He went on to conduct some of the most significant research on African religions in decades. He also notes that most modern African folk religions were strongly influenced by non-African religions, mostly Christianity and Islam and thus may differ from the ancient forms. Nevertheless, the popular delusion has gained unchallenged acceptance that anything “natural” must be beneficial. Two detail Marine platoon leader course as campus officers-in-training numbers rise. Freedom of religion is the idea that people have the right to practice the faith of their choice. "Religions of South Africa" pp. Looking for hints of future prospects in the past and predicting what lies ahead, Epidemiologist offers tips for family gatherings at Thanksgiving and in December, Harvard psychologists offer tips to survive political stress and strain, © 2020 The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Place, land, and nature are important, with some locations, including burial grounds, being held as sacred. For myself, I negotiate between my Yoruba and Christian identity by, for example, affirming those aspects of African culture that promote good life and communal human welfare. It was felt that it would be easier to change or eliminate “Indianness” in the new generation if the children were separated from their parents’ influence. Consequently, traditional Africans have different ideas on what role the ancestors play in the lives of living descendants. Terms & Conditions The estimate lies at 300. As for African religions, there is no single religious branch. In the end, I believe that Africans can make room for a plurality of religious points of view without one religious point of view excluding or compromising the other. Introduction to African religion. Traditional Niger-Congo religion also included polytheistic and animistic elements. All rights reserved. Now, when it comes to religious rituals, they vary greatly, yet most of them are scheduled in congruence with the cycles of nature and are designed to meet specific needs. Much of Olupona’s work is an attempt to provide a fuller understanding of the complexity and richness of African indigenous thought and practice by viewing it not as a foil or as a useful comparative to better understand Western religions, but as a system of thought and belief that should be valued and understood for its own ideas and contribution to global religions. Maybe this is why I am not an Anglican priest. Native American religions - Native American religions - Historical change: A serious misconception about native North American religions is that, before contact with European civilization, they existed in a changeless “Golden Age” and that what happened later can be described only as degeneration. Olupona, professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard Divinity School and professor of African and African-American studies in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently sat down for an interview about his lifelong research on indigenous African religions. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer, By Anthony Chiorazzi Harvard Correspondent. [18], Traditional African religions can be broken down into linguistic cultural groups, with common themes. Privacy Policy In fact, this makes African and Native American religions similar. Polygamous marriages were likewise outlawed, as was ritualized gift-giving and property destruction.These policies would remain in effect until at least 1934, when new commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Collier, issued Circular No. Peavy, D., (2016). OLUPONA: If we lose traditional African religions, we would also lose or continue to seriously undermine the African practice of rites of passage such as the much cherished age-grade initiations, which have for so long integrated and bought Africans together under a common understanding, or worldview. One religious ceremony practiced in Gabon and Cameroon is the Okuyi, practiced by several Bantu ethnic groups. This list is limited to a few well-known traditions. a system of spiritual or supernatural belief. On Sunday, November 17, 1996, the popular A&E channel aired “America’s Mysterious Places.” It presented witchcraft in Salem and early New England along with voodoo in New Orleans as benign. While Islam and Christianity tend to be overtly resistant to adopting traditional African religious ideas or practices, indigenous African religions have always accommodated other beliefs. Animism is a common concept among native African and American religions. Native Americans called the land of the southeast their home for thousands of years before European colonization. Religion and lifestyle are woven together, therefore religion and beliefs are a lifestyle and the lifestyle is the religion and belief. Indigenous African practices tend to be strongest in the central states of Africa, but some form of their practices and beliefs can be found almost anywhere in Africa. In doing so, the Court stated “the right of free exercise does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability on the ground that the law proscribes (or prescribes) conduct that his religion prescribes (or proscribes).”In response, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Privacy Notice | This creator is called a ____ _____. Peavy, D., (2009). At the same time, totem poles are immune from comparable criticism or objections. Home - View Entire Archive - Native, Indigenous, and Nature Religion, (from Occult Invasion, Harvest House, 1998). Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, shamanistic, pantheisticor any combination thereof, among others. situation of a person having more than one spouse. It is a quantum leap from respecting and protecting our environment (which we should do) to deifying “Mother Earth.”, Nor should we overlook, much less condone, today’s rampant prejudice against Christianity. We must all emulate what the natives of Africa or of a Pacific island or our own native American Indians believe and practice! © 2011-2020 MyCustomEssay.com. In this state, depending upon the region, drumming or instrumental rhythms played by respected musicians (each of which is unique to a given deity or ancestor), participants embody a deity or ancestor, energy or state of mind by performing distinct ritual movements or dances which further enhance their elevated consciousness. Sustainability Policy | African traditional religion refers to the indigenous or autochthonous religions of the African people. [1][7], Adherents of traditional religions in Sub-Saharan Africa are distributed among 43 countries and are estimated to number over 100 million. While some religions adopted a pantheistic worldview, most follow a polytheistic system with various gods, spirits and other supernatural beings. Despite the First Amendment, the United States' federal policy toward Native Americans and native religions has been inconsistent. Holding or maintaining to a uniform doctrine is not the essence of indigenous African religions. It should be noted that with the arrival of Europeans, Native American religions shifted and changed. - Definition & Cycle, The Branches of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana & Vajrayana, Intro to Humanities Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, DSST Introduction to World Religions: Study Guide & Test Prep, WEST Middle Level Humanities (Subtests 1 & 2)(052/053): Practice & Study Guide, Principles of Business Ethics: Certificate Program, MTTC Social Studies (Elementary) (105): Practice & Study Guide, UExcel Business Ethics: Study Guide & Test Prep, ILTS Music (143): Test Practice and Study Guide, Introduction to World Religions: Certificate Program, World Religions for Teachers: Professional Development, Psychology 105: Research Methods in Psychology, Biological and Biomedical (I myself have consulted with several diviners for my research on specific academic topics regarding African culture and history; consequently, if we were to lose Africa’s diviners, we would also lose one of Africa’s best keepers and sources of African history and culture. Consider, for example, Carolee Nishi, “the creator and volunteer director of a unique after-school program sponsored by the YMCA of Honolulu that teaches Hawaiian Studies to children ages 4-14.” The word religion is not to be found in the full-page promotional piece about Nishi in United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine. They have replaced indigenous African religions, but are often adapted to African cultural contexts and belief systems. Indigenous Peoples refers to a group of Indigenous peoples with a shared national identity, such as “Navajo” or “Sami,” and is the equivalent of saying “the American people.” Native American and American Indian are terms used to refer to peoples living within what is … It deals with their cosmology, ritual practices, symbols, arts, society, and so on. OLUPONA: My father, a faithful Anglican priest, was a good example. Religion informs everything in traditional African society, including political art, marriage, health, diet, dress, economics, and death. Encyclopædia Britannica, (2003), Index of African mythology and creation narratives, List of African deities and mythical figures, Traditional African Religion and other religions, Persecution of traditional African religion, "The world of spirits and the respect for nature: towards a new appreciation of animism", "Animism: Foundation of Traditional Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa", What is religion? There are more similarities than differences in all traditional African religions. Importantly, there was no clear distinction between the natural and the supernatural. The traditional African religions or traditional beliefs and practices of African people are a set of highly diverse beliefs that includes various ethnic religions. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Diverse traditional beliefs and practices of African people, Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009). The RFRA provided, among other insurances, that “Government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.” Some 21 states have since passed their own versions of the RFRA. All rights reserved. It recognized that government policy had inhibited the practice of Native American religions, including access to sacred sites and use of sacred objects and materials. The idea is that the traditional African practitioner who constructed that amulet believes in the efficacy of other faiths and religions; there is no conflict in his mind between his traditional African spirituality and another faith. Indigenous African religions are pragmatic. African faith includes belief in a supreme... Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. This is not to deny that some plants and roots with healing qualities have been discovered by native peoples or that they have something to teach us. In the novel Night, how does Eliezer's... What is the oldest religion in the Middle East? Equity? African spirituality is truly holistic. Islam has experienced a similar rapid growth. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. [21][22] New world religions such as Santería, Vodun, and Candomblé, would be derived from this world. Moreover, they could not use any “artifice or device” or the “arts of a conjuror” to encourage traditional Native-American cultural norms. He claimed that they tried to keep people under their control and prevented Indian children from attending school. In many cases, Africans who have converted to other religions have still kept up their traditional customs and practices, combining them in a syncretic way.[40]. Yet consider that in 1900 most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa practiced a form of indigenous African religions.
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