jaguar's nephew went into a village to a pretty woman and laid with her while her husband was out hunting.  Weeks went by and the woman was showing a pregnant stomach.  The Jaguar's nephew went to visit the woman but her husband was there to confront him.  The two wrestled and Jaguars nephew was thrown into the fire.  He got out and his fur was burned and scarred so he used his nails and tore of his fur.  After this he ran home to his uncle the Jaguar's house and went to sleep.  The Jaguar was not there when he arrived but when he did come home he saw what he though was a naked pig in the tent so he ate his nephew which he thought was a pig.  Onc...

We have examined the role that human-imposed concepts play in the epistemic and cultural traditions of various societies. In comparison of oral and literate cultures, we have seen how certain foundational structures of human cognition can widely differ in societies with different modes of communication technology. These structures are composed of certain assumptions and beliefs about the world that serve to contextualize and organize all new beliefs and experience. For the phenomenologist, the world of pure pre-conceptual objects is the objective world. Upon interaction with a thinking consciousness, this objective world is rationalized and process by the subject, and is constituted as that individual's Life World. The Life World, then, is both individual and social. On the level of the individual, the Life World functions to organize all the disparate qualia received from direct sense experience and organizes them into discrete structures. The level of the life world is more abstr...

The Yanomami were an indigenous tribe in south america that had never been contacted until the 1960s.  During this time this anthropologist stayed with the group for various years.  In this time, he learned some of their myths.  One of these myths is how they became so fierce.  The story goes that Peribo the moon was eating the souls of children.  Peribo the moon also ate the children of a person named Suhirina.  Suhirina was so upset about this that they shot an arrow at the moon.  The arrow hits the moons stomach and his bloods starts to pill up in big puddles.  The men were created from these puddles.  The largest puddles created the most war-hungry and aggressive people and they all fought each other and most of them died off.  Where only a few droplets formed are where the less aggressive people originated from.  It is said that if someone is more aggressive than they have moon blood in them.  This creation myth only deals...

Edmund Husserl introduces the concept of intersubjectivity in an attempt to solve the Cartesian problem of other subjects. Descartes identifies in his first Meditation the possibility that our entire perceptual experience, including our experiences of our fellow subjects, is an elaborate fiction propagated by some unknown power. While this does not seem especially likely, Descartes makes a good point in noting the difficulty of establishing the actual existence of much besides our thinking selves. The artifacts of our experience that we often take for granted as immutably real, including our relationships with each other, in fact sit on very shaky ontological ground, at least according to the traditional Cartesian formulation of the argument. Husserl attempts to bridge this solipsistic gap by positing some faculty that affords us intimate knowledge of other subjects, including confirmation of their existence, non-inferentially. This phenomenon of other-knowing is constituted through ac...

One of the primary concerns of the philosophical field of phenomenology is to breach the classic Kantian divide of noumena and phenomena. Some philosophers simply reject the distinction entirely, while others attempt to work within the traditional framework while still seeking direct contact with the things themselves. One of the barriers to this exercise is often the interference and imposition of a posteriori concepts onto the  objects of experience. It is then the job of the phenomenologist to proceed past the barrier of the human conceptual schema in order to achieve his aim. Given this necessity, a paradox seems to present itself in the very way that phenomenologists operate within the professional discipline of philosophy. While more traditional analytic philosophers undoubtedly gain from the complex and traditional nature of the professional hierarchy, it seems that to the phenomenologist the manifold of professional and traditional hoops to jump through regarding philosoph...

Religions have been around for over two thousand years.  Over these years, people have been worshiping various objects.  One that is an occurring theme are animals.  Why would this be the case?  Is it because they associate these animals with their abilities.  So if there is a god of the wind, it has the head of a hawk.  Is this because since this animal can flies in their world, the easiest way for them to perceive anything flying it has to have some sort of shared characteristic with known animals.  Animals are a bridge for understanding otherworldly things.  For people of primal religions, these non-human characteristics has to coincide with the animal that has those characteristics in their land.  A question I have is when do they see these characteristics as something other than animistic and more of just people having these abilities without the physical characteristics of an animal or is that asking a culture to change its religion?

This is a film that still sticks with me. For me, it is hard to watch a documentary. I can't explain why, that's just how I am. So it is really nice to watch a film with a plot that still shows the important aspects of the interactions between the Christian settlers and the Native Americans. I think my favorite moment of the movie, was Captain Tick Tock. It wasn't a big part of the film but it was just interesting to think about. The notion of time that we know is just a societal construct. It's amazing to think about cultures that don't live their days based off of minutes and hours. They don't measure time like that. These cultures just know daylight and moon light. They do what they need to do during the day. They aren't really controlled by deadlines. They don't think "oh crap I gotta get this done in the next hour." They don't live in a constant state of stress due to time constraints. The comment the Native Americans made in the movie...

After watching the videos in class on the Native American tribes, I have new feelings about them. We grow up learning a very watered down version of what happened to Native Americans. Yes, we do learn about the trail of tears and the taking of their land. But we do not learn the full extent of what happened. The Europeans came in and basically slaughtered them because they thought that they weren't civilized people. They thought the Native Americans were just savages. It's incredibly disturbing to know that happened to them. I cannot imagine the actual pain those people felt, having their homes, languages, and heritage stripped from them all because these new people come in and don't take the time to learn about their cultures. If the settlers had actually spent time with the Native Americans and learned their customs, maybe things would have turned out differently. Or maybe nothing would have changed at all. Thinking that things could have been different could just be wish...

When we discussed myths in class, several of the creation myths seemed to sound very similar to each other. They had their obvious differences, but there were some aspects that sounded so similar that it seemed like they could have had the same tribal origins. One common concept that seems to come up in creation myths is child killing father. It happened in the Greek creation myth. Zeus killed his father Cronus because Cronus wanted to eat Zeus and kill him. In the Celtic myth, the son killed his father so he could break free from his parents' suffocating embrace that would have ultimately killed him. In both myths, the mothers helped the sons kill the fathers. It seems interesting to me that death had to occur for life to be born in both myths. It sort of plays into the idea of the circle of life. We are born, we live, and then we die. And after we die, our bodies are returned to the Earth to help give life to plants which help sustain all life on Earth. Therefore, death is necess...

One of the major themes that we've discussed in this class throughout the semester has been comparing and contrasting oral cultures with written cultures. There are many differences, including ritual practices, moral codes, and utilization of spaces. However, another major difference that we only briefly touched upon is the way in which primal and modern cultures differ in their dense of understanding time. In today's world, time is very linear. We consider there to be a beginning and an end, and have even become so technical as to mark the years, months, days, and even hours. We measure our lives in the passing of years and death is seen as a gateway to a new life or an eternal paradise. For primal cultures, however, life is entirely cyclical. When we die, our bodies serve as food for scavenging animals or as nutrients for the soil. Our energies are passed along to other members of the natural environment, so despite our deaths, we never stop contributing to the circle of life...

In the United States of America, we live in a fast-paced, technologically elaborate society where we are constantly striving to become more advanced in our technologies. We are in competition with other countries who are doing the same thing, and I believe it's becoming a pretty big distraction. After studying primal cultures in this class and understanding their way of life, I began to see how we could benefit from a slower and more simple life style. The Navajo Indians are a good example of a slower-paced, oral culture that lives primarily off the land. They use basic tools to help them with their daily chores such as farming, as well as highly sophisticated technologies like the tool they use to make rugs. They demonstrate a high level of skill in the areas of work they do to maintain their lifestyle, and it takes a lot of work for them to sustain their lives. In the film of the Navajo, the grandmother of the family was asked what she was responsible for teaching the younger g...

It is interesting how the music can be such an integral part of one's culture and spirituality. There are many accounts where music or song is connected to the visual imagery found in nature, including in some culture's creation myths. This is a phenomena called synesthesia, where one's senses such as taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing can be blended or interrelated with each other. For instance, one might be able to taste a smell, or hear something and visualize colors or shapes. This is an ability that all humans were given, according to Abram in his book The Spell of the Sensuous; it isn't a special gift only a few people have in the world.  In his book The Magician's Nephew , Lewis writes that Aslan created Narnia by singing a unique creation song. This creation myth was directly inspired by the story in Genesis where God creates the world by the Words he spoke. I thought it was interesting the Lewis made Aslan sing creation into being, rather than speak...

I took an anthropology class in high school where we had to read an ethnography about the African tribe called the !Kung. The native speakers of the !Kung could be found in Namibia, Angola, South Africa, and Botswana. I found their language to be very interesting because they use 'clicks' in their speech, which is designated as '!' when it's written. There language also has the most complex combinations of both consonant and vowels. The !Kung language contains at least eleven and fifteen dialects, but there are four main distinct dialects of the language studied by researchers today. I watched a short documentary recently on the !Kung produced by National Geographic. In the video, they explain how researchers believe that all of our languages once contained click sounds, and that the !Kung's language is the last one remaining that is the most original. I thought this was a really interesting thought, and it made me think of the Tower of Babel story from the Bi...

I find it fascinating that the Motilone people place such a high significance on language. Bruce Olson describes how the Motilone people think of one's speech as one's life. Bobby's song on page 133 highlights this well. "Jesus is in my mouth; I have a new speech. Jesus is in my mouth; No one can take Him from me. I speak Jesus' words. I walk in Jesus' steps. I am Jesus' boy; He has filled my stomach, and I am no longer hungry." Equating speech with life reminds me of how many ancient languages use the same word for "breath" and "spirit." Bobby's song is reminiscent of so many western praise songs that call Jesus "the breath in our lungs." Motions also have a tradition of having secret names that none but a few closest family and friends know. Olson recalls when Bobby first told him about his secret name on page 102. "...every Motilone has a secret name that is his real identity. Only his father and s...

              In class, we discussed the liminality one experiences during a rite of passage. Liminal space is this in-between, grey area where one has departed from their past role/identity and is going through the process of being initiated into another position or identity. In the book  The Ritual Process , Turner writes about how liminality during rites of passage for the Kanongesha of the Ndembu can be likened to death. I believe imagery of death abounds in rituals performed during the liminal phase of the rite of passage because the "old" person is essential dying, and the new is being birthed. I find this imagery to be fascinating because it is a concept adopted by so many different cultures in many different ways.               We were encouraged in class to discuss rites of passage we believe our culture practices. As a Christian, I immediately thought of baptism as a rite of passage because I believe t...

In my journal entry, my demarcation for crossing into adulthood was intrinsically different than how most Americans think of their coming of age. As I've previously written about, most Americans point to turning a particular age as the start of adulthood. It could be at 16 or 18 or 26. I've also heard of people who point to particular events like graduating college or buying their first home or apartment or getting married or getting their first job. My coming of age seems to be unique. I focused on my father venting to me. Adulthood, for me, was not an achievement like becoming a husband or homeowner. It wasn't even an inevitability, like turning 21. Adulthood was a gift that had to be bestowed to me. I didn't earn it or arrive at adulthood. I received it. That has some parallels with the ceremonies I saw in the Navajo ceremony for the girl becoming a woman. An integral aspect of the rituals was the giving of several blessings. Blessings are always given to the one who...

Part two of my rambling on adulthood. ...... Hopefully you understand how strenuous parenting can be. If you’re a parent reading this, you know this far better than I do. I describe how impossibly challenging parenting is so I can establish a backdrop for my main point. Parents themselves are human beings. Ultimately, they have no more insight into how life works or why we’re here or what difference anything makes than any other adult on this planet. Let us not forget that parents are children, too. Of course, that does not excuse parents from their calling to be parents. Whether or not a man or woman is ready to raise a kid, when they have one, they gain that responsibility. But they’re still people with struggles and strengths and desires and scars and quirks and everything else that makes people human. Like all humans, parents need to vent their thoughts and emotions from time to time. Venting is an intimate thing. I understand gossip is wrong; that’s not what I’m talking abou...

This is from a journal entry I wrote sophomore year. I haven't published this before for any academic reason, but it's been on my mind since our discussion about coming-of-age ceremonies. I record a time that I pointed to as my "coming-of-age" moment. Two years after the moment, the line between adulthood and childhood is still as blurry as ever. I wonder if primal peoples feel the same tension. Declaring oneself to be an adult changes nothing physically or developmentally. Sometimes I certainly don't feel  like an adult. Perhaps being an adult carries no unique feeling--outside of joint pain, that is. If that's the only feeling associated with adulthood, I'm definitely an adult. I digress. Here's the first bit of my journal. ...... It is an incredible thing when parents begin to confide in their children. Previously, I’ve noted how discomfiting it can be to realize parents are as perplexed and improvisational in life as any other human on the face...

In class, we talked about Navajo coming-of-age ceremonies. Many different cultures have such ceremonies that serve as clear demarcations between childhood and adulthood. America has no such ceremony. We noted a few different ages Americans might consider to be the start of adulthood. At sixteen, most people begin driving. At eighteen, citizens are allowed to vote and join the military and live independently; they’re no longer considered minors. At 21, you can drink. At 25, you can rent a car. At 26, you’re off your parent’s insurance. All of these ages and justifications share a common theme. Americans equate adulthood with independence. Independence is not the only factor in determining how “adult” one is, but it seems to be the primary factor. Primal cultures don’t emphasize independence in the same way. In fact, primal cultures emphasize the opposite of independence. Coming of age means the child is now accountable to the whole tribe. Adults are expected to serve and uphold the comm...

In Abram's book The Spell of the Sensuous , he talks about how oral language reflects or mimics the landscape and the wild life present in the environment. He states, "If we listen, first, to the sounds of an oral language--to the rhythms, tones, and inflections that play through the speech of an oral culture--we will likely find that these elements are attuned, in multiple and subtle ways, to the contour and scale of the local landscape, to the depth of its valleys or the open stretch of its distances, to the visual rhythms of the local topography" (Abram, 140). This is interesting to me because I have often thought that people's language was influenced exclusively by the way other people spoke. I have never thought of language being influenced by the land. This phenomena reminds me of the creation story in Genesis. God spoke words and the earth was created. In the gospel of John, it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word...

In the book, The Spell of the Sensuous by Abram, he discusses how a tribal culture in Asia performed magic to ensure their land was protected and was producing food. He described how some villages would have tribal shamans that would act as intermediaries between the human community and the larger ecological field, performing constant rituals to ensure that the relation between the two is balanced and reciprocal. They believed their rituals directly correlated with the scale of a harvest or the size of a hunt. Magic usually means the power to manipulate the world, or to affect change without relationship. This tribal culture was heavily relying on this type of "magic" to ensure their well being. There was no relationship involved with this practice, because the tribal shamans believed that the environment had no choice but to respond to their rituals and sacrifices. I thought it was interesting how magic is contrasted to prayer in the context of Christian's relationship...

In the film that we watched in class about the Navajo Indians, we learned that they would offer sacrifices to the spirits and perform certain rituals to ensure their land would be fruitful and that their health would be sustained. For example, one of the older Navajo women taught the younger generations to wake up when the sun rises to stay in good health. I found it very interesting the Navajo believed without a shadow of a doubt that their lives would be longer if they rose at dawn. The Navajo would also perform rituals like bathing in a steam room, and afterwards rub loose soil on their bodies as a sacrifice to the spirits or gods. I believe they performed this ritual to ensure that their surrounding environment (weather, animals, insects like bees) worked out for their advantage. In The Spell of the Sensuous  by Abram, he discusses a ritual that the tribal culture in eastern Bali would perform to ensure they had a harmonious relationship with the environment around them. Abra...

Abram, David.  The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World . New York: Vintage Books, 1996. After watching the film Black Robe, the significance of cultural variations in religious meaning and identity is much better understood, especially in relation to primal cultures. The French Jesuits found their sacredness within man-made structures, such as large cathedrals with vaulted ceilings and ornately constructed altars. The Native Americans, on the other hand, found virtue and value within the ancient architecture of Mother Earth, including the communities of animals, plants, and geographical features. Some aspects of the rituals and religiosity of the French Christians and Native Americans overlapped, including the need to find sacred significance in personal means. This is exemplified in the scene where Father LaForgue got lost in the forest during the group's journey to the Huron mission. He called out that he was lost, both physically and metap...