Indian Religion Vs American Religion

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

Religions have very distinct differences because every religion has something that another one does not. The differences can even cause conflicts between different religions even if they are in the same family. Religions also have similarities that can cause feuds to end if people use it in the right way. You can see these similarities and differences in Hinduism and Native American religions if you look at how they do their rituals, rites of passage, view of gods, view of holy book, afterlife, and the role of women.

Throughout the Spanish conquest and exploration of Mesoamerica, religion became a focal point in Spanish observations of indigenous cultures. Influenced by European biases and colonial mindset, the Spanish criticized indigenous religion by condemning their

When most western people think about Native American or African religions there is a certain stigma that comes with the topic. This is in part because there is a lot of misinformation in the world about Native American and African religions. When most westerners think of African religions they think of voodoo and black magic. Likewise, the view of Native American religions is still looked at through the lens of the pilgrims who wrote about Native Americans as being savages and less than human. These stereotypes were all formed from a lack of accurate information. African and Native American religions are very similar. It is difficult to find a lot of accurate information on African and Native American indigenous religions because of the lack of written history but there is a lot of oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation. From this information, it is clear that Native American and African religions have many more similarities than they do differences. Three of these similarities will be discussed in this paper. The first topic of discussion is the similarity between African and Native American people when it comes to their perception of the spirit world. Following this topic are the similarities between Native American and African views on the afterlife and finally, the diversity of beliefs within African and Native American religions.

Throughout colonial time there were many beliefs, movements, and conquests that happened within many countries. One of them in which was the spiritual conquest of the Spanish and the Portuguese. This spiritual conquest would undoubtedly be carried over to the Americas. Due to religion being very important to both the Europeans and the Natives this lead to a conflict that cause fights, missions, and resistances to increase.

The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours. The Iroquois are northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans in North America.

There are may religions in the world, but through out the different religions there are many crossovers and similarities. Mattie Stepanek said “It doesn't matter how you pray. Just pray. All religions are beautiful and they all have one common belief. There's something bigger and greater than us that can give us and take from us life. It is better than the here and now”. Religion itself means “a belief in and worship of a greater power” (dictionary.com). By people believing in any kind of religion, it means that similarities can start there. With so many religions having similarities, it might be hard to distinguish from certain religions from another. Religions like of African and Native Americans might not at first seem alike, but as you look deeper into their religions and see they have similarities. These similarities are attributed as beliefs, rituals, and history. Their growths and struggles might not have happened at the same time, but both religions are still celebrated today.

Those who moved to the new world had one of two motivations: the hope of free worship or to gain profit through the New World’s untapped resources. With the religious persecution of

Religious beliefs are one of the key factors that have shaped our world society today. The Spanish religious conquest was one of the first early history examples that played a big role in America. As soon as the Spanish landed in New Spain it changed the Native Mexican culture. The consequence of the spiritual conquest was the loss of the native people beliefs, buildings, and customs. However, the Native Mexicans did not respond well to the conquest, it caused them to rebelling against the Spanish, but with time they started to accept the Spanish ways.

The Europeans, therefore, described the indigenous people as savage, polytheistic pagans and heathens, who were doomed to damnation for the worship of animals and nature. The Europeans, within their understanding of the will of God, believed it their duty and their responsibility to teach these indigenous people the “correct” way to live, and were determined to impose their own religion upon the indigenous people by enforcing the worship of the God of the Christian Bible through any means deemed necessary, including slavery, coercion, and the threat of, or actual maiming or death. Europeans chose to dismiss the religious and cultural practices of the indigenous peoples because the indigenous peoples did not engage in scheduled worship services as the Europeans did, or call their deities by the names that the Europeans used, nor did the indigenous peoples perform their worship ceremonies in the same manner as the Europeans.

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

The founding of religion gave birth to quite a few contentions between separate groups, raising moral dialectics. These moral bickers from religion fueled groups to spread their specific beliefs or ideals. For example, in the year 1769 Spanish Missionaries, led by Junipero Serra, attempted to christianize those Native Americans who habited California. The missionaries accumulated thousands of semi-nomadic Indians to strong missions which taught ideas like horticulture. Missionaries fiercely shoved the idea of christianity down the throats of the natives, yet they did so with retaliation. It was common for the natives to violently rebel against the religious influences pushing into their private, peaceful lives. Also, French-Catholic Missionaries called Jesuits, attempted to "save" Native Americans and convert them into Christianity. Jesuits went as far as to try and convert Native Americans even though they were rebellious to the point of violence, like the Native Americans in California. A majority of the Jesuits' attempts failed because copious amounts of the conversions were not permanent. In the small world of politics and religion, philosopher John Locke emphasized the separation

“Sometimes it is impossible to know where you are headed without reflecting on where you came from. Understanding your heritage, your roots and your ancestry is an important part of carving out your adventure.” When reading from Close Range and A Radiant Curve the reader gets the feeling that both of these women have strong ties to their heritage, their roots. It is evident in Luci Tapahonso’s poem “The warp is even: taut vertical loops”. Tapahonso wants the reader to feel close to her family as she feels. “Suddenly I miss my father to. How he savored such mornings (Tapahonso 3).”

The late 15th century marked the beginnings of a period of discovery and expansion for Europeans. During these years of discovery, great forces behind drive for expansion existed. The Spanish and Portuguese's main forces included: the lust for the wealth of gold and silver, the acquisition of new lands which brought nobility, and the spread of their Christian based religion. The Spanish and Portuguese conquest of Latin America provides us with insight of these drives in the ultimate search for power. Unfortunately, these motives caused a European-Indigenous syncretism that virtually changed the native peoples way of life. Ultimately, syncretism meant survival for Native Americans in a world where their way of life did not suit the life

Everybody has their own definition of Culture – and when this word is used generally, most audiences have a rough idea of its meaning. Culture usually refers to the beliefs, ideas, languages, rituals and traditions by certain communities, that are passed from generation to generations continuously over the past many centuries. In society, two cultures cannot be same if one is located on the west coast and the other one is all the way to the East. As we compare, the American and Indian cultures have very vast differentiation between them. While the culture of America is a mixture of different cultures since each immigrant internally packed his or her previously