Negating The Profane And Connecting Everything

The indigenous tribes of North America have much in common with the indigenous religions of Africa but there are also many differences in the belief of an afterlife, supreme deity, and the daily practices of each. Today many of these lesser known religions are hardly ever studied but they exist and are still practiced all over North America and Africa. We will discuss how these religions differ in their main beliefs and practices, and we will also discuss how they correlate with one another on smaller aspects.

Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane analyzes a wide variety of components that are found within various world religions. Eliade uses the history of religion to support his ideas as the the book itself is a brief introduction to religion as a whole, particulary the religions of primitive societies. Nonetheless, when looking to the past one can see that mankind’s desire to associate itself with the sacred has been occuring for thousands of years. From temples to passages of intiation, religious man is a unique microcosm that follows and repeats the structure of the religious macrocosm, the creation of the cosmos. One can conclude that Eliade views religion as the “paradigmatic solution for every existential crisis.” (p210) and

German Egyptologist Hellmut Brunner translates the “Inscription of Antef,” which defines a philosopher as: “[He is the one] whose heart is informed about these things which would be otherwise ignored, the one who is clear-sighted when he is deep into a problem, the one who is moderate in his actions, who penetrates ancient writings, whose advice is [sought] to unravel complications, who is really wise, who instructed his own heart, who stays awake at night as he looks for the right paths, who surpasses what he accomplished yesterday, who is wiser than a sage, who brought himself to wisdom, who asks for advice and sees to it that he is asked advice. (Inscription of Antef, 12th Dynasty, 1991–1782 bc)” This displays that a philosopher is a multi-faceted human being, a jack-of-all trades. A philosopher is one who is able to give advice on topics of interest, and when he or she does not know, they are not afraid of searching through texts from civilizations older than themselves. They do this as a means to solve the various problems that they are given. Africana philosophy is a tool such that one is able to tap into past texts in order to provide support for those around them. In this essay I will further discuss Africana philosophy as well as its characteristics and how it differs from Eurocentric philosophy.

From house phones to portable cellular devices, horses with carriages to automobiles, from writing letters to sending emails. Throughout this transition our culture has changed from cities to every continent. In this paper we will explore the cultural change of the lovely ancient Zapotecs in Mesoamerica and the exquisite Ethiopians in Africa. Revisiting our past helps us understand the significance of our culture and appreciate our traditions.

In the work of African descended writers’, water is used as a common symbol. In Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!, Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew, and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, tears, rivers, the sea and other forms of water are used to symbolize change. More specifically, it symbolizes the change between life and death; freedom and confinement. The three writers use water as an ironic symbol, representing life, liberty, and their contradictions.

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.

In the form of African culture, the country Ghana has its own definitive form that is somehow similar with other African country’s culture but different in various elements. This is why it is the most intrinsic characteristic of Ghananese culture; with its deployment of systems, structures and social elements, it is set apart from other African cultures. But what should be given importance is its original context, which also sprung from the African importance of culture. According to Steven J. Salm and Toyin Falola (2002), “Africans regard culture as essential to

Like in any religion the people have certain beliefs. In the african religions there is no single religion. Researchers try to identify similarities in world views and ritual processes across the african boundaries. African Religions are polytheistic; which means they believe in more than one god. They believe in one overall god, but also ancestral spirits. Most African religion’s creation story reveal the creation of humans more than

In my research, to understand how we undertake the study of the African experience you have to start in the beginning of time which dates back hundreds of thousands years ago and go into one of the first civilizations known as ancient Egypt. Understanding where the people come from and where they are at today does not even cover a quarter of understanding the true African experience. To understand truly how to undertake the African experience you must understand the social structure, governance, ways of knowing, science and technology, movement and memory, and cultural meaning (The six conceptual categories). With these concepts you understand that in a cosmograph known

In a freezing class, two brilliant minds unlocked the fiery passion that is their talent one an artist the other a writer. Bringing to light a history long forgotten creating abstract thoughts arbitrary to our own. Komi Olaf the artist and Okey Ndibe the writer not only enlightening the class but also the world with each brush stroke and each word. Every creation stemming from the hands of these masters tell of issues at the heart of Africa from colonialism to existential dilemmas. Thru spoken word, hip-hop, art, music, poems and literature issues close at heart to the artists and to Africa are portrayed. This paper will focus on the art exhibit by Komi Olaf and Foreign Gods inc by Okey Ndibe as spoken by them during their discussion in the class on October 13th. Where the talks focused on the key course objectives being stereotypes, post-colonialism, youth culture, and resistance.

It is proposed to show that the ethos of European colonial expansion largely defined and classified Benin art and dictated how it should be interpreted and displayed when first seen in European

passed on from one generation to the next. Because of this, these various cultures all carry and practice

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.

Therefore, the ideas of religion and symbolism are almost the same (in an anthropological sense, of course). On the contrary, “material” customs are nurtured by human biology and the ecosystem because they have immediate consequences on the population. The material perspective refers to categories such as production, economy or ecology, while the symbolic perspective refers to categories such as art, magic, and religion. These vastly different domains require specific methods and perspectives. In practice, usually a question pertaining to these two categories is addressed by 2 collections of theory.

In African Pyramids of Knowledge, Molefi Kete Asante, argues for turn from a Eurocentric view of the world to an Afrocentric view. In Chapter 3, Confronting the Historic Situation, Asante begins to explain what that view is. Asante states that it is not easy to make these tenets known because there at so many African traditions to take into consideration, Europeans interfered with African culture, and the necessity to circulate Kemetic practices. Kemetic practices derive from the religion of Ancient Egyptian (Kemet.org). In addition, according to Asante, to develop an Afrocentric view, one must desire unity and understand Maat or peace, balance, and harmony.