...Foundations Questions Micaela Diaz-Period 5 1. What is the definition of religion and what do we use in our lives to try to understand it? The definition of religion can be an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and worldviews that relate to humanity to understand the supernatural and spirituality. Religion can also be defined as the human notions regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine. We use many things to try and understand religion such as scriptures, sacred texts, religious traditions or customs and various other practices. 2. When examining scriptural writings, what kinds of forms do they come in, and what were they generally used for? Scriptural writings came in several forms such as texts and books like the Bible or the Quran, scrolls such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Torah. They also came in wall writings such as the Egyptian pictographic Hieroglyphs and many other forms of scrolls, books, papers, or pictures. They are generally used for the worship of a deity or deities, to recount or retell the events of a specific religion or religious foundation, or they tell of deity or deities pertaining to that religion. Scriptural writings can also be used for understanding the articles of faith, moralities, and ethics of that religion, or rules that one must abide by and follow. Scriptural writings can also be written in a way where the reader learns lessons through the sacred text, through stories or prophecies or anything of the...
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...Because of the tremendous importance assigned to the observation of the cosmos, the traditional Skidi earth lodge dwelling functioned not only as a residence, but also, as a place in which to examine the heavens. The earthen, domed-shape of the earth lodge characterized the cylindrical shape of the earth, as well as representing the sky. The eastern facing entrance was similar to a tunnel and was oriented so people would enter in the same way that the stars enter the sky, from the east and toward the Morning Star, Mars. Also, the orientation of the entrance also allowed to first rays of the morning sun to enter the dwelling, symbolically imparting life and the giving of strength and power (Ruggles 332). Along the western wall was an alter, providing a place of sanctuary, where ceremonial artifacts were placed. Above the alter; a sacred and powerful medicine bundle is hung (Krupp 232). This western section of the dwelling symbolizes the realm of the Evening Star, Venus, thought to signify creation and renewal (Ruggles...
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...The Zulus Anna Badger ANT101: Intro to Cultural Anthropology (ACS 1303J) Instr. Jason Thompson Feb, 18, 2013 The Zulu group of Southern African was established about 165 years ago. They were considered to be enfant of the patriarch Zulu, the son of an Nguni primary in the Congo sink in Main African. Also anthropologists believe that the Zulus are the earliest groups in Main African. Zulus were Bantu-speaking but implemented some of the Khoisan just click appears to be to their terminology, but these days most talk British these days. Towards the end of the 18th century the name “Zulu” only belonged to a little group of a few number of individuals residing among other groups like they had been doing for hundreds of years. In 1816 Senzangkhona the primary of the Zulu group passed away making one of his kids to take the part of chieftain. That cause to one of the important switching factors in the Zulu record occurred. Shaka one of the kids Senzangkhona took the part of chieftain of the Zulu group. Through Shaka’s intense self-discipline and new fight techniques he rejoined the many unorganized Zulu groups to the great Zulu country. But after Shakas killing by both his half-brothers, the great Zulu country began to stay down from that factor. Today the Zulu country delivered the democratic Southern African that we know these days. With the ruling monarch master A good reputation residing among the area. Traditionally the Zulu individuals were a pastoral and gardening...
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...economic activity? Hunter-gatherer studies have related certain modern societies to the past via analogy and ethnology (eg Lee &DeVore 1968); this has raised certain questions and sparked debates as to whether hunting and gathering is a way of life (consisting of universal cultures, customs, rituals, social organisation and beliefs) or simply an economic activity. Further questions concerning the actual credibility of a universal hunter-gatherer category have been raised (Bower 1989: 264-266; Feit 1994: 422); these criticise the very notion of a modern hunter-gatherer society and accuses anthropologists of recreating the primitive through a distorted Western view (Kruper 1988: 1-9; Wilmsen 1989:3-4; Feit 1994: 422) . This essay will determine whether hunting and gathering is purely a form of subsistence activity, a way of life or a Western anthropological construct. Who and what exactly are hunter-gatherers? ‘Hunting and gathering’ is used to describe the most basic form of subsistence that our ancestors used to survive before the advent of agriculture and pastoralism (Kuper 1988: 6-9). Many anthropologists and archaeologists (eg. Lee 1968; Bettinger 1991) state that it is the basic human adaption that has been around for 99% of our (modern human) existence (Lee & DeVore 1968: 3). Prehistoric humans would have most likely lived in small-scale groups and any social stratification would have been unlikely. They controlled fire and their economy revolved around hunting and gathering...
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...With a membership of about 200,000, the importance of Zoroastrianism is far greater than its numbers suggest. Closely related to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, its concepts of Satan, angelology, demonology, a deliverer, future life, paradise and judgment in these religions may have been directly or indirectly derived from Zoroastrianism. Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century BC, Zoroastrianism contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. Its concepts of one God, judgment, heaven and hell likely influenced the major Western religions. History of Zoroastrianism The origins of the Zoroastrian religion are shrouded in mystery. The prophet Zarathustra, later referred to by the Greeks as Zoroaster, founded Zoroastrianism roughly between the 16th and 10th centuries BCE. Zoroaster's birth date is also uncertain and modern scholarship currently suggests he lived in northern or eastern Iran or nearby such as in Afghanistan or southern Russia. In Zoroaster’s thirties he had a revelation in which he saw an angel who told him that there is only one true god and that God’s name was Aura Mazda (Clark, 1998). It is certain that by the year 549 B.C.E., Zoroastrianism had become a major world religion. It was Cyrus the Great, first ruler of the Persian Empire, who ordained Zoroastrianism as the official religion of his state. It was this same Cyrus that liberated the Jews from the occupation they had suffered under the Babylonians, and, when the...
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...the texts studied in class. Okay let’s start with William Butler Yeats, who was not only the main figure in the Irish literary renaissance but also the twentieth century’s greatest poet in the English language. Yeats constantly uses allusive imagery and large symbolic structures. Yeats adopted a cyclical model of history which he created a private mythology that allowed him to come to terms with both cultural and personal pain. This model also helped explain the symptoms of the Western civilization’s declining spiral; the plight of contemporary Irish society and the chaos of European culture around World War 1. Yeats shares with writers like Rilke and T. S. Eliot the quest for larger meaning in a time of trouble and the use of symbolic language to give verbal form to that quest. For many years it is Yeats’s mastery of images that defines his work. From his early use of symbols as private keys, or dramatic metaphors for complex personal emotions, to the immense cosmology of his last work, he continued to create a highly visual poetry whose power derives from the dramatic interweaving of specific images. One of his poems called When You Are Old pleads his love for the beautiful actress and Irish nationalist Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1889 and who repeatedly refused to marry him. From the love poems of his youth to his old age, when The Circus Animals’ Desertion describes her as prey to fanaticism and hate, Yeats returned again and again to examine...
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...Universe From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Universe (disambiguation). Part of a series on Physical cosmology • • • • Early universe[show] Expanding universe[show] Structure formation[show] Future of universe[show] Components[show] History[show] Experiments[show] Scientists[show] Social impact[show] Universe Big Bang Age of the universe Chronology of the universe • • Astronomy portal Category: Physical cosmology • • • V T E The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of existence,[1][2][3][4] including planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the smallest subatomic particles, and all matter and energy.[5][6] Similar terms include the cosmos, the world, reality, and nature. The observable universe is about 46 billion light years in radius.[7] Scientific observation of the Universe has led to inferences of its earlier stages. These observations suggest that the Universe has been governed by the same physical laws and constants throughout most of its extent and history. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that describes the early development of the Universe, which is calculated to have begun13.798 ± 0.037 billion years ago.[8][9] Observations of supernovae have shown that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.[10] There are many competing theories about the ultimate fate of the universe. Physicists remain unsure about what, if anything, preceded the Big Bang. Many...
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...Native American Environmental Issues Traditionally Native Americans have had an immediate and reciprocal relationship with their natural environments. At contact, they lived in relatively small groups close to the earth. They defined themselves by the land and sacred places, and recognized a unity in their physical and spiritual universe. Their cosmologies connected them with all animate and inanimate beings. Indians moved in a sentient world, managing its bounty and diversity carefully lest they upset the spirit "bosses," who balanced and endowed that world. They acknowledged the power of Mother Earth and the mutual obligation between hunter and hunted as coequals. Indians celebrated the earth's annual rebirth and offered thanks for her first fruits. They ritually addressed and prepared the animals they killed, the agricultural fields they tended, and the vegetal and mineral materials they processed. They used song and ritual speech to modify their world, while physically transforming that landscape with fire and water, brawn and brain. They did not passively adapt, but responded in diverse ways to adjust environments to meet their cultural as well as material desires. The pace of change in Indian environments increased dramatically with Euroamerican contact. Old World pathogens and epidemic diseases, domesticated plants and livestock, the disappearance of native flora and fauna, and changing resource use patterns altered the physical and cultural landscape of the New World...
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...Environmental Issues by David R. Lewis This essay is taken from Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia, edited by Mary B. Davis and published in 1994 by Garland Publishers of New York. The encyclopedia includes additional essays on mining, natural resource management, hunting and fishing rights, and economic development. It's a highly recommended resource. Reprinted without permission for educational purposes. Traditionally Native Americans have had an immediate and reciprocal relationship with their natural environments. At contact, they lived in relatively small groups close to the earth. They defined themselves by the land and sacred places, and recognized a unity in their physical and spiritual universe. Their cosmologies connected them with all animate and inanimate beings. Indians moved in a sentient world, managing its bounty and diversity carefully lest they upset the spirit "bosses," who balanced and endowed that world. They acknowledged the power of Mother Earth and the mutual obligation between hunter and hunted as coequals. Indians celebrated the earth's annual rebirth and offered thanks for her first fruits. They ritually addressed and prepared the animals they killed, the agricultural fields they tended, and the vegetal and mineral materials they processed. They used song and ritual speech to modify their world, while physically transforming that landscape with fire and water, brawn and brain. They did not passively adapt, but responded in diverse...
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... The poor man is given no opportunity to use his common sense, education, of his intelligence. Those who wish to change their views on religion are taught to believe that they are not perfect enough to be allowed to use free will in judging anything for themselves. Religious Freedom in the Context of Human Rights In a recent article that I have read,it is stated that the Human Rights speaks of "the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion." If we want to understand Buddhist ideas about religious freedom, we should first consider Buddhist perspectives on the broader concept of human rights. This, however, requires considerable qualification. First, some Buddhists note that the Western notion of "rights" was foreign to the Eastern societies in which Buddhism developed.Shin...
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...A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.[note 1] Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that aim to explain the meaning of life, the origin of life, or the Universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people may derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle. Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. The practice of a religion may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of a deity, gods, or goddesses), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.[1] The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or set of duties;[2] however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social".[3] A global 2012 poll reports 59% of the world's population as "religious" and 36% as not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9% decrease in religious belief from 2005.[4] On average, women are "more religious" than men.[5] Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow traditionally...
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...Book Review Summary of Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament by John H. Walton Chapter 1 Chapter 1 is Walton’s introduction to the discussion concerning the congruence of the Old Testament with the world surrounding it. This chapter discusses the history, methodology, and reasoning behind comparative Old Testament studies. It then concludes with the principles and goals each student should possess as he or she studies the Old Testament. His synopsis of comparative Old Testament studies begins with the resurgence of Egyptian and Mesopotamian archaeological studies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[1] He then moves on to discuss the impact of Friedrich Delitzsch’s lectures concerning how the writers of the Old Testament borrowed from extrabiblical sources set the stage for many secular ideologies removing the special revelation aspect from the Bible. This allowed two things to take place. First, it brought out the comparative study of the Bible into a critical realm; and second, it made Assyriology, Egyptology, and Hittitology serious academic disciplines which have greatly enhanced modern man’s understanding of these ancient cultures. While Walton discusses several forms of Old Testament study, his opinion favors comparative studies. He starts with explaining the reasoning for sound methodological comparative study and moves on to answer the “why” it should be performed over other studies. In his view, it expands...
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...Christianity Christianity (from the Ancient Greek word Χριστός, Christos, a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, Māšîăḥ, meaning "the anointed one",together with the Latin suffixes -ian and -itas) is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and oral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity is the world's largest religion, with approximately 2.2 billion adherents, known as Christians. Most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human, and the saviour of humanity whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament. Consequently, Christians refer to Jesus as Christ or the Messiah. The foundations of Christian theology are expressed in ecumenical creeds. These professions of faith state that Jesus suffered, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust in him for the remission of their sins. The creeds further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven, where he reigns with God the Father. Most Christian denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge everybody, living and dead, and to grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life. His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as "the gospel", meaning "good news" (a loan translation of the Greek: εὐαγγέλιον euangélion). The term gospel also refers to written accounts of Jesus's life and teaching, four of which...
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...Literary Society, Owerri, Imo State Nigeria. 1st August 2009. Greetings to my veritable ancestors. Greetings to the progenies and prodigies whose unequalled prodigy and genius produced this sacred art that is now singing an extinction dirge. All the Ancestral Spirits hovering unackno-wledged around this atmosphere, accept my unworthy salutations. Ndi Mbari Ibem, Welunu Ekene m, Onye m kporo ya kpoba ibe ya Onye na nke ya, onye na nke ya Nke onye chiri ya zere. If at the end of this intellectual discourse, the contents of this paper are merely seen as mere academic exercises, it would have failed. This point is made at the background of our realization that it is only practical dialectics that would save the African Viz a Viz. Igbo cosmology in its mortal struggle with the nihilating forces of globalization. By practical dialectics we mean a dialectics whose spine and pedagogy will bother on practice rather than theory. The guest lecturers of the first and second editions of this lecture series dwelt on topics that bothered on the preservation of our cultural heritage and language respectively. This paper shall not depart from that line. The difficulty in presenting this type of lecture is that a topic which hitherto is not discussed amongst women, particularly those that have not attained the sacrosanct menopause will now be discussed openly amongst them and even amongst men who are not initiated. I am still at loss on how to divulge this metaphysical secrets without bringing...
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...Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1999. 28:i–xxiii Copyright © 1999 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENLIGHTENMENT? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 1999.28:i-xxiii. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by 197.179.183.136 on 11/03/13. For personal use only. Marshall Sahlins Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637; e-mail: m-sahlins@uchicago.edu Key Words: modernity, indigenization, translocality, culture, development n Abstract A broad reflection on some of the major surprises to anthropological theory occasioned by the history, and in a number of instances the tenacity, of indigenous cultures in the twentieth century. We are not leaving the century with the same ideas that got us there. Contrary to the inherited notions of progressive development, whether of the political left or right, the surviving victims of imperial capitalism neither became all alike nor just like us. Contrary to the “despondency theory” of mid-century, the logical and historical precursor of dependency theory, surviving indigenous peoples aim to take cultural responsibility for what has been done to them. Across large parts of northern North America, even hunters and gatherers live, largely by hunting and gathering. The Eskimo are still there, and they are still Eskimo. Around the world the peoples give the lie to received theoretical oppositions between tradition and change, indigenous culture and modernity,...
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