It has been the goal of any society to try and begin to understand the nature of existence and the connection with an ultimate that humans feel. This searching is often human nature and leads different cultures around the world to describe the human problematic in many different ways. For the Nauha, a native Mexican tribe, the surface of the earth (tlalticpac) is slippery and narrow like a jagged path following mountain peeks. With a world view as such people having to walk along this dangerous path the look for ways to keep their balance and maintain their lives. The balance for the Nauha is discovered and maintained using their knowledge of Teotl: a single, dynamic, vivifying, self-generating and regenerating, self-transforming and reforming sacred energy force. Teotl is the trees and the wind and the river. It exists in both an independent state and an interconnected state simultaneously, thus making it complete reality for the Nauha.
The nature of Teotl served as a model for Nauha sages to conceive their metaphysics, axiology, epistemology, praxis, and aesthetics. The sacred force gave them the wisdom to make choices that help them maintain the proper path. The world is filled with pain, sorrow, and suffering, but wisdom can teach you how to maintain equilibrium and reduce misfortune. This was not wisdom in the modern sense, but rather it was wisdom in making choices that kept you along the right path while walking the slippery slope of the world. The Nauha conception of balance carries also into their understanding of knowledge or epistemology. Neltiliztli is quickly translated into truth, but its definition would not be complete without well-grounded stability, and well rootedness. The Nauha believed that a person cognizes truly is and only if she/he cognizes well rooted. Teotl gives us insight into the truth, but it also is able to deceive us as well. The deception is not as a result of Teotl trying to hide from us, but rather it is our inability to see the true nature of Teotl that causes our misperception. With the Nauha concept of wisdom comes the ability to see Teotl in its true form and as a result knowledge is formed. This is very different from most conceptions of knowledge that center the true or false based on external contingencies rather than internal perception. However, with the nature of all things being Teotl then truth is all that exists.
Further, prayer and medicine interplay to paint a classical image of the Native’s creed, yet, for many obsolete or preposterous existences of the shaman. To re-install beliefs present in the world for thousands of years, but have been disappearing, writers such as Neidhardt introduce the element of the
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon introduces viewers to a very complex structure that was built by Ancient Pueblo Indians. Although there is no language to explain the structure’s meaning and purpose, researchers were able to read their architecture as a language. Four themes that were extracted from the structure were, the native’s immense understanding of astronomy, the use for the structure, the level of spirituality that the structure represents, and migration from Chaco Canyon.
On one hand some say Native Indians in New England had ritual practices that created a stable self-regulating system. It balanced the human impact upon the surrounding ecology. On the opposite hand, one could say there is no stable way to interact with the environment. An unstable reaction can always be found. The riddle compels the reader to explore both the differences between Native Indians and Colonials way of living and how they impacted the land and its ecology.
The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an ancestor or relative. The Native American’s strongly belie...
Duane Champagne in Social Change and Cultural Continuity Among Native Nations explains that there has never been one definitive world view that comprises any one Native American culture, as there is no such thing as one “Native community” (2007:10). However, there are certain commonalities in the ways of seeing and experiencing the world that many Native communities and their religions seem to share.
However, the primary energy for this type of interactive neurological function is always formed under the authority of God as the Creator. In this context, the flow of the soul/spirits is created by God, which then allows the brain to receive this energy through the pineal gland (brown, 2006, p.37). This is an important argument that shows the duality of God’s omnipotence and the soul’s energy as it flows into the brain and creates the mind. These are the vital characteristics of interactive dualism of the mind and body that occur in the brain of a human being. This type of interactive dualism defines a sensible aspect of brain function and the mysterious “energy” of the soul/spirit that enters the mind and forms a
Symbolist mentality is a pattern which can be observed in every Indigenous Religions; it offers an animistic view of the world which helped the tribal cultures to survive and be in balance with nature. Molloy argues that "In a world that is animated by spirits, human beings must treat all things with care. If a spirit is injured or insulted, it can retaliate." (Molloy, Michael. Experiencing the World's Religions: Tradition, Challenge, and Change. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2008. Print.)
Experiencing new worlds and encountering new dilemmas, magic, wisdom, truth: all of these elements characterizes the context of the book Of Water and Spirit by Malidona Patrice Some. Here, magic and everyday life come to an affinity, and respect and rituals are necessary tools to survive. The author portrays the Dagara culture in a very specific way. This culture makes no differentiation between what is natural, or "normal", and what is supernatural, or magical. Ancestors compound the core of communities and individuals. These higher beings are present in ordinary life activities and actions. They constitute the connection between this world and another.
The Hmong Culture of South Asia is a very interesting ethnic group. Between 300,000 to 600,000 Hmong live in Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. About 8 million more live in the southern provinces of China. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia have settled in Australia, France, Canada, and the United States. The largest Hmong refugee community lives in the United States with a population of about 110,000. The U.S. Department of state has tried to spread Hmong refugees out across the country to reduce the impact on any one region. Because Hmong families tend to be large in numbers, the community grows rapidly.
Important aspects of naturalism are the ideas that people are essentially animals responding to their basic urges without rational thought, and the insignificance of man to others and nature. In The Jungle, Sinclair portrays Jurgis as a man slowly changing into animal as well as a man whose actions are irrelevant to the rest of the corrupt capitalist world of Chicago in order to show the reader the naturalist ideas of the struggles between man and society.
Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons takes place in midnineteenth century Russia. Throughout the text Turgenev explores the pros and cons of the nihilist philosophy and how nihilism, coupled with the presence of generational and class based animosities, affects the greater Russian identity. Properties of nihilism are examined and tested as the characters encounter aristocratic lifestyles and the redeeming power of love. The female characters in Fathers and Sons represent a wide range of socioeconomic positions and temperaments, these women test the thinking of the nihilists by their propensities towards emotion, order, feminism, shyness, and propriety. This exploration of gender roles and the balance of power between women and the men that they control is subject to their ascribed classes and the relationships they hold. These women fall into two major categories: the autocratic and the dependent. The aristocratic “mothers” and dependent “daughters” of Fathers and Sons bring about the reevaluation of Bazarov and Arkady’s nihilistic beliefs and furthermore utilize their feminine qualities to manipulate the men in their lives.
...ng in pure nature the flame of spirituality is re-ignited. The person is in a virtual Eden.
McGaa, Ed. Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.
Rationalists would claim that knowledge comes from reason or ideas, while empiricists would answer that knowledge is derived from the senses or impressions. The difference between these two philosophical schools of thought, with respect to the distinction between ideas and impressions, can be examined in order to determine how these schools determine the source of knowledge. The distinguishing factor that determines the perspective on the foundation of knowledge is the concept of the divine.
The colonization of civilizations has changed the world’s history forever. From the French, Spaniard, and down to the English, have changed cultures, traditions, religions, and livelihoods of other societies. The Native Americans, for example, were one of the many civilizations that were conquered by the English. The result was their ways of life based on nature changed into the more “civilized” ways of the colonists of the English people. Many Native Americans have lost their old ways and were pulled into the new “civilized” ways. Today only a small amount of Native American nations or tribes exist in remote areas surviving following their traditions. In the book Ceremony, a story of a man named Tayo, did not know himself and the world around him but in the end found out and opened his eyes to the truth. However the Ceremony’s main message is related not only to one man but also to everything and everyone in the world. It is a book with the message that the realization of oneself will open the eyes to see what is truth and false which will consequently turn to freedom.