World Religions, Sixth EditionWarren Matthews

Chapter One:

Religions of the AmericasThis multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:• • any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;• • preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;• • any rental, lease, or lending of the program.any rental, lease, or lending of the program.

Characteristics of World Religions as Analyzed in the Text

The absolute, the world, and humans

The problem and solution for humans

Community and ethics

An Interpretation of history

Rituals and symbols

Life after death

Relationship to other religions

Objections to older scholarship

Religions of North America

Naskapi of Canada’s Labrador Peninsula near Arctic Circle – hunters

with a spiritual view in a world of few resources

Powhatan of Virginia / Chesapeake Bay area – hunters, gatherers,

and farmers who learned to use what the land offered them

Cherokee of Appalachian Mountains (North Carolina and

Tennessee) forced to move to Oklahoma area – hunters and warriors

who dealt with white settler encroachment and government

interference

Hopi of the Southwest – Pueblo people who focused on religious

rituals and ceremonies with costumes and masks

Naskapi (Northeast Canada)

Fishing/hunting society of the harsh Northeast Canadian climate

Understood the world as limited in resources

Saw all living things united by the world of souls – Mantu

Soul world provided the key to survival in harsh conditions

Gave the incentive to humans to live moral lives

Gave animals the will to provide for human needs

Led to dependence upon and gratitude toward nature

Naskapi (Northeast Canada)

People depend upon their Mista´peo (Great Man)

Active living soul of the person

Contact with animal souls, which provided for humans

Religious stories teach Naskapi understanding of the universe

Souls do not die, but are born and reborn

Unborn souls may be seen in natural phenomena

Area of Naskapi Inhabitation

Powhatan (Virginia coastal area)

Highly organized society

Hierarchical dictatorship

Mamanatowick (“great king”) sovereign over Powhatan tribes

Subordinate weroances / weroansquas

Temple priesthood

Hunting and agricultural society

Powhatan (Virginia coastal area)

Organized priesthood

Provided medicine – wisakon

Presided over formal worship

Included sacrifices to images

Recognized beneficent deity Ahone, malevolent deity Okeus

Life after death is pleasant and well defined

Without work, they go to fields to dance and play

They eventually die there, and are later reborn

Area of Powhatan Inhabitation

Cherokee (Southeast U.S.)

Larger group

Informal or clan organization

Open to many “Anglo” customs

Hunting and agricultural society

Matriarchal family descent

Proper activities based on gender, with provisions for working

across gender

Cherokee (Southeast U.S.)

Religion organized by clan

Presided over by priests

Centered on rituals of remembrances and new beginnings

Sacred stories told at special times and circumstances

Area of Cherokee Habitation

Hopi (Southwest U.S.)

Pueblo peoples of the Southwest U.S.

Lived in desert country

Were traditionally surrounded by enemies

Hopi (Southwest U.S.)

Religion supports the community

Sacred underground religious sites – kivas

Special priests – kachinas

Costumed and masked figures

Animated by dancing

Represented ancestors, animals, or spirits

Assisted in training children in the rules of Pueblo society

Common Features of Native North American Religions

Society is henotheistic (one top deity among multiple deities)

Earth is a complex changing environment

Acted to separate sky above and waters below

Allowed life, humans, and animals to emerge on the earth from

below

Was filled with spirit powers

Humanity and animals are kin

Suffering is attributed to human error or as the result of a human-

sounding trickster deity

Common Features of Native North American Religions

Significant practices as seen throughout North America

Healing as a religious practice

Rites of passage as salient features of community life

Individual behavior evaluated in terms of tribal norms, including

norms regarding appropriate sexual behaviors

Time understood as cyclical

Conception of reincarnation

Expectation of religious diversity

Religions of MesoAmerica and South America

Aztecs of Mexico – builders of stone-covered mounds, pyramids,

and temples who believed in human sacrifices to the gods

Incas of Peru – wanderers who were directed to a sacred place to

build and settle, who believed they were god’s people, chosen to rule

the world

Aspects of MesoAmerican and South American Religions

The absolute, the world, and humans

The problem and solution for humans

Relationship to other religions

Aztecs (Mexico)

Highly organized society

Agricultural base

Militarized

Major cities of thousands with monumental stone architecture

Tenochtitlán is major city

Aztecs (Mexico)

Religious principles

Huitzilopochtli recognized as the preeminent deity

Human sacrifice practiced, seen as necessary to maintain the

sun’s daily cycle

Agricultural concerns very important

Incas (Peru)

Highly organized

Militaristic

Built cities with monumental stone architecture

Cuzco is capital city

Religious

The Inca is a religious figure

Sun and earth regarded as objects of veneration

Inti (and later Viracocha) recognized as the preeminent deity

The Empire of the Incas

Common Features of Native Mesoamerican Religions

Human beings, the earth, and cosmic forces/gods seen as

interacting on an epic scale

By maintaining lawful life, humanity did its part to retain cosmic order

and prosperity

Cities had their own patron deities

A diversity of gods was recognized