Primal Religious Traditions

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Chapter 2

• Primal Religious Traditions
• Australian Aborigines

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Myth or Rituals

• The concept Myth may not be familiar to us
  because most people no longer hold a
  predominantly mythic worldview.
• Typically we equate myths with falsehoods but in
  the study of world religions, myths actually
  convey important truths.
• Myths are both nonhistorical and nonrational.
• Myths are sources of sacred truth and are
  therefore powerful, for they give meaning to
  life.
• Myths take the form of sacred stories that are
  passed along from one generation to the next.

• Many religious rituals re-enact a myth or sacred
  story.

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• Why Study Primal Religions?
• We study primal traditions for 2 reasons
• Primal religions provide insight into the mythic
  and ritual dimension of religion
• Primal religions are the source from which all
  the worlds religions have sprung.

• Groups we will look at
• Australian Aborigines, Yoruba, Plains Indians of
  North America, Aztecs

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What characterizes a Primal Religion?

• Primal religions today are generally practiced by
  people of oral (non-literate) cultures.
• Non-literate people means that they do not depend
  on scriptures or written teachings
• What they lack in written texts, they make up for
  in oral material- myths or stories that are
  passed down from generation to generation

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• Primal religions tend to be traditions practiced
  by
• Tribal peoples who live in villages
• BUT, they are also practiced by city dwellers
  such as
• Modern Yoruba
• Ancient Aztecs

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Australian Aborigines
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• The Dreaming
• The foundation of Aboriginal religion is the
  concept of the Dreaming.
• The world was originally formless.
• 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.
• The Ancestors organized humans into tribes,
  specified the territory each tribe was to occupy,
  and determined each tribes language, social
  rules and customs.

Devils Marbles
Near Wauchope North of Sydney Australia
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• Great power is said to be found below the sacred
  places left behind by the Ancestors.
• Prior to a babys birth, the mother is to visit a
  sacred place so her baby will receive spiritual
  essence

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Totem

• Each Aborigine is a living representation of an
  Ancestor.
• This relationship is symbolized by a totem
• The natural form in which the Ancestor appeared
  in the Dreaming
• An individual will always be identified in
  certain ways with the Ancestor.

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Taboo

• Taboos dictate who can do what and when when it
  comes to ritual practice
• A taboo usually
• orders society through its rules
• Determines who may and may not
• participate in certain activities
• handle certain objects
• contains punishments for those who violate these
  boundaries

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Taboo, Examples (other religions)

• Only priests may consecrate Eucharist
  (Christianity)
• Men must not touch Women during menstruation and
  right after childbirth (Judaism)
• Only priests can tell your future (Yoruba)

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Initiation Rites

• The purpose of the initiation rituals awaken
  young people to this spiritual identity, and at
  the same time redefine their social identity
  within the tribe.

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tradition

• It might be difficult for an outsider to
  understand the reasons for these various rituals.
  
• This difficulty illustrates the great power of
  myth.
• Aboriginal myth creates a reality that is unique
  to the Aborigines, a world of their own in which
  such initiation rituals not only make sense but
  are essential if life is to have meaning.
• The power of myth, and the performance of ritual
  to re-enact myth, are basic features of all
  primal traditions.