Native Americans

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Native Americans

• Americas Earliest Civilizations

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Common Features

• The Absolute
• The World
• Humans
• The Problem for Humans
• The Solution for Humans

• Community and Ethics
• An Interpretation of History
• Rituals and Symbols
• Life After Death
• Relationship with Other Religions

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The Absolute

• The names of deities varied. However, since most
  American Indians believed in many spirits and yet
  in a supreme God their belief systems is better
  classified as one of henotheism. This is where
  there is one great God among many. Indians
  believed that everything inhabited a spirit and
  that these spirits could be angered or satisfied
  one could also communicate with spirits.

http//www.franklinmint.com/tfmweb/images/11739_sh
.jpg
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The World

• The world is "a manifestation of active spirits
  ever involved in its changes." The natural
  occurrences such as winds, clouds, etc.
  participate in the changeness of the earth. The
  Earth itself is alive it is an animated spirit
  that changes.

http//www.trigono.com/Tarocchi/ita/world/images/n
ative-american.jpg
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Humans

• Humans and animals have a close kinship and
  therefore are interdependent. Since both have
  spirits both can be contacted in the spirit realm.

http//www.p4a.com/item_images/medium/13/96/93-01.
jpg
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The Problem for Humans

• The American Indians realized that the world
  could have been made differently. Humans
  sometime cause their own suffering. Problems will
  arise because of foolishness and ignorance.
  Sometimes Indians use the character called the
  trickster to illustrate the foolishness of humans.

Iktomi the trickster - http//www.johnsibbick.com/
images/fantasy-im/iktomi.jpg
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The Solution for Humans

• Because survival depended on a host of factors
  their "societies were highly traditional,
  governing all lives with customs and
  regulations." People who violated codes and
  taboos were punished sometimes to the point of
  death.
• Vision quests were very important for some
  communities.

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Vision Quest

http//nativevisionquest.tripod.com/950deerhide.jp
g
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Healing

• Healing is also very much part of community life
  because diseases and sicknesses translated to
  spiritual disorder. One needed assistance from
  benevolent spirits and to appease angry ones.

Sweat Lodge - http//www.thewildrose.net/images/sw
eatlodge.jpg
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Community and Ethics

• Everyone in the community had shared
  responsibilities. The community was
  interdependent. Men and women had specified
  roles to play. It was during adolescence when
  women were formerly introduced to the appropriate
  relationship with men. Sex outside of marriage
  was condemned.

http//www.gatheringofnations.com/archives/arch.jp
g
http//www.lanl.gov/orgs/pa/News/Students080699.jp
eg
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An Interpretation of History

• Everything is in cycles time is not linear but
  circular.

http//www.native-american-star-quilts.com/QuiltBa
rgains/SacredCircle2.jpg
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Ceremonies and Rituals

• Passages such as birth, puberty, marriage, and
  death have ceremonies and rituals to ensure good
  lives and the longevity of the tribe. In this
  particular ceremony, performed in Mexico, has
  been combined with the Catholic feast of the of
  the Sacrament.

http//www.lam.mus.ca.us/cats/P03/
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Symbols

• Symbols are very important for American Indian
  cultures. To understand a symbol one would have
  to understand the context in which the symbol
  occurs. Rites of passages were integrated with
  symbols and rituals.
• More on symbols

Symbolic of transformation - http//ariustile.com/
ariuscatalog/it020017.jpg
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Other Relationships

• Marriage was a very important custom with
  monogamy being preferred. Husbands and wives had
  different roles. In traditional families men
  hunted and women dressed the game, preserved the
  meat etc.

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Life After Death

• Many Indian cultures believed in reincarnation.
  The soul could come back in another person or on
  rare occasion as an animal. Death to many
  Indians was a mystery because scholars could not
  understand some of their thinking.

http//www.michaelmatherly.com/artimages/dp-1-peac
eful-spirits-jw.jpg
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Relationships With Other Religions

• American Indians expected others to differ from
  them. They did not necessarily proselytize.

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Sources