Transcript Ethnic Religions

Ethnic Religions
Hinduism
 Largest Ethnic religion
 900 million adherents
 3rd largest religion worldwide
 Localized in India and Nepal
 Monotheistic
 Contributed to Buddhism and Sikhism
Doctrine
 Up to individual to decide the
best way to worship God
 There are various paths to reach
God including: path of
knowledge, path of
renunciation, path of devotion,
or path of action
 You can pursue your own path
and follow your own convictions
as long as they are in harmony
with your true nature
 Hindus see the divine in
everything and are tolerant of
all doctrines
 You are responsible for your own
actions and you alone suffer the
consequences
 No central authority or a single holy
book
Beliefs
 Law of Karma: all actions
produce effects in the future
 Dharma: one’s duty of station in
this life, strive for harmonious
and eternal truth within
 Reincarnation: previous acts
determine the condition into
which a being is reborn in one
form or another
 Must attain atman to break
cycle of reincarnation
 Liberation of the soul (moksha)
 Nonviolence, veneration of all
forms of life (Ahimsa)
Gods
 Believe in a supreme being who has
unlimited forms
* Brahman
 His manifestations are worshipped
 The manifestation of God with the largest
# of adherents is Vaishnavism (70%)
 Worships the God Vishnu
 A loving god incarnated as Krishna
 Sivaism is dedicated to Siva (26%)
 Often presented in narratives:
 Ramayana: Havana kidnaps Sita.
Rama rescues Sita and kills Havana
but the lovers are forced to separate.
 Represents the tragedy in life in the
real world where love of the soul for
god is constantly being tested
Origins
 No specific founder, no single
theology, no agreement on
origins
 Word Hinduism sixth century B.C.
to refer to people living in the
area
 Hinduism existed long before
recorded history
 Earliest surviving documents
written in 1500 B.C.
 Objects related to Hinduism
date back to 2500 B.C.
 Aryan tribes from Central Asia
invaded India around 1400 B.C.
brought Indo-European
language and religion
 Aryans first settled in Punjab
(Northern India)
 Migrated later to Ganges River
Valley
 Centuries of intermingling with
the Dravidians already living in
the area modified their
religious beliefs
Writings
 Hindu’s prefer term Vedic
 Veda are Vedic text that
provide the only written source
for understanding religious life in
ancient India
 Vedas compromised of 1,000
hymns followed by chants and
prose works
 Over time only highly-trained
priest could perform the
complicated Vedic rituals
 Upanishads
 Record wisdom of Hindu
teachers and sages as far
back at 1000 B.C.E.
 Nature of morality and
eternal life
 Transmigration of souls
 Causality in creation
 Bhagavad-Gita
 Part of the Mahabharataone of the longest books in
the world
 Dialogue between Arjuna
(hero) and Krishna
 Incredibly important cultural
text
Holy Places of Hinduism
 Hinduism closely tied to
geography of India
 Natural features rank among
holiest shrines (riverbanks ad
coastlines)
 Pilgrimage (tirtha) an act of
purification
 Act of receiving redemption
 Holy Places organized into a
hierarchy
 Importance of shrines are
established through tradition
 Example: Mount Kailas
 Base of Himalayas
 Holy because Siva lives there
 Many travel despite long
distance
 Purification can be attained by
bathing in holy rivers.
 Ganges is holiest river in India
 Sprung forth from the hair of Siva
 Hardwar the most popular site
for “purification”
 Recent improvements in
transportation have increased
accessibility to shrines
Ganges River
Places of Worship
Hindu Temples
 Serves as home to one or
more gods
 Not for congregational
worship
 important religious
functions take place in
the home
 Wealthy individuals or
groups maintain temple
 Size and frequency
determined by locals
 Usually contains symbolic
artifact or image of the god
 Contains pool for ritual baths
Worship and Practices
 Worship called Puja
 Worship often takes place in
home
 No particular day or time
 No religious hierarchy
 Rituals
 Marriage: match must be
approved by both parents,
usually arranged, horoscopes
drawn up, bride’s family pays
dowry
 Death: body cremated, body
not required after death due to
reincarnation
Conflict
 Hinduism vs. Social Equality
 Four Castes
 Strongly challenged since 1800
 Brahmans: priests
since British colonialism
 Kshatriyas: warriors
 Hinduism has rigid caste system
 Vaisyas: merchants
 The class or distinct hereditary
 Shudras: agricultural
order into which a Hindu is
workers or artisans
assigned according to religious
 Distinctively lower caste
law.
 Untouchables were the
 Each individual should belong to
outcastes, lowest of all.
a caste in the social order
did work considered too dirty for
 Caste system originated around
other
1500 B.C.
descended from indigenous
 Brought by Aryan invaders
peoples
 Castes split into thousands of
subcastes throughout centuries
 Type of Hinduism practiced, depends
on caste
Gandhi
 British pointed out
problems with system
 Neglect of the health of
untouchables
 Economic problems
 System has relaxed in
recent years
 Indian government has
legally abolished the
untouchable caste
 Now have equal rights
 Quota system to give
untouchables places in
universities
Judaism
 Some believe it’s the first monotheistic religion
 14 million Jews today
 - Considered “parent” religion of Christianity and
related to Islam
 Unique ethnic religion because it’s not clustered
geographically
Judaism
- An ethnic religion based in the
lands bordering the eastern end
of the Mediterranean Sea
-Called Canaan in the Bible
Palestine by the Romans
Israel since 1948
- 4,000 years ago Abraham, the
patriarch or Judaism, migrated from
present-day Iraq to Canaan.
- Abraham and God have a
covenant in which the Jews agree to
worship one God and God agrees to
protect his “chosen” people, the
Jews
- Name Judaism derives from Judah,
one of Abraham’s sons. Israel is
another biblical name for Jacob
History continued.
 Moses led the Jews from Egypt,
where they had been
enslaved, to Canaan, where
an internal conflict split the
nation into two branches, Israel
and Judah.
 Israel’s tribes were “lost” to
the conquerors
 Judah survived longer, but
were also conquered by
Babylonians and Assyrians.
 Jews regrouped and rebuilt
Jerusalem
 Romans conquered in 70 CE
and drove the Jews out
 A resurgence movement in 19th
century divided Jews into
Orthodox Jews and
Conservative Jews
Doctrine
 Fundamental to Judaism is the belief
in one powerful God
 Called themselves the “chosen”
people, because God had selected
them to live according to his ethical
and moral principles
 Believe in one God who created
humankind for the purpose of
bestowing kindness upon them
 People are rewarded for faith and
are punished for sins, but they can
atone
 10 commandments
Holy book
 The Torah is comprised on the
first five chapters of the Hebrew
Bible
 Contains Old Testament and
the Talmud
 Collection of rabbinical and
historical teachings passed
down from one generation
to the next
Sacred Places and symbols
 Most prominent feature of the
Jewish-influenced cultural
landscape is the synagogue
 House of Jewish worship
 Architecturally varied
 All have an ark housing the Torah,
written in Hebrew
 The six-pointed star is an important
symbol
Sacred Sites
 Most important site is Wailing Wall
 It is at the edge of the Temple
Mount
 Temple Mount was once the site
of two great Jewish Temples
 Abraham almost sacrificed his
son Isaac
 Dome of the Rock
 The western wall is all that is left of
the temples
 Jews gather there to remember
the destruction of the temples
and to offer prayers
 called” “Wailing Wall” to depict
the suffering of the Jews over
time
Diffusion
 Different from other ethnic
religions
 it is practiced in places other than
just the place of origin
 Most Jews do not live in Israel
due to the forced Diaspora of
the Jews by the Romans in A.D.
70
 Most migrated to Europe
 Into Iberian peninsula
 Often Jews were persecuted by
other nationalities
 Example: Holocaust
 Forced to live in Ghettos
 Most Jews now live in Israel
 Largest population of Jews live in
the U.S.
 Northeast, NY
 Prominent in major cities in
Western Europe
Primary Branches of Judaism
 Orthodox Judaism
 Seeks to retain the original
teachings of the faith
 Reform Judaism
 Developed in the 1800s as a
branch attempting to adjust the
religion to fit more modern times
 Conservative Judaism
 Most recent branch and is most
moderate branch
Subgroups
 Because of Diaspora, Jews
were separated into
Subgroups
 Ashkenazim: Jews that lived in
Germany and France before
migrating to Eastern Europe
 Mizrachim: Jews that never left
North Africa or Middle East
 Sephardim: Jews from Spain or
Portugal
 Large scale migration of
Ashkenazim from Europe to
America in 19th century
 Today 13 million Jews in the
world
 6 million live in North America
 5 million live in Israel
Jewish Calendar
 classified as an ethnic religion
because its major holidays are
based on events in the agricultural
calendar
 Examples: Fall is a time of hopeRosh Hashanah (New Year) and
Yom Kippur (Atonement) are in
the fall
 Other important holidays: Pesach
(Passover), Sukkot, and Shavnot
(Feast of Weeks)
 Today, Israel follows the lunar
calendar rather than the solar
calendar
Hierarchy
 no centralized structure of religious
control.
 To conduct a full service, 10 adult
males must be present
Other Ethnic Religions
East Asian Ethnic Religions
 Taoism (Daoism)
 Linked to philosopher Laozi,
lived around 6th century C.E.
 Laozi taught that people should
live in harmony with nature and
all aspects of their lives
 Seek the “way”
 Yin and yang
 Created feng shui
 Confucianism
 Linked to Confucius, lived
around 6th century C.E.
 Built system of morals and a
way of life for the Chinese
 Focuses more on the worldly life
than rather the ideas of heaven
and hell
 Shintoism
 Syncretic, ethnic religion
 Blends principles of
Buddhism with a local
religion of Japan
 Forces of nature considered
divine
 Emperors become deities
 From the 1800s until after
WWII, Shintoism was the state
religion of Japan
 Emperor forced to
renounce his divinity
Shamanism
 Term given to any ethnic
religion in which a
community follows its
shaman
 religious leader, healer, or
truth knower
 Strongest presence in Africa
 but has historically existed
in North America,
Southeast Asia, and East
Asia
 Still important in parts of
Mexico and Guatemala
 Shamans teach animism
 A belief that objects such
as trees, mountains, and
rivers have divine spirits in
them
 They are “animated”
 Native American religious
beliefs often have
animistic traits, finding
spiritual and religious
significance in features of
the landscape
 100 million people in
Africa follow animistic
religions
Issues with Ethnic Religions
 Universalizing religions often supplant
ethnic religions
 East Asia
 Buddhism can “mingle” with other
religions
 Embraced by Shintoists in Japan
 Mauritius
 Unihabited until 1638
 Dutch settlers arrived
 Brought Christianity
 Controlled by French in 1721 who
brought in African slaves
 Brought Islam
 Later Indian workers brought in by
British
 Brought Hinduism
 Became independent in 1992
 All religions diffused by migration
 Africa
 Less animists due to increase in
Christians and Muslims
 46% of Africa is Christian
 Can create “merged” religions
 Led to creation of Christian
churches not formally
recognized