Paradigms For Anthropology Chapter Summary

Elialde author of The Sacred and the Profane introduces a new model of the sacred and the profane. Elialde’s model is meant to be universal, therefore meant to be appropriate for any recognized religion. David Carrasco author of Religions of Mesoamerica and Kay Almere Read and Jason J. González authors of Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America, discuss their interpretation of the Mesoamerican religion although their views on the Mesoamerican religion differs in some aspects when compared to Eliade’s model of the sacred and the profane there are a few noticeable similarities between both views.

Every culture has their own practices that are seemingly foreign to other cultures that come after them. For example, we cannot judge the culture of Chinese people today in present day China as we judged the culture of the people who used to settle in the same country. The only thing that they share is location because history, technology, and religion have influenced modern cultures in ways that would have been completely foreign to ancestors of the same place. An example of this comes from Ruth Benedict in her essay The Pueblos of New Mexico. In this essay she describes that Indians who used to live in New Mexico. They were very different from the people that live there today. They were very relaxed in many ways of their culture expect religion.

2. Describe the religious customs of the Mayas, Aztecs, Timuquans, Natchez, and Spaniards as noted in the essay. In what ways were the various customs similar? In what ways were they different?

The Huichol Indians are an indigenous group that lives “in the Sierra Madre Mountains of northwestern Mexico” (Woolcott). The Huichol religion is an animistic religion. According to Dr. Pamela Lindell, animistic religions are “religions that believe that all of nature – humans, animals, plants, rocks, the ocean, etc. - is animated by spirits and souls” (“Professor’s Notes 2” 3). To better understand the Huichol Indians and their religion, this paper examines Huichol myth, symbolism, rituals, religious specialists, and deities from various anthropological perspectives.

The body rituals were in relations to hygiene, health practices, and cosmetic surgeries in American culture. These rituals were portrayed in an unfamiliar way in order to be able to see the strangeness of American culture, through the use of terminology and word play. Terminology such as: rituals, ceremonies, shrines, and temples, terms known to have association when describing native tribes. This is in relation to guiding individuals to acknowledge that the way an outsider sees American culture similarly can be the way they perceive other cultures. In western culture, foreigners with different customs are seen as exotic and strange. Additionally, there are the

There are three key patterns seen in most Native American religions they are the human relationship with nature, framing of time and space and respect for gods/ancestors. The human relationship with nature known as animism, everything is seen as part of the same reality and every object has a spirt, is a practice where there is little distinction between humans and animals. Time and space is sacred, cyclical,

According to the memoirs from Equiano, "the natives believe that there is one Creator of all things, who lives in the sun, is girded round with a belt, and that he may never eat or drink; and according to some, he smokes a pipe and governs the events in their lives, especially deaths or captivity." In addition, they also believe in the transmigration of souls (to a certain degree), circumcision, offerings (including burnt) and feast, and washings and

While the Native Americans and the Africans inhabited two different continents, their belief system has a plethora of similarities pertaining to their core values. The basis of their religion also, in some ways, epitomizes modern day religion such as rites of passage. Their differences are shallow in context when it comes to what they view as sacred and holy and including religious rituals that are performed for a specific reason or transformation. Both Native American and African mythologies center around the ideology of harmony, balance, and cyclical nature of all beings through animistic symbolization. To a certain degree, all outsiders or nonnatives who study the belief systems of indigenous religions have found that indigenous religion is more than just a religion or belief system but rather an inherent way of living. To name or label indigenous beliefs as “religion” or any other is to have a bias based on our own views of transformation and ultimacy.

Most of the natives were polytheistic, believing in multiple gods or entities. Often smaller villages had less developed belief system, while some larger societies in the south, such as the Mayans or Aztecs, had vast temples and pyramids devoted to their gods. Some groups even practiced human sacrifice, “The Aztecs also sought favor of their gods by offering human sacrifice...” (6) The practice of human sacrifice may have only developed in larger societies that could afford it. Nonetheless most smaller villages and tribes in the north believed more predominantly in spirits and the holiness of life, “They [Native Americans] revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties.” (10) Although Native Americans had their differences, the belief in greater powers was predominant among

What is anthropology? This is a question that can be answered in numerous ways, but we are going to define it as simple as possible. If we break the word down into its two components it means the study of human beings. “Anthropo” means human beings or human kind and “logy” or “logia” is Greek for the study or knowledge of something. When we put it all together, it is the study of human beings which can be very broad. Anthropology can be broken down into four subfields: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology.

Religion played a very important role in the Aztec and Inca culture. Religious rituals consisted of human sacrifice and polytheism. Their deities were inspired by nature and the earth’s physical makeup. Both appear to be similar but peel back the onion and notable differences reveal themselves. It is difficult for modern day society to understand how human sacrifice can exist in such advanced civilizations.

The Mayan way of life revolved their religion. They had a polytheistic religion praising many gods. Each god had a certain thing that they would rule over or take care of. Chac was the god of rain, Kinich Ahau was the sun god, and Yum Cimil was the god of the underworld. There were many gods and goddess for almost every reason one could think of, there is even a goddess of suicide. They would perform human sacrifices, bleeding rituals, and dances to praise and to

Wasting not the meat and skin of the animal. Another way that religion is shown in Apocalypto is human sacrifice. The shamans and chieftains in South-American cultures would often do human sacrifice in order to please the gods or ask

In society today, the discipline of anthropology has made a tremendous shift from the practices it employed years ago. Anthropologists of today have a very different focus from their predecessors, who would focus on relating problems of distant peoples to the Western world. In more modern times, their goal has become much more local, in focusing on human problems and issues within the societies they live.

Although religions today take on many shapes and forms, and may seem so dramatically different from each other, in order to study and understand these religions, their similarities must be identified. This paper will first present a definition of religion that will connect to all religions at the simplest base. Then this paper will examine the common practices and experiences that are present in both the primary religions of the world, as well as the indigenous religions. Finally, this paper will discuss the issues that are critical to the academic study of religions.