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Influences of religion on culture and society
Influences of religion on culture
Examples of religious conflict
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In 1608, a group of Christian separatists from the Church of England fled to the Netherlands and then to the "New World" in search of the freedom to practice their fundamentalist form of Christianity (dubbed Puritanism). The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced ideology, oppression and guerrilla warfare were begun. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which lead to the culture clash between the Puritans and the Native Americans.
Religion played a very important role in both Puritan and Native American society, though their ideologies differed greatly. According to Puritan beliefs, God had chosen a select number of people to join him in heaven as his elect. The Native Americans, on the other hand, believed that everyone was the same; no one was better than anyone else. As Sitting Bull once said, "Each man is good in [the Great Spirit's] sight. (Quotes from our Native Past). This theory was in direct conflict with the Puritan's view. The means through which the beliefs of these two groups were carried on also differed greatly. The Puritans had their Bible which detailed their entire religion and held the answers to all possible questions. The Native Americans on the other hand relied on oral transmission of their theology. Thus, while the Puritans had a constant place to turn to when they wanted to figure out what they believed, Native Americans were forced to fill in the blanks between stories they had heard when it came to their basic ideals. This aspect made them both unable to relate to one another. The most prominent difference between the two religions were their gods. The Puritans believed in one God and one God only. The Native Americans, though also worshipping their own almighty "Great Spirit," took further reverence for all living (and once living) things, worshipping the trees and their ancestors as well as their omnipotent Tirawa (or Wakan Tanka). The Puritans, holding all aspects of the Bible literal and as divine mandate, saw this worship of beings other than their God as idolatry (which was in clear violation of the first commandment). Therefore, the Puritans held the Native American society as a society wallowing in sin.
Failure to resist the consuetude of tyranny was seen in the apartheid regime that was allowed to rise in South Africa, “with its explicit policy promoting white supremacy” (Cooper 2002, 1). As a result of this establishment, non white Africans were forced to live separate and in poor conditions for years by the all white government. This yet again encumbered any chance for augmentation of self and society for the African people. While the rest of the world was creating mass transit and health care systems, Africa was being held down, it’s potential to develop as a state of power and influence,
Massachusetts's inhabitants were Puritans who believed in predestination and the ideal that God is perfect. Many Puritans in England were persecuted for their nihilist beliefs in England because they felt that the Church of England, led by the Kind, did not enforce a literal enough interpretation of the Bible. Persecution punishment included jail and even execution. To seek refuge, they separated to go to Holland because of its proximity, lower cost, and safer passage. However, their lives in Holland were much different than that of England. The Separatists did not rebel against but rather preferred the English culture. They did not want their children to be raised Dutch. Also, they felt that Holland was too liberal. Although they enjoyed the freedom of religion, they decided to leave for America. Pilgrims, or sojourners, left for America on The Mayflower and landed in Cape Cod in 1626. They had missed their destination, Jamestown. Although the climate was extremely rocky, they did not want to move south because of their Puritan beliefs. They thought that everything was predestined, and that they must have landed on this rocky place for a reason. They moved slightly north to Plymouth Rock in order to survive more comfortably. Also because of their Puritan beliefs, they had good relations with the Native Americans. Their pacifist nature led the Indians to help with their crops. In thanks, the Pilgrims celebrated the first thanksgiving in 1621. A second group of Puritans in England, the Massachusetts Bay Company, came to Massachusetts for more economically motivated purposes due to their non-minimalist beliefs.
The Mayans were a native Mesoamerican group of people who erected one of the most sophisticated cultures in the Western Hemisphere. They inhabited areas in southern Mexico, and also surrounding Locations included Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras. The Mayan religion civilization came into prominence in 250 A.D., administering a polytheistic approach to worship which included human blood sacrifices to honor their gods or to culminate the crowning of a King. Historians record that the Mayan civilization abruptly and mysteriously abandoned their cities between 900 and 925 A.D.; this also marks the end of the classical period in Mayan history. In this Annotated Bibliography, I will analyze and summarize key
In the New World, colonies of Europeans were forming rapidly across the east coast. These colonies were seemingly founded on the ideas of oppression as well as dreams of wealth and glory, except for one particular group of religious colonists who dreamed of creating“the city upon the hill”. But who were these people and how did their ideas and beliefs affect Early America? In England a religious group of people known as the Puritans were finding themselves unhappy with the Anglican Church. The Puritans, numbered 102 men women and children, found themselves relocating to America and settling near Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts to escape the church and practice their own religion. Their mission was to build a society of independent farm
Sharer, Robert. Daily Life in Maya Civilization. Second Edition. Westport, CT, United States: Greenwood Press, 2009. Print.
Areesh Areesh 23) Puritans: A group of Protestants, of the late 16th and 17th century, who wanted to purify the church. The Protestant Reformation was initiated by Martin Luther, who challenged the teachings and adulterated practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The Puritans didn’t agree with the reformations of the Church of England under Elizabeth and demanded the simplification of doctrine and worship, and greater strictness in religious discipline. They believed education to be of the utmost importance as it meant being able to read the bible and receive salvation, as did the Protestant Reformers. Beginning in 1630, Puritan leaders were threatened with “extirpation from the earth" if they did not conform to religious practices, by leaders
In general, all colonies had their own individual challenges as they adjust to the New World. In general the first people who came to the new world were known as pilgrims, but then later they were followed by a group call Puritans. The Puritans were a group of Christians, who wanted the Church of England to alleviate certain ceremonious celebrations that were not found in the scriptures because they believe the bible as their sole authority (Who Were the Puritans, “n.d.”). They settle in the Massachusetts Bay and they were more religious conscience than most of the other colonies. In 1623, the Council of New England granted land to the Dorchester Company to plant a colony of fishermen in what is now Massachusetts (Reich, 2011, p. 71). Some
Nature is a recurring theme in both of the readings, but while Victor Frankenstein looks at it as a restorative place for his health, Charles Darwin sees it as a place that can cause many tragedies for the sake of science. Victor goes through illness and trials and the only thing keeping him relatively sane is nature’s healing properties. This is shown when Victor falls ill and is healed through exposure to nature. Victor stated, “My health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed” which proved that he actually gains strength from nature and this is like his personal therapy (Shelley, page 43). Nature’s power over Victor provides him with the humanity that was stifled inside of him by the unnatural world, which he tends to revel in. After the murders caused by his “creature,” he suffers greatly and falls into a deep despair that can only be cured by nature. After his brother’s death he wrote that, “I remained two days at Lausanne, in this painful state of mind. I contemplated the lake: the waters were placid; all around was calm, and the snowy mountains, "the palaces of nature," were not
The literature of Puritan America reflects the beliefs and values of the settlers in many ways. The first example is from the poem “Here follows some verses upon the burning of our house”. The quote “Adieu, Adieu, all's vanity. Then straight i’gin my heart to chide…”(Line 36-37) means that she wants to fix her thoughts and actions. The reason that I say this is because the Puritans believed that only the elct get to go to paradise. In this quote Anne Bradstreet is saying goodbye to the way she was, and saying hello to the person she is going to become in order to be apart of the elect.
Though there were religious concerns that contributed to the settling of British North America, the economic concerns outweighed the notable religious concerns. A religious concern that played a role in British colonization was that the British wanted to have the Indians of North America converted to Protestant Christianity (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition, specific groups that were seeking religious freedom used the British colonizing as a venue to achieve this objective. Such groups included the Puritan separatists who had begun to lose their freedoms in England, and thus they became colonists in New England.
In the beginning of the colonial period were the Puritans. They were in the 18th century and were agricultural and lived in villages and went to church twice a day. They believed “Puritans were chosen people that the devil would do anything to destroy”(Nature of Puritans theocracy). Puritans did not believe in celebrations or dancing. The thought of rationalism came into the thoughts of scientists and people questioning the church's ways and questioning everything and finding reason for things.
Traditional Maya religion had become more of a generalized belief system that is often referred to locally as “costumbre,” which means 'customary.' The “costumbre”
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization which was created a long time ago, but was at his peak around 600-800 A.D. They are known principally for their impressive advancement in different knowledge like astronomy, mathematics, arts…but also for their architectures in which they constructed unique buildings and pyramids that still today remain an incredible work of delicacy and are strongly living through the ages. However, the civilization disappeared between the 8th and 9th century, at everyone’s surprises. Still today, the reason of how and why this society collapsed remain unknown, but many theories were created in order to understand this mystery. In this essay, different theories will be explained like
Southall, R., 1994, 'The South African Elections of 1994: The Remaking of a Dominant-Party State', The Journal of Modern African Studies, 32, 4, p. 629-655, viewed 13 April 2014.
The ruling government of South Africa changed from French-backed Dutch control to the British in 1795 ("The Consent”). Once the British controlled the Cape Colony, slavery was introduced and the white Dutch population was considered superior ("The Consent”). After several wars between the white Dutch population and Britain, the British gained complete control of the government in South Africa ("The Consent”). The British government still considered blacks second class citizens without the right to vote ("The Consent”). In the 1948 elections The National...