Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Native americans indigenous religions around the world
Native american and european american cultural differences
Native american and european american cultural differences
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Native American spirituality differs greatly from the other religions practiced in this time throughout the world; they have contrasting values, host ceremonies, and believe in a spirit instead of a God. Their culture has been dwindling since the Europeans traveled throughout North America because the Europeans opposed their faith. The remaining natives have preserved many of their beliefs because of their ancestors relaying the important traditions. Throughout time several themes have remained in this spirituality including nature, relationships, power, and a needed paradigm shift for others. These themes are relevant through events in today’s time, as well as, in the past. Nature has an imperative role is the Native American culture …show more content…
They take relationships with each other and the creatures around them very seriously. In the documentary Two Rivers, Glen Schmekel introduces John GrosVenor as his friend to a group of people. GrosVenor takes this word to heart and expresses to Schmekel how much that means to him. In the Native American culture, words are not thrown around like they are in today’s generations. For example, I will call someone I have a class with a “friend” even if I do not view them that way. Native Americans only speak from their hearts and they know how to listen when others are talking so they are seen as quiet people (Two Rivers). The relationships natives form reach out into the land as well. The Creator’s spirit ties everything together because it splits itself among the children of Mother Earth, so all creatures have a kinship to one another. They see themselves as guardians to the land so they help ensure that a balance is kept (Ties That Bind). This consciousness of a relationship helps the natives realize how they are impacting the world and what they can do to leave a smaller footprint. People today crave competition and need to prove they are different than anyone else; usually people try to outdo someone else, which does not help make a smaller mark (I am). This relationship to others is not what the natives or Mother Earth want because it leads to things like …show more content…
The Creator holds all the power in Native American beliefs because power is too strong to be manifested in the form of a man. Everyone is created equal by the spirit, even the animals, since we are all small pieces of the Creator itself (The Wisdom of the Native Americans). However, in current time, countries tirelessly fight for power because we feel the need to control others. People with the most money or are famous or seem to have the most material items are placed on a higher pedestal than the average man because that is what people value nowadays. Wealth is also materialistic now. Due to industrialization and the economic system, people are able to segregate one another based on the money they have. The natives see wealth as the resources the Creator sends as gifts to us and as the “things that make life worthwhile” (The Meaning of Wealth, Anielski). This can come from relationships, seeing beauty, feeling happy, or just playing around. Wealth is not the success of the country’s military is or cutting down forests or a larger budget; these are all focused on money, not genuine happiness like the natives see it. Wealth is really about the good feelings you get, rather than the items owned. Power and wealth both come from the Creator and involve feelings more than material items that could easily be
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
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours.. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if the culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities between them. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful.
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...
Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American world view is more cyclical and its components are interlinked, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between cultural elements, such as religion, kinship, and morality. However, there are certain limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western world view and were developed based on the Western terms; therefore, indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed.
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
In George E. Tinker’s book, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, the atrocities endured by many of the first peoples, Native American tribes, come into full view. Tinker argues that the colonization of these groups had and continues to have lasting effects on their culture and thus their theology. There is a delicate balance to their culture and their spiritual selves within their tightly knit communities prior to contact from the first European explorers. In fact, their culture and spiritual aspects are so intertwined that it is conceptually impossible to separate the two, as so many Euro-American analysts attempted. Tinker points to the differences between the European and the Native American cultures and mind sets as ultimately
Throughout ancient history, many indigenous tribes and cultures have shown a common trait of being hunter/gatherer societies, relying solely on what nature had to offer. The geographical location influenced all aspects of tribal life including, spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices. Despite vast differences in the geographical location, reports show various similarities relating to the spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices of indigenous tribal cultures.
The American version of history blames the Native people for their ‘savage ' nature, for their failure to adhere to the ‘civilized norms ' of property ownership and individual rights that Christian people hold, and for their ‘brutality ' in defending themselves against the onslaught of non-Indian settlers. The message to Native people is simple: "If only you had been more like us, things might have been different for you.”
I have decided to discuss the topic of Spirituality in Native Americans. To address this topic, I will first discuss what knowledge I have gained about Native Americans. Then I will discuss how this knowledge will inform my practice with Native Americans. To conclude, I will talk about ethical issues, and dilemmas that a Social Worker might face working with Native American people.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
In his essay, “The Indians’ Old World,” Neal Salisbury examined a recent shift in the telling of Native American history in North America. Until recently, much of American history, as it pertains to Native Americans; either focused on the decimation of their societies or excluded them completely from the discussion (Salisbury 25). Salisbury also contends that American history did not simply begin with the arrival of Europeans. This event was an episode of a long path towards America’s development (Salisbury 25). In pre-colonial America, Native Americans were not primitive savages, rather a developing people that possessed extraordinary skill in agriculture, hunting, and building and exhibited elaborate cultural and religious structures.
In this way the religion practiced by the Native Americans was taken as contradictions to Christianity. The natives were informed that Christianity was designed to be an eternal rule of significance and a means from which they could use to return to God from their religions that had deviated (Eliot par. 3). Through sermons given by Whitfield, the minds of the natives were engaged in religion and making religion the subject of most of their discussions. They embraced all the opportunities to hear what was been taught on Christianity. The Christian revivals were attended by the young and old alike (Edwards par.
Community takes high precedence over self in Native American culture. They are a collectivist culture which means the tribe members will work as a whole to raise children and help one another (Hodgins & Hodgins, 2013, p. 449). Native Americans view many tribe member s as close family. The concept of family “stretches far beyond the concept of the traditional nuclear family in Western culture” (Lettenberger-Klein, Fish, & Hecker, 2013, p. 149).
I felt it was a good idea to ask my next question when I did because of the interest I got in Native Americans in a previous question. “Do you know anything about the religious beliefs of Native Americans?” For this question, I felt everyone had the same general idea about Native American beliefs. Many of them believed the Native Americans worshiped nature and had a deep respect for it. Lynne had said “I know they believed things had a spirit, everything is alive and that everything worships God. What I loved about them when I was younger was that if for example, if they were to hunt and kill something they would thank it for feeding them.” Very similarly Frank said, “They would thank nature, like if they had to kill an animal for food they would thank it for its services.” Marie had said “I think they believe in the sun and the seasons, I