Indigenous Religions

Strength in the Face of the Storm: Examining Pivotal Principals of Indigenous Traditions

by Kieran Conroy

unpublished paper, Spring 2009.  To be uploaded soon, message now if you would like a private copy for review. 

A working paper laying groundwork for my Divinity Master's Thesis, written as part of Professor Nimachia Hernandez'... more A working paper laying groundwork for my Divinity Master's Thesis, written as part of Professor Nimachia Hernandez' "Gender, Cosmology and Ritual in Native American Society" course at Harvard in the spring of 2009. 

In this paper, I examine the unique way Native American religious traditions were originally "housed" in non-literary "texts" of land, oral tradition, architecture, etc.  I argue the holistic nature of Native American religious "texts" was related to the particularly fierce "reprogramming" attempted by the US Government and missionaries against their communities in the Boarding School era. 

Hydroelectric dams on Brazil's Xingu River and indigenous peoples

by Robin Wright

The Semai’s response to missionary work: From resistance to compliance

by Mehrdad Arabestani

Co-authore: Juli Edo
Published in: Anthropological Notebooks 17(3), 5−27 (2011)

ABSTRACT
Missionary religions show an innate inclination to expand their domain and extend the “truth” they hold... more ABSTRACT
Missionary religions show an innate inclination to expand their domain and extend the “truth” they hold to the other people. Other people in turn might resist the missionary activities or treat them with compliance. The Semai of Malaysia have been subject to missionary activities by Christian and Islamic missions. Christian missions started their activity among the Semai in 1930s, while the Islamic missions advanced when the government took a more active role in Islamic invitation (da’wah) in 1970s. The Semai reaction
to missionary religions is complicated by the political and cultural context of the missions, as well as a subconscious non-discursive context of conversion. The Islamic mission is backed by the government and is seen as a part of a plan for assimilation of the Semai into the Malay community. Christian missions, in contrast, are nongovernmental and run by non-Malay people. Both Christianity and Islam have their points of compatibility and incompatibility with the traditional Semai culture; therefore, they make different hybrids
with it. As the cultural dislocation and threat of identity extinction can be the causes of resistance to missions; religious emotions and perhaps financial incentives lead to a compliant response to the missions and the changes they have brought about. Emotional
ambivalence towards Malays, however, is the phantasmic or non-discursive dime nsion of the conversion. Where conversion to Islam go with the enamoured with Malays and a tendency to identify with them, resistance to Islam or even conversion to Christianity can
be regarded as the equivalent of the dislike of the Malay.

Keywords: conversion, Christianity, identity, Islam, Malaya, mission, Semai

Aboriginal cultural heritage must be managed by our mob

by Victoria Grieves

In this article published in a newspaper, the National Indigenous Times, Dr Vicki Grieves explores the importance of... more In this article published in a newspaper, the National Indigenous Times, Dr Vicki Grieves explores the importance of Aboriginal philosophy, its connection to cultural heritage, knowledge development and wellbeing. This means that Aboriginal engagement with our cultural heritage will secure a pathway for Aboriginal economic development.

Indigenous Knowledges in Latin America and Australia: Locating Epistemologies, Difference and Dissent | December 8-10, 2011

by Victoria Grieves

This two day symposium and one day film festival will bring together Indigenous educators and intellectuals from Latin... more This two day symposium and one day film festival will bring together Indigenous educators and intellectuals from Latin America to Sydney to meet with interested Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators, scholars and activists, as well as non-Indigenous practitioners and allies, to discuss different models and approaches of Indigenous KnowledgeS and Education in the tertiary sector and beyond.

This project aims at helping educators and researchers in the Higher Education sector of Australia and Latin America to identify opportunities for integrating in their research and teaching and learning relevant aspects of Indigenous Knowledges in the areas of culture, education and sustainability.

Apart from the symposium itself, academic publications, public lectures by distinguished visitors and the creation of a website, the project will stimulate debate on Indigenous Knowledge and film production in Latin America and Australia by hosting a documentary screening on the topic. The selection of documentaries will be done in collaboration with the Sydney Latin American Film Festival, and this event will be targeted to the student population and the wider community.

Maximón y las cambiantes identidades de los pueblos mayas

by Federico Navarrete Linares

Navarrete Linares, Federico, “Maximón y las cambiantes identidades de los pueblos mayas”, en La imagen política. XXV Coloquio Internacion de Historia del Arte, Cuauhtémoc Medina, ed., México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2006, pp. 467-484.

The persistence of Asante chieftaincy under colonial rule: explanations of an enigma

by louise muller

Key words: Ghana, Asante, chieftaincy, Indigenous Religion, Islam, Christianity.

abstract english
The aim of this paper is to provide a religious explanation for the persistence of Asante... more abstract english
The aim of this paper is to provide a religious explanation for the persistence of Asante chieftaincy in Ghana in the colonial period (1896-1957) and beyond. Chieftaincy was the most common traditional political system in Africa before colonial rule. In the colonial period, in many African countries including Ghana the British colonial rulers introduced political super structures, known as Indirect Rule, that were meant to control the people of Africa. As a consequence, African chieftaincies came under threat and those African leaders involved with the independence of their country aimed to clip the wings of the traditional authorities. These leaders perceived the chiefs and queen mothers as outmoded rulers, who stood in their way to build modern African nations. It is therefore not self-evident that chieftaincy among the Asante in Ghana and other cultural groups in countries under former British Indirect Rule, such as Nigeria, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland has continued to exist.
In this paper, based on doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, the investigator enhances insight in the religious roles of Asante traditional authorities in the colonial period to make the persistence of chieftaincy among the Asante understandable. The focus is on the religious mediatory and peacekeeping roles of these authorities and especially of the Asantehenes Prempeh I and II. The objective of the paper is to increase understanding of the religious roles of these Asante royals by making use of the concept of Indigenous Religion, which is relatively new in the field of religious studies. The concept of Indigenous Religion has replaced the older notion of African Traditional Religion, which was rightly attacked by the political scholars Hobsbawn and Ranger as being an ‘invention of tradition’. The model of religious syncretism of the scholar of religion Ulrich Berner is introduced to enhance understanding of the hybridity between Asante Indigenous Religion and various forms of Islam and Christianity in a changing historical setting. The paper furthermore shows that the Asante Kings Prempeh I and II, who were themselves deeply religious, managed to maintain influence and prestige by their indigenous religious negotiations with the inhabitants of the spiritual world and with the Islamic and Christian world religious leaders and their adherents. By mediation and performing their religious roles the Asante Kings maintained or gained not all but sufficient adherents of various distinguished groups in Asante society, such as Christians and Muslims, the Asante royal servants (nhenkwaa) and the nouveau rich (akonkofoƆ). In conclusion, the resilience of Asante chieftaincy in the ‘Crown colony of Asante’ until today can be explained by the continuation although significantly diminished mediatory role of the Asante traditional authorities. More importantly, however, its persistence is explicated by the increased significance of these authorities’ religious peacekeeping role.

The Ecology of a Masked Dance: Negotiating at the Frontier of Identity in the Northwest Amazonia

by Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo

Baessler Archiv (2004) 52: 54-74.

The paper is an approach to the subject of a masked dance from the perspective of an ecology of religion. This... more The paper is an approach to the subject of a masked dance from the perspective of an ecology of religion. This particular dance was performed in the locality of Comeyafu in the lower Caqueta River in Colombia.  The mask dance has the characteristic of being a multiethnic dance where the objective in a horizontal dimension is to negotiate with the "other" (people of different languages and political units or spatial social heterarchy) through a ritual of incorporation. In a vertical dimension (time delayed reciprocity) the dance is performed as a process of negotiation where the objective is to secure the continual supply of animal resources, as pursued through balanced reciprocity  with the "other" (the other in this case being the spirits of the forest, animals, and their owners). The mask dance can be seen in terms of ecology of religion with multiple liminal rituals of social, political, and ecological exchanges of gifts and balanced reciprocity with the environment in Northwest Amazon

The Rise of Religious Routinization. The Study of Changes from Shaman to Priestly Elite

by Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo

In Mortuary Practices and Ritual Associations: Shamanic Elements in Prehistoric Funerary Context in South America, edited by John E. Staller and Elizabeth J. Currie, pp. 1-18. Archaeopress Publishers of British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, England.

It is argued that the changes from shamanism to priesthood or institutionalized religion can be traced through the... more It is argued that the changes from shamanism to priesthood or institutionalized religion can be traced through the identification of processes of religious routinization that are absent in the shaman’s world. This routinization is expressed in the material culture, especially in the iconography or art styles and architecture. These expressions are typically a byproduct of the religious routinization generated by successful prophetic movements. The perspective and concepts offered in this paper allow us to rethink the impact of ideology. The routinization of religion as a process can account for most of the shared material culture in space (horizons and cultural areas) as religious complexes. Temporal changes in the routinization are radical and can be perceived in the archaeological record as distinctive phases. It is proposed that these processes are common in the Andes and Mesoamerica and explain why these locations are different from areas where shamanism is the dominant ideology. This conceptual approach allows us a better understanding of the nature of the religious sphere and its relationship to the material cultural world. As a case study, the archaeological evidence of the Tairona in northern Andes is presented.

“We Have Always Had the Bible” Christianity and the Composition of White Mountain Apache Heritage

by Thomas Nevins

Co-authored with M. Eleanor Nevins. Published in Heritage Management, Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2009, pp. 11–34.

In this article we examine claims made by some Apache religious specialists that Apaches, in their ceremonies and... more In this article we examine claims made by some Apache religious specialists that Apaches, in their ceremonies and stories, have always had the Bible and that the Judeo-Christian Bible is an authentic part of the Apache way of life. We show that the Apache discourse of Biblical authenticity does not threaten to replace Apache “tradition” as much as destabilize mainstream Western understandings of what the Bible is, and what alienable and inalienable cultural property is. In the process of developing this argument we discuss some of the limits of heritage and cultural preservation efforts and propose new forms of col- laboration between anthropologists and the indigenous communities with whom they work.

Representations of Indigenous Australian Religions in New South Wales (NSW) Higher School Certificate Studies of Religion Textbooks

by Carole Cusack

in Siv Ellen Kraft, Bengt-Ove Andreassen, and James R. Lewis, eds, Textbook Gods, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2012, in press.

Among practitioners of the academic study of religion at university level it has long been acknowledged that the... more Among practitioners of the academic study of religion at university level it has long been acknowledged that the theoretical models of religion that have dominated the field since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century were uncritically derived from Christianity and frequently produced caricatures of religions other than Christianity. This has led some scholars to call for the deconstruction of “Religious Studies” as a discipline and the abandonment of the category “religion” (Dubuisson 2003). The case of Indigenous Australian religion is particularly poignant, in that from the arrival of Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet, signalling the beginning of colonial occupation, in 1788 to the publication of Edward Burnett Tylor’s Primitive Culture in 1971, the European rulers of Australia refused to acknowledge the existence of the religions of Aboriginal Australians, according to them only ‘traditions’ and ‘customs’ (Swain and Trompf 1995). Since the 1960s when Aboriginal Australians were granted citizenship White Australians have developed an interest in Indigenous religions. This was part of the broader ‘New Age’ fascination with First Nations, and resulted in similarly faulty representations of Indigenous Australian religions, which were deeply imbricated with clichéd images of Native Americans, African tribes, and New Zealand’s Maori. This chapter examines the presentation of Indigenous Australian religions in current textbooks used in Australian secondary and tertiary education, including Mudge et al, Living Religion (1997), Hartney, Cambridge Studies of Religion (2008), and King et al, Oxford Studies of Religion Preliminary and HSC Course (2009).

Inscrição rupestre da Laje do Adufe (Ferro, Covilhã). Ficheiro Epigráfico. Coimbra. 80:359.

by marcos osorio

REDENTOR, Armando;
OSÓRIO, Marcos;
CARVALHO, Pedro Cardoso

Ara a" Vordo Talaconio" de Sortelha (Sabugal)

by marcos osorio

The Bible in two keys: Traditionalism and Evangelical Christianity on the Fort Apache reservation

by M. Eleanor Nevins

Language and Communication 2010, in a special issue entitled "Intertextuality and Misunderstanding"

This article examines contrasting entextualizations of the Bible across conflicting Traditionalist and Evangelical... more This article examines contrasting entextualizations of the Bible across conflicting Traditionalist and Evangelical Christian identities on the Fort Apache reservation in Arizona. On the one hand, each makes use of Apache language idioms and genre precedents to underwrite their respective claims to authentic Apache identities. On the other hand, each selects different components of that loosely shared repertoire of discursive precedents in their entextualizations of the Bible in order to articulate contrasting transformative projects for their community as well as to assert the contemporary relevance of their voices
within differently imagined global orders. This analysis constitutes the local speech community as a locus of ethnolinguistic inquiry in which relations to encompassing social
orders are mediated in part by the circulation of texts. In this process conventions and precedents serve as a reservoir of resources mobilized for use in competing strategies advanced by differently affiliated actors in dialogue with one another. In this way multiplicity and dynamism as a characteristic of local communities is defined as a crucial dimension of local–global discursive processes.

A thematic comparison between four African scholars: Idowu, Mbiti, Okot p'Bitek, Appiah

by louise muller

What do they tell us about the existence of ‘truth’ and a ‘High God’, and why is their work significant?

QUEST: An African Journal of Philosophy / Revue Africaine de Philosophie
XVIII: 109-124

ABSTRACT. The author looks at two themes in the writings of four African scholars: E. Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti, Okot... more ABSTRACT. The author looks at two themes in the writings of four African scholars: E. Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti, Okot p’Bitek and Kwame Appiah. She surveys their ideas about the existence of truth and of a High God. For each theme, she outlines the significance of each author’s work. In the conclusion the coherence between both themes is shown with the help of two varieties of philosophical positions and aesthetic styles, notably: modern-ism and postmodernism She shows why Idowu and Mbiti should be categorized as mod-ernist. She argues that Okot p’Bitek’s view of God-as-dead shows him to be a modernist and why his deconstruction of the work of previous scholars also makes him a postmod-ernist avant la lettre. Finally, she argues that Appiah’s postmodern vision on the non-existence of one single truth has been conducive to his vision on identity as a bricolage of traditional and modern elements of culture.
.
KEY WORDS. African religion, Appiah (Kwame), discourse, High God, Idowu (Bolaji), Mbiti (John), modernism, Okot p’Bitek, postmodernism, truth

Dancing golden stools

by louise muller

Keywords: Africa, Akan, festivals, identity, Indigenous Religions.

Abstract
In this article the author concentrates on the use of Indigenous Religion among the Akuapem in Ghana for... more Abstract
In this article the author concentrates on the use of Indigenous Religion among the Akuapem in Ghana for the construction of their group identity. She discusses the way in which the Akuapem make use of the celebration of an annual indigenous religious festival (Odwira) to strengthen their cultural identity by self-identification, differentiation and the perception of other cultural groups. Her specific focus is on the common Ashanti-Akuapem history, the foundation of the Akan Golden Stools, akom dancing and the Odwira festival procession and Durbars. She concludes that Indigenous Religion should not be left out in the study of the construction of group identities in the social sciences.

Talloen, P. ,Vanhaverbeke, H. and M. Waelkens (2004) Cult in Retrospect. Religion and Society in Pre-Hellenistic Pisidia, in: M. Hutter and S. Hutter-Braunsar (eds.) Offizielle Religion, lokale Kulte und individuelle Religiosität. Akten des religionsgeschichtlichen Symposiums "Kleinasien und angrenzende Gebiete vom Beginn des 2. bis zur Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr." (Bonn, 20.-22. Februar 2003) (Alter Orient und Altes Testament. Veröffentlichungen zur Kultur und Geschichte des Alten Orients und des Alten Testaments 318) Münster, 433-450.

by Peter Talloen

Los Kogi: pueblo de adivinos

by Felipe Cárdenas

Voy a presentar algunos de los resultados de investigación referentes a ciertas esferas que hacen
parte en la... more Voy a presentar algunos de los resultados de investigación referentes a ciertas esferas que hacen
parte en la actualidad del ritual adivinatorio de los pueblos indígenas serranos de la Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta en el departamento del Magdalena. Voy a focalizar el trabajo
específicamente sobre los Kogi.  Presentaré algunos de los elementos constitutivos del espacio
simbólico y material de las prácticas adivinatorias; estas actividades mágico-religiosas inciden
de forma importante en la constitución de los elementos de manejo ambiental indígena del
territorio; todos los grupos indígenas de la sierra manejan prácticas adivinatorias que se
construyen, estructuran y funcionan sobre la base de la utilización de símbolos cosmo-biológicos
que desencadenan conductas culturales importantes que afectan de manera directa las estructuras
bióticas y abióticas del territorio de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. 

When the Bough Breaks: Theology and Just-Reconciliation in the Wake of North American Residential Schools for Indigenous Peoples

by Kieran Conroy

Master of Divinity Thesis, 2010; Available at Divinity School's Andover-Harvard Theological Library OR by personal request of the author here (please message).

Explores the historical and theological roots of the Residential/Boarding Schools in the United States and Canada for... more Explores the historical and theological roots of the Residential/Boarding Schools in the United States and Canada for Indigenous children, their contemporary impacts as described in historical trauma literature and the current Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and case studies of several grassroots projects within church and religious movements promoting healing and just-reconciliation. Particular emphasis on "unintended consequences" and religious-humanitarian rhetoric in North American cultural genocides.

Introduction: Colonialist Representations of Indigenous Religions

by Hilary Carey

In Journal of Religious History 22 (1998): 125-131