1 / 6

Original Diversity

Original Diversity. Clashing Cultures and Colonial Conquest. Compartmentalized v . Holistic Religion. In the West, at least since the Enlightenment, most have viewed life as separated into compartments, including religion: Work Politics Education Recreation RELIGION

gita
Download Presentation

Original Diversity

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Original Diversity Clashing Cultures and Colonial Conquest

  2. Compartmentalized v. Holistic Religion • In the West, at least since the Enlightenment, most have viewed life as separated into compartments, including religion: • Work • Politics • Education • Recreation • RELIGION • In contrast, tribal societies like those first encountered by Europeans in the 15th century held a holistic understanding of life, with no division between sacred and secular.

  3. Holistic Religion: Native Americans • Founding myths • Seasonal festivals • Hunting celebrations • Rituals for sickness, childbirth, etc.

  4. Holistic Religion: Africans • Creation stories • Spirit possession • Ritual singing/dancing • Ceremonial rites of passage • The point: sacred forces interact with human daily life on every level, either for good or ill, and the goal was to entice the favor of those forces for ones cause.

  5. Religious Diversity in Europe • The emergence of Protestantism brought new diversity to European Christianity just as explorers were discovering the “New World.” • Lutherans in Germany • Calvinists in Switzerland • Anabaptists • Anglicans and Puritans in England • Catholics in Spain, Portugal, France, and parts of Germany • Alongside Christians, Europe was home to sizable Jewish and Islamic communities.

  6. Contact: Europeans Encounter Tribal Religion • Do they have religion? • No institutions • No sacred texts • No monotheism • Rituals like dancing appeared recreational rather than religious • Do they have souls? • Physical and social differences cast doubt on native humanity • Should they be converted or killed?

More Related