Many cultures around the world have beliefs and traditions unique to their way of life. One of the main influences in their culture stems from religious beliefs, that almost always explains the fundamental questions of human existence, purpose and relationship with spiritual beings and nature. These timeless origin stories seem to address these questions in vibrant, creative and powerful ways. They all point to some power, force or being that is responsible for man’s existence and purpose, and in turn determine man’s relationship with them in this world. There is certainly a correlation and influence of the origin stories and their corresponding cultures. For example, when looking at the Iroquois origin story, women play a crucial role …show more content…
When hunting for food they do not claim their skill and weaponry to their successful hunt but revere the dead animal who willingly offered itself as a sacrifice to feed the tribe. For cultures to coexist peacefully, socially and economically, it is extremely beneficial to understand the core beliefs that exist within those cultures. As already explained, the strong influence that origin stories have on their respective cultures, explains the unique lifestyle that may be diverse and rich in how people groups determine what their culture will look like and represent. A coming together of two cultures with opposing or different cultural heritages, can create more conflict and misunderstanding, given the sensitive nature of their belief system especially when an aspect of the divine or spiritual nature of their heritage is desecrated. We see this desecration and conflict take place between the Native Americans and the European settlers. Their differences in beliefs based on their origin stories indicated why there were so many massacres like the one in 1890 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The U.S government was apprehensive about the spiritual movement where they performed the Ghost Dance. The Sioux believe they were defeated because they had angered their gods by forsaking their traditions. As per the article titled, “Wounded Knee” from history.com, “Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of
The Haudenosaunee is one of the best known Native American Indian groups that lived in the northern New York region. They are referred to as the Iroquoians. They are a group of five allied nations – the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk. Their league of confederation is called the “League of Iroquois”. Tuscarora, a sixth nation joined them later. They were very strong militarily and feared by Europeans and fellow Indians alike. The rivers in the region ran into Lake Ontario. The winters were cold and snowy and the summers were pleasant but humid. They had extensive varieties of animals both large and small. The language spoken was the Iroquoian language by both the northern
Before the arrival of Europeans in the 1600’s, the Five Nations of the Iroquois lived under a constitution that had three main principles, peace, justice, and the health of mind and body. The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy offered compelling evidence of Native American rich and sophisticated cultures with their well established democratic government with a form of religion and a strong matriarchal system before the advent of Europeans.
How come they have never met each other? Hey, but they all live in Canada and all met the Europeans! I wonder if the Europeans ever mentioned one tribe to the other? Anyway, the Inuit, Haida, and the Iroquois are the same in many ways but are a lot different.
In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling
There is an enormous amount of symbolism in the Navajo Creation Story. One important symbol is the number 4. The table below lists several aspects of the story that are related to the number 4.
Usually when two cultures meet, they do not usually agree with each other and the result of that do not usually end up well, which can lead to misunderstandings, preconceptions and denials.
Many Native Americans tell stories of the creation of earth that explain how they came to be before the Europeans entered North America. Creation myths vary among all cultures; however, they all have one thing in common; heaven and earth. One of the most popular creation myths was the Iroquois creation myth. The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee meaning “People of the Longhouse” (Iroquois Indian Museum, n.d.) consists of six Indian nations that include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes. In the beginning, there was a belief that before the creation of earth, there were two realms, the sky, and the lower world that consisted of water and water creatures. From the sky, a young woman named the Sky Woman was
The class teacher was telling the whole class that 4th grades have to do a social studies project. In which they have many options and that they should get started soon since they have 3 weeks to hand it in. One of the options is for the students to make an Iroquois longhouse, or to write their own Native American Legend, or to make a diorama describing a Native American scene that will capture their daily life and their government system. Lastly, was to create a PowerPoint presentation. Teacher told them that they shouldn't have any trouble doing this project, because they have been talking about Native American for a couple of weeks now. Mrs. Roush offer the class to use to computers or to print stuff whenever they wanted but that this project
The Iroquois are considered a branch of North American Indians, also known as Haudenosaunee or the “People of the Longhouse”. The Iroquois have greatly contributed to society through initiating the Iroquois confederacy also called the Iroquois League formed in 1570. The North American confederacy consists of five nations called: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, which resided in what is now known as Upstate New York. These tribes joined together as the “ 5 civilized
Throughout 1890’s, the U.S. government worried about the growing influence at reservations of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement. Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the rules and ways of the white man, the gods would
In Matthew Dennis’ article, “The League of the Iroquois,” he focusses a lot of his attention on drawing comparisons between the Iroquois and the ancient civilization of Rome. Dennis even goes on to quote Dewitt Clinton in his address to the New York Historical Society in 1811 in which he refers to the Iroquois as “the Romans of the western world.” After personally studying the Iroquois nation over the course of this semester, I am surprised that I had not already made this stark comparison. Indeed, while looking at the two groups side by side, it is hard to not see how they could metaphorically be distant cousins of one another, separated by a few hundred years and an ocean.
Yep they were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.They roamed the lands that is now the state of new york.In this book you will learn about… what they lived in, there food, the tools and weapons used by these tribes,there clothes, the roles of men, women, and children.
The year is 1493 in our beautiful natural land. I’m Catoi, daughter of the chief
The stories which humans tell about their origins are always cherished and held in high regard. In fact, no culture has existed which has not created or attempted to create some story of origins. Every culture has had some means in which to say this is where we came from. Especially in cultures where religion found itself prevalent, the mythology of origins became not only a status or anthropology but also a theology. In which case, we find that Christianity is not alone in this struggle, though our struggle may be unique in kind.
In the world today, there are many different religions, cultures, and most of all, people. Not everyone sees things the same way and that could be because of where they were born, how they were raised, and maybe even how they worshiped a greater being. My point is, is that there are so many different types of people out there and so many different cultures that sometimes it is a little hard to grasp that even though we are all human, the fact that we can be so different from just being brought up with a different religion can change us so much. In this paper, I want to share with you the different types of cultures and customs that can make us humans so different from one another.