Indigenous Religion Essay

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.

Animism is common among African and Native American religions. It is the belief that all of earth is alive even in the form of spirits or animals. This idea embraces harmony among all living things and that humans are essentially no better than say a fish. If the harmony becomes out of balance, sacrifice or ritual is often performed in order to restore the balance that has been lost. The Native Americans believe that the highest spirit lives in

Believed the supernatural powers can be manipulated by “medicine men or women” who would cure and advise other tribe members and act as a medium between our world and the spirit world. Shamans were believed to predict the future and use medicine and magic to heal the sick.

What is an ‘indigenous’ religion or belief system? When we hear the term ‘indigenous religion’, what comes to our minds? How do we react internally when those words are mentioned? How do adherents of indigenous religions feel about those outside of their social and cultural circles, who know very little of their beliefs and who understand them even less. And how did the term ‘indigenous’ become associated with various belief systems that, in many cases, preceded most modern religions being practiced today?

Just when the human history of the Americas actually began is the subject of scholarly debate. The disciplinary tools of anthropology and archaeology continue to provide us with ever more refined and exact knowledge about early Native American communities, but the exact time frame remains murky, broadly defined, and subject to disagreement. This lack of precision results from the absence of writing among most of the Native American cultures, depriving us of the benefits of the account of any eyewitnesses to help guide the inquiry. Although the isolation of the western hemisphere allowed the humans there to develop distinctive cultures, some disadvantages became clear the moment Europeans appeared.

People had already been living in the Americas for thousands of years before the Europeans “discovered” the Americas. When the Europeans invaded this land they brought with them diseases such as smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, plague, typhus, and influenza contagions that repeatedly spread through the Native American peoples, killing them in high numbers. At the time the United States was settled by Europeans, it was abundantly populated by dozens of separate nations with diverse civilizations and cultures. Despite their initial confusion to their situation after the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans did not take their disenfranchisement from their own land lying down. Native Americans have a long history of "fighting

The consequences of colonization of 1942 has left many Americans to forget about the first people who inhabited the lands we now call the United States. Not only has it made us forget, but has dramatically affected Indian Country by the lost of culture, language, families, health, food sources, environment, and their overall traditional ways of living. As indigenous people are restoring what was taken away from them, Indian Country is also battling the disease of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health, physical abuse, lost of Identity, high rates of suicide, poverty, unemployment and systemic oppression. Not to mention, their rights as Sovereign people.

Animism: Animism is the belief that non-human creatures and inanimate objects can possess spiritual qualities. This belief is enforced in many religions and societies. For example, Hindu people worship the cow, because they believe it has a spiritual essence. Other religions

animism- The attribution of soul to animals. This was an occurrence in Native American tradition.

The Aboriginal people do not view the country as a land filled with rocks, soil or minerals, but rather a nature that endures the needs for living things. The Aboriginals are closely connected to the land as it is the central of all spirituality. Any issues that the land encounters, the Indigenous people find important as they cherish and perceive the land as their mother; a nurturer. An important aspect of the Aboriginal spirituality is to protect the land as they are a part of it because the land sustains them with food, water and a place to share their culture.

There are many different religions with many different beliefs, traditions, practices, and rituals. These differences are a very important part of understanding and appreciating the culture and history behind the specific religion. However, the practices that certain religions have in common can aid even more in furthering the understanding of specific beliefs of other religions. Since most religions cultivate from the practices and beliefs of other religions, they use those core values and beliefs and transform them into what they believe is a better way practicing. Religions use similarities within each other and twist them into their own. There are certain beliefs within every religion that shape their practices such as their morals or their most essential or absolute value, their position on human beings’ problems and solutions, and their view on life and death within their religion. Pure Land Buddhism (a form of Mahayana Buddhism) and Vaishnavites (a group within Hinduism) are great examples of this very concept.

Aborigines are believed to have lived in Australia for between 60,000 and 40,000 years, their early ancestors coming from South-East Asia. Precise population details for the period before European colonisation are unavailable, but it is estimated that there were between 300,000 and 1,000,000 Aborigines in Australia when European settlers first arrived in 1788.

Hinduism believes that realizing the soul is the embodiment of Brahman is essential to being released from the cycle of rebirth, Samsara. Hindus understand that the soul, atman, is permanent and only inhabits a physical shell which dies and passes the soul on to the next mortal shell, which can be better or worse than the previous depending on karma. With that said, Hindus believe in rebirth until one realizes the ultimate divine at which point they would be free from the punarjanma, the transmigration of the soul, liberating their souls to achieve moksha. Buddhism, on the other hand, challenges Atman with the belief in Anatman, which is non-self. Buddhists believe that the world is constantly changing, nullifying the concept of the permanent soul, Atman. There is no reason the soul remains unchanged in a perpetually changing environment.

Shamans were people who had power to communicate with gods. They were important because they had high authority with political

One of the major elements of Paleolithic religion is animism. According to research, animism "is defined as a belief that a soul or spirit exists in living things (humans, animals, plants) and inanimate objects (rocks, mountains, sticks, bodies of water). These things may have a spirit that has a human-like personality or motivation, or they may possess an impersonal force that emanates or transfers good (mana) or ill (taboo)" (Cramer, 2012). Essentially, it is the belief that human and nonhuman objects carry some sort of spiritual power. Thus, they become an important part of the many religious doctrines of this ancient time period. Animism can be seen as a way to interpret many of the artifacts and myths within Paleolithic religions. For one, the myths of creation of many different groups around the globe are often centered on animal spirits or other nature spirits that are nonhuman, yet that played a large role in the creation of the human world (Hefner & Virgilio, 2010). Moreover, artifacts of animals and human/ animal hybrids