Primal Religious Traditions

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Primal Religions
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Primal religions originated first

• They are generally the traditions of nonliterate
  people-which means they do not depend on
  scriptures or written teachings as do most other
  religions.
• Primal religions tend to be the traditions of
  tribal peoples, organized in small groups that
  dwell in villages as opposed to large cities -
  exceptions are the Yoruba of Africa and
  theAztecs of Mesoamerica.

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Four examples of Primal religions

• the Aborigines of Australia
• the Yoruba of Africa
• the Plain Indians of North America
• the Aztecs

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Religions of the Australian Aborigines

• The foundation of Aboriginal religions is the
  concept of the Dreaming.
• The world was originally formless, but at a
  certain point, supernatural beings called
  Ancestors emerged and roamed about the earth.
• The Ancestors gave shape to the landscape and
  created the various forms of life, including the
  first human beings.
• They organized humans into tribes, specified the
  territory each tribe was to occupy, and
  determined each tribes language, social rules
  and customs.
• The Ancestors left behind symbols of their
  presence.

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Symbols left behind

• The site at which these symbols are found are
  thought to be charged with sacred power.
• Only certain individuals are allowed to visit
  them and they must approach the symbols in a
  special way-following the path believed to have
  originally been taken by the Ancestors.
• The Aborigines believe in a mythic geography
  whereby every rock formation, a watering hole, or
  a cave, is believed to have great religious
  significance.

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Ayers Rock

The Ayers Rock is considered very sacred for
Aborigines
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The Ancestors and people

• An unborn child becomes animated by a particular
  Ancestor when the mother of another relative
  makes some form of contact with a sacred site.
• This animation involves a ritual that draws the
  Ancestors spiritual essence into the unborn
  child.
• Through this connection each Aborigine is a
  living representation of an Ancestor. This is
  symbolized by a totem.-the natural form in which
  the Ancestor appeared in the Dreaming.
• Totems may be an animal, a rock formation or
  other feature of the landscape.

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The Aboriginal Social Structure

• Taboo certain things and activities, owing to
  their sacred nature, are set aside for specific
  members of the group and are forbidden to others.
• Violation of this principle has been punishable
  by death.
• Restrictions are based on maturity and on an
  individuals degree of religious training.

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Rituals

• Ritual is essential if life is to have meaning.
• Only through ritual can the sacred power of the
  Dreaming be accessed and experienced.
• Aborigines believe that the rituals themselves
  were taught to the first humans by the Ancestors
  in the Dreaming.
• Behind every ritual lies a myth that tells of
  certain actions of the Ancestors during the
  Dreaming.
• An example- the creation of the kangaroo, a chief
  food source, spell out exactly how and where the
  act of creation took place.

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InitiationSymbolic death, Sacred Rebirth.

• These rituals awaken young people to their
  spiritual identity within the tribe by bringing
  about the death of childhood and the maturity
  needed for adulthood.
• The Dieri tribe of south-central Australia had an
  unusual initiation rite Around a boys ninth
  birthday, the initiates two lower middle teeth
  were knocked out and buried in the ground
• At some time during the period of initiation, the
  young boy was left by himself in the wilderness
  for several months. When he returned, he was
  greeted with rejoicing and celebration and the
  young boy had become a man.

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Aboriginal Art
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Oldest continuing artistic tradition

• Native Australians began painting rock walls
  fifty thousand years ago early Europeans would
  not decorate the caves for another 35 thousand
  years.
• Traditional Aboriginal art was immensely varied.
  In the north, groups made elaborate X-ray
  paintings of animal skeletons on bark and rock.
  In the northwest, they adorned cave walls with
  images of Wanjina, spiritual beings with huge
  eyes and no mouths. These powerful creatures, it
  was believed, observed all things but passed no
  judgments.

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The Dreaming

• Ground paintings, a communal effort, were
  fashioned directly on the sand.
• They were made during secret rites that
  celebrated the creation ancestors -
  supernatural beings who were thought to have
  formed every detail of the landscape, from
  sandhill ro riverbank.
• Each Aborigine inherited responsibility for a
  particular Dreaming story and the parcel of land
  on which it took place.
• This type of painting involved thousands of dots
  and after the ceremony was over, the painting was
  destroyed.

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