Native American Religion Summary

At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people.

The two cultures that I decided to compare and contrast is the Mexican culture and ancient Egyptians. Mexicans have embraced death as a part of life. The Mayan and Aztecs practiced human sacrifices which gave and example of acceptance of death. In Mexico when a loved one passed on to a better life the viewing traditional takes place at the family’s home. A catholic priest comes to the family’s home and leads a mass in honor of the recently departed. The coffin in placed on a table along with candles on the side. After the funeral the family members get together and pray for nine days to guide the deceased into haven and ask forgiveness for their sins.On the other hand Egyptians were buried in pyramids directly in the ground. Often bodies were

Different cultures, countries, religions, and community with various behaviors and rituals that guides their belief and action when a loved one pass away. Religious and spiritual belief, type of life after death, superstitious beliefs after death and beliefs towards the meaning of life are all based on tradition and death ritual.

Native Americans lost their culture once the Spanish made them a part of the mission system. Before European arrival, they were predominantly pagan and had multiple gods or spirits which they worshipped as part of their rituals for successful harvest or hunt. Through the mission system, they underwent baptism through Catholicism and learned to worship only one supreme being and

Culture is one of the most important parts of the life as spirituality. Native American, people practice many different ceremonies as a ritual, which represent their culture, such as, Sun Dance, healing ceremony, and Gallup ceremony, etc. The first ceremony that Native American celebrates the Sun Dance, which is also known as thanksgiving ceremony. This ceremony is like a vision dance. It is a ritual in which people stare at the sun, until everything blackout or spirit break in (Lecture notes). The other ceremony is Gallup ceremony, which is one of the major celebrations that Indian-Tribe celebrates. According to the text, “The Gallup Ceremonial had been an annual event for a long time. It was good for the tourist, they liked to see Indians and Indian dances; they wanted a chance to buy Indian Jewelry and Navajo rugs. Every year it was organized by the white men there” (111). It demonstrates that, how the Native people celebrate their ceremonies every year, with all the respect to their culture. The last ceremony is healing ceremony. Healing ceremony is the ritual that a female Pomo Shaman conducts a ritual healing ceremony over the man’s body. She is performing the ancient doctoring to heal the man spiritually, in which she was dancing with a two sticks, chanting and rubbing her hand on the body (Lecture notes). As we compare, ancient and recent Native American cultures were almost the same because in the past, people celebrate the cultures with a very good sight to enjoy their rituals. Even though, now society has developed a lot, but values of traditions are not changed

The Native American’s were the first to discover the Americas. They lived within tribes and practiced many ancestral traditions together. These traditions included things like art, music, and religious ceremonies.

Ceremonies and rituals play a vital role in the Native American culture. Their practices had a wide variety of effect on the people; they were believed to give strength to those in difficult times, as well as, celebrate milestones in someone’s life. Just like the stories we read in class, ceremonies and rituals were flexible with their meanings and could be manipulated to fit the need of the tribe at the time. They would be used during certain times of the year to incorporate things like the seasons, harvest time, puberty of the children, and more. There was a ritual for everything they needed.

Dancing, it takes a large part in the Native American culture. The Native Americans have very diverse and different types of dancing.”Religious symbolism is significant even in the human interactions of the dance. Men often symbolize phallic, aggressive supernatural beings and rain-bringing deities, whereas women symbolize actual fertility” (britannica.com).Their dancing explained stories and also the performers dress up. In the different tribes they might have another way of dressing but they also have different backgrounds and they have ceremonies for different

One of the most significant differences that inflicted this conflicts and tensions was their religious attitudes or their belief in “God”. The Native Americans viewed “God” as

I have learned a lot about the native Americans in this unit. I didn't know that they were so advanced at their time. For example, I didn't know that they had their own social class (intext). Also, they had their own homes that they lived in. The Athabascans had two different types of houses, one is a summer house where the house is made of out birch bark and bush and another is a winter house made out of caribou or moose skin (intext). Also, the Athabaskans believed in spirit animals (intext). Their religion states that anything living or non-living has a spirit. If the spirit is displeased it will bring bad luck to that native. So basically, the natives have a set of rules to follow in order to please the spirit. That is true for most of the tribes (intext).

Native Americans had a variety of complex cultures. Factor that lead to their like diverse culture, environmental change and difficulties to finding foods. Sources that brought to their culture with gain able food spring also with fuel sources, also that time was travelling were easier by river than land. They have equality of all maty cultures would include dance and song, the selection of communal existing. They were different types of tribes who were very close to each other with sharing cultured even different in many aisles. Today many native Americans slip up show pleasant was living in simplicity.

In Native American culture, the most common way to share traditions about their culture was through storytelling from one generation from another. This is how they kept their culture alive long before the inventions of the written communications or computers to keep records. One of many storytelling was the use of various myths and tales where they tell origin stories about the why the way certain are and how it becomes. Myths and tales like the coyote who free the moon or how people come into the earth. By looking into some of these myths and tales that are in the American Religious Diversity volume one book, it will explore the Native Americans understanding about the sacred world and their relationship to that sacred world. Also looking at the noticeable differences between how these myths differ from different tribes like the Plains Indians to Woodland Indians to Pueblo Indians and to the Costal California Indians. Exploring the different stories will hopefully reveal a lot about the Native American culture and their standing traditions.

Indian.org states “Soon the Native American people were only left with some small Indian reservations for their people, a vast difference from when the continent had been their home” ("Brief Glimpse of Native American History," 2015). In the Native American culture ceremonies and rituals are very important to them. Many people refer to those activities as religion. However, according to Legends of America “most Native Americans did not consider their spirituality, ceremonies, and rituals as “religion,” in the way that Christians do. Rather, their beliefs and practices form an integral and seamless part of their very being” ("Native American Rituals and Ceremonies - History and Information," 2003).

Native American culture is centered around nature and the earth. Their beliefs in animal spirits as gods are very foreign to us. As native as they were they still were forced from their land and many were made to walk hundreds of miles to reservations that the government gave them. In these times the supplies they had were very simple, but they made very effective use out of them. Salt, sugar, flour, and oil or lard as it was called made one of the natives most signature dish, fry bread.

Throughout time, people have used various mechanisms to help with the process of bereavement. These processes are defined as “death rituals”, and different cultures, societies and religions have their own specific way of experiencing these death rituals. In ways that are similar or different from one another, death rituals help with the process of coping with the loss of a dear family member, a beloved member of a religious organization, or a recognized member of society. Death rituals are practiced by every culture and religion, and the main focus of these procedures is to help family members relieve emotional pain caused by the tragic, unexpected or expected loss of a loved one.