Primal Religions

V To put it frankly, these religions are 6 Æ
V They originated mainly in Australia, Africa, and the

AmericasÆ
V So why do we have to study them? Well, where do you
think all of these other religions came from? Most of the
modern religions we study have r66 in these ancient
faith systemsÆ
V ¬ow these are 6 Ã we¶re talking BÆ Ã so how do we
know so much about them? The communities that
practice these religions were 6 raÆ But where
they lacked in written words, they made up with 6ra
traditions, legends, and mythsÆ
V p rimal´ is not to be associated with psavage´ or
puneducatedÆ´ Moreover, it should connote
pnonÃtechnologicalÆ´
V Since there was a lack of modern technology in
these early times, this was not a factor that
effected the people or their beliefsÆ
V The Australian Aboriginals are thought to be the
oldest surviving civilization on the planetÆ
V ommunities still exist today, though they lack
sufficient medical care, living conditions, and
education according to modern standardsÆ
V Their name, aborigine, comes from the Latin "ab
origine" Ã original inhabitantsÆ
V They migrated from southeast Asia, 14Ã thousand
years agoÆ They were uninterrupted by outsiders
until the arrival of Europeans 2 years agoÆ
V The Dreaming
The Aboriginal people believed that the world was
originally shapeless but ô6r came to Earth to form
humans and all other forms in the worldÆ
The period of time that these Ancestors were here is called

ram and Aborigines try to reenact the
DreamingÆ To do so, they visit sacred symbols left by the
Ancestors (iÆeÆ rock paintings, and natural landmarks) by
following in the same footsteps of the AncestorsÆ Their
whole environment, therefore, is spiritual and cosmology
plays a huge role in their livesÆ
V An unborn child receives the spirit of an Ancestor when
the mother carrying the child comes into contact with a
sacred siteÆ This relationship is symbolized through a
6m (iÆeÆ a certain animal or rock formation) that
become important to the individualÆ
V Social Structure
ab66 is the idea that certain sacred things are only for certain
members of the community and are off limits to the rest of themÆ
These sort of creates an upper and lower classÆ
¦a6 is a symbolic death and spiritual rebirthÆ It involves a
number of traditions and rituals including circumcision and tooth
knocking (in which a 9 year old boy has his two lower middle
teeth extracted and buried in the groundÆ)
Tooth knocking-out Kuntamara
Alkira-Kiuma Parra
V The Yoruba live in the western regions of central Africa in ¬igeria,
Benin, and TogoÆ Today the faith consists of about 1 million
peopleÆ
V Yoruba designates a group with a common language and culture
and that favored living in cities that have tended to maintain
independence from one anotherÆ
V The Yoruba people believe that Earth is populated by a deviant
form of human beings ± witches and sorcerersÆ
V ods and ancestors in heaven guard against the evils of sorcerers
and witchesÆ
V Yoruba cosmology depicts reality as being divided into two
separate world: heaven and earthÆ Heaven is the invisible home of
the gods and ancestorsÆ Earth is the world of normal experienceÃ
the visible home of human beings who are descendants of the
godsÆ
V The purpose of the Yoruba faith is to maintain the balance
between the human beings and the gods and ancestorsÆ
Grandfather Great Spirit,
all over the world the faces of living
ones are alike.
With tenderness they have come up
out of the ground.
Look upon your children that they
may
face the winds and walk the good
road to the
Day of Quiet.
Grandfather Great Spirit,
fill us with the Light.
Give us the strength to understand,
and the eyes to see.
Teach us to walk the soft earth as
relatives to all that
live.
V ^ne faith that we¶ve all heard about is the AztecsÆ
V The culture began in the city of Tenochtitlan (modern day Mexico ity)Æ Unlike the other
primal religions, this religion developed in a large city rather than in a small communityÆ
V The strongest influence on the Aztec culture are the Toltecs who are another major civilization
of the dayÆ The Aztecs believe that the Toltec god Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) had
presided over a golden age of cultural brillianceÆ
V Aztecs believe that the sun was created by TeotihuacanÆ The sun is Pry important to the
AztecsÆ Actually, they believed that our sun was the fifth sun and that the fifth sun was to be
the lastÆ
V They also believed in the ax mu which separated the earth into four quadrants and
connected the heavenly, the earthly, and the underworld realmsÆ Mountains were a common
type of axis mundi on top of which temples were builtÆ ^bviously, one of their most important
temples bore the name " on Serpent MountainÆ That was one of the places where they
made human sacrificesÆ
V 0uma ar
Aztecs believed that the human bodyÃ especially the head and heartÃ were potent
nourishment for the sun and the cosmosÆ
As a result, they offered up the heads and hearts of warriors and captives as sacrifices to
the sun so that the fifth sun would not endÆ In fact, it was considered an honor to be a
sacrificeÆ
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Primal Religions

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V To put it frankly, these religions are 6 Æ

V They originated mainly in Australia, Africa, and the

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