Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Religions Book

THE RELIGIONS BOOK



THE RELIGIONS BOOK

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CONTRIBUTORS SHULAMIT AMBALU ANDREW STOBART Rabbi Shulamit Ambalu MA studied at Leo Baeck College, London, The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stobart is a Methodist minister. He studied where she was ordained in 2004 and now lectures in Pastoral Care Christian theology to the doctoral level at the London School of and Rabbinic Literature. Theology and Durham and Aberdeen universities, and has taught and written in the areas of theology, church history, and the Bible, MICHAEL COOGAN contributing to Dorling Kindersley’s The Illustrated Bible. One of the leading biblical scholars in the United States, Michael MEL THOMPSON Coogan is Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum and Lecturer on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Dr. Mel Thompson BD, M.Phil, PhD, AKC was formerly a teacher, Harvard Divinity School. Among his many works are The Old lecturer, and examiner in Religious Studies, and now writes on Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction and The philosophy, religion, and ethics. Author of more than 30 books, Illustrated Guide to World Religions. including Understand Eastern Philosophy, he blogs on issues of religious belief, and runs the “Philosophy and Ethics” website at EVE LEVAVI FEINSTEIN www.philosophyandethics.com. Dr. Eve Levavi Feinstein is a writer, editor, and tutor in Palo Alto, CHARLES TIESZEN California. She holds a PhD on the Hebrew Bible from Harvard University, and is the author of Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible Dr. Charles Tieszen completed his doctorate at the University of as well as articles for Jewish Ideas Daily and other publications. Birmingham, where he focused on medieval encounters between Muslims and Christians. He is currently a researcher and adjunct PAUL FREEDMAN professor of Islamic studies, specializing in topics related to Islam, Christian–Muslim relations, and religious freedom. Rabbi Paul Freedman studied Physics at Bristol University and Education at Cambridge. Following a career in teaching, he gained MARCUS WEEKS rabbinic ordination and an MA in Hebrew and Jewish studies at Leo Baeck College, London. A writer and musician, Marcus Weeks studied philosophy and worked as a teacher before embarking on a career as an NEIL PHILIP author. He has contributed to many books on the arts, popular sciences, and ideas, including the Dorling Kindersley title Neil Philip is the author of numerous books on mythology and The Philosophy Book. folklore, including the Dorling Kindersley Companion Guide to Mythology (with Philip Wilkinson), The Great Mystery: Myths of Native America, and the Penguin Book of English Folktales. Dr. Philip studied at the universities of Oxford and London, and is currently an independent writer and scholar.

CONTENTS 10 INTRODUCTION 36 Our ancestors will guide us PRIMAL BELIEFS The spirits of the dead live on FROM PREHISTORY 38 We should be good Living in harmony 20 Unseen forces are at work 39 Everything is connected Making sense of the world A lifelong bond with the gods 24 Even a rock has a spirit 40 The gods desire blood 60 The triumph of good over Animism in early societies Sacrifice and blood evil depends on humankind offerings The battle between good 26 Special people can visit and evil other worlds 46 We can build a The power of the shaman sacred space 66 Accept the way of Symbolism made real the universe 32 Why are we here? Aligning the self with the dao Created for a purpose 48 We are in rhythm with the universe 68 The Five Great Vows 33 Why do we die? Man and the cosmos Self-denial leads to The origin of death spiritual liberation 50 We exist to serve the gods 34 Eternity is now The burden of observance 72 Virtue is not sent The Dreaming from heaven 51 Our rituals sustain Wisdom lies with the the world superior man Renewing life through ritual 78 A divine child is born The assimilation of myth ANCIENT AND 79 The oracles reveal the CLASSICAL BELIEFS will of the gods Divining the future FROM 3000 BCE 80 The gods are just like us Beliefs that mirror society 56 There is a hierarchy of gods and men 82 Ritual links us to our past Beliefs for new societies Living the Way of the Gods 58 The good live forever in 86 The gods will die the kingdom of Osiris The end of the world as we Preparing for the afterlife know it

HINDUISM BUDDHISM FROM 1700 BCE FROM 6TH CENTURY BCE 92 Through sacrifice we 130 Finding the Middle Way maintain the order of The enlightenment the universe of Buddha A rational world 136 There can be an end 100 The divine has a to suffering female aspect Escape from the eternal cycle The power of the great goddess 144 Test Buddha’s words as one would the quality 101 Sit up close to your guru of gold Higher levels of teaching The personal quest for truth 102 Brahman is my self 145 Religious discipline within the heart is necessary The ultimate reality The purpose of monastic vows 106 We learn, we live, we 146 Renounce killing and JUDAISM withdraw, we detach good will follow The four stages of life Let kindness and FROM 2000 BCE compassion rule 110 It may be your duty 168 I will take you as my to kill 148 We cannot say what a people, and I will be Selfless action person is your God The self as constantly God’s covenant with Israel 112 The practice of yoga leads changing to spiritual liberation 176 Beside me there is no Physical and mental discipline 152 Enlightenment has other God many faces From monolatry 114 We speak to the gods Buddhas and bodhisattvas to monotheism through daily rituals Devotion through puja 158 Act out your beliefs 178 The Messiah will The performance of ritual redeem Israel 116 The world is an illusion and repetition The promise of a new age Seeing with pure consciousness 160 Discover your 182 Religious law can be Buddha nature applied to daily life 122 So many faiths, so Zen insights that go Writing the Oral Law many paths beyond words God-consciousness 124 Nonviolence is the 184 God is incorporeal, weapon of the strong indivisible, and unique Hinduism in the political age Defining the indefinable

186 God and humankind are CHRISTIANITY 228 This is my body, this in cosmic exile is my blood Mysticism and the kabbalah FROM 1ST CENTURY CE The mystery of the Eucharist 188 The holy spark dwells 204 Jesus is the beginning of 230 God’s word needs no in everyone the end go-betweens Man as a manifestation Jesus’s message to the world The Protestant Reformation of God 208 God has sent us his Son 238 God is hidden in the heart 189 Judaism is a religion, not Jesus’s divine identity Mystical experience a nationality in Christianity Faith and the state 209 The blood of the martyrs is the seed 239 The body needs saving 190 Draw from the past, live of the Church as well as the soul in the present, work for Dying for the message Social holiness and the future evangelicalism Progressive Judaism 210 The body may die but the soul will live on 240 Scientific advances do not 196 If you will it, it is Immortality in Christianity disprove the Bible no dream The challenge of modernity The origins of modern 212 God is three and God political Zionism is one 246 We can influence God A divine trinity Why prayer works 198 Where was God during the Holocaust? 220 God’s grace never fails ISLAM A challenge to the covenant Augustine and free will FROM 610 CE 199 Women can be rabbis 222 In the world, but not of Gender and the covenant the world 252 Muhammad is God’s Serving God on behalf final messenger of others The Prophet and the origins of Islam 224 There is no salvation outside the Church 254 The Qur’an was sent Entering into the faith down from heaven God reveals his word and his will 262 The Five Pillars of Islam The central professions of faith 270 The imam is God’s chosen leader The emergence of Shi‘a Islam

MODERN RELIGIONS 317 We have forgotten our true nature FROM 15TH CENTURY Clearing the mind with Scientology 296 We must live as 318 Find a sinless world saint-soldiers through marriage The Sikh code of conduct Purging sin in the Unification Church 272 God guides us with shari‘a 302 All may enter our The pathway to gateway to God 319 Spirits rest between lives harmonious living Class systems and faith in Summerland Wicca and the Otherworld 276 We can think about 304 Messages to and God, but we cannot from home 320 Negative thoughts are comprehend him The African roots of just raindrops in an Theological speculation Santeria ocean of bliss in Islam Finding inner peace 306 Ask yourself: “What through meditation 278 Jihad is our religious duty would Jesus do?” Striving in the way of God Following the example 321 What’s true for me is of Christ the truth A faith open to all beliefs 279 The world is one stage 308 We shall know him of the journey to God through his messengers 322 Chanting Hare Krishna The ultimate reward for The revelation of Baha’i cleanses the heart the righteous Devotion to the Sweet Lord 310 Brush away the dust 280 God is unequaled of sin 323 Through qigong we access The unity of divinity Tenrikyo and the Joyous Life cosmic energy is necessary Life-energy cultivation in 311 These gifts must be Falun Dafa 282 Arab, water pot, and meant for us angels are all ourselves Cargo cults of the 324 DIRECTORY Sufism and the Pacific islands mystic tradition 340 GLOSSARY 312 The end of the world 284 The latter days have is nigh 344 INDEX brought forth a new Awaiting the Day prophet of Judgment 351 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The origins of Ahmadiyya 314 The lion of Judah has 286 Islam must shed the arisen influence of the West Ras Tafari is our savior The rise of Islamic revivalism 316 All religions are equal 291 Islam can be a Cao Ðài aims to unify modern religion all faiths The compatibility of faith

INTRODU

CTION

12 INTRODUCTION T here is no simple definition increasingly deployed as a political of finding significance and of the concept of religion tool. Military conquests were often meaning, and providing a starting that fully articulates all followed by the assimilation of the point for all of life’s endeavors, its dimensions. Encompassing pantheon of the defeated people by it appears to be fundamental at spiritual, personal, and social the victors; and kingdoms and a personal as well as a social level. elements, this phenomenon is empires were often supported by however, ubiquitous, appearing their deities and priestly classes. Beginnings in every culture from prehistory We know about the religions of the to the modern day—as evidenced A personal god earliest societies from the relics in the cave paintings and elaborate Religion met many of the needs they left behind and from the stories burial customs of our distant of early people and provided of later civilizations. In addition, ancestors and the continuing templates by which they could isolated tribes in remote places, quest for a spiritual goal to life. organize their lives—through rites, such as the Amazonian forest in rituals, and taboos. It also gave South America, the Indonesian For Palaeolithic people—and them a means by which they islands, and parts of Africa, still indeed for much of human history could visualize their place in the practice religions that are thought to —religion provided a way of cosmos. Could religion therefore have remained largely unchanged understanding and influencing be explained as a purely social for millennia. These primal powerful natural phenomena. artifact? Many would argue that religions often feature a belief in Weather and the seasons, creation, it is much more. Over the centuries, a unity between nature and the life, death and the afterlife, and the people have defied opposition to spirit, linking people inextricably structure of the cosmos were all their faiths, suffering persecution with the environment. subject to religious explanations or death to defend their right to that invoked controlling gods, or a worship their God or gods. And All men have need realm outside the visible inhabited even today, when the world is of the gods. by deities and mythical creatures. arguably more materialistic than Homer Religion provided a means to ever before, more than three- communicate with these gods, quarters of its population consider through ritual and prayer, and themselves to hold some form of these practices—when shared by religious belief. Religion would members of a community—helped seem to be a necessary part of to cement social groups, enforce human existence, as important to hierarchies, and provide a deep life as the ability to use language. sense of collective identity. Whether it is a matter of intense personal experience—an inner As societies became more awareness of the divine—or a way complex, their belief systems grew with them and religion was

INTRODUCTION 13 As the early religions evolved, Other belief systems were new religions began to appear, their ceremonies and cosmologies developing in the east. From the especially in the 19th and 20th became increasingly sophisticated. 17th century BCE, the Chinese centuries, but these invariably Primal religions of the nomadic and dynasties established their nation bore the traces of the faiths that seminomadic peoples of prehistory states and empires. There emerged had come before. gave way to the religions of the traditional folk religions and ancient and, in turn, of the classical ancestor worship that were later Elements of religion civilizations. Their beliefs are now incorporated into the more Human history has seen the rise often dismissed as mythology, philosophical belief systems and fall of countless religions, but many elements of these ancient of Daoism and Confucianism. each with its own distinct beliefs, narrative traditions persist in rituals, and mythology. Although today’s faiths. Religions continued In the eastern Mediterranean, some are similar and considered to adapt, old beliefs were absorbed ancient Egyptian and Babylonian to be branches of a larger tradition, into the religions of the society religions were still being practiced there are many contrasting and that succeeded them, and new when the emerging city-states contradictory belief systems. faiths emerged with different of Greece and Rome developed observances and rituals. their own mythologies and Some religions, for example, pantheons of gods. Further east, have a number of gods, while Ancient to modern Zoroastrianism—the first major others, especially the more modern It is hard to pinpoint the time when known monotheistic religion—had major faiths, are monotheistic; many religions began, not least already been established in Persia, because their roots lie in prehistory and Judaism had emerged as the There is no use disguising and the sources that describe their first of the Abrahamic religions, the fact, our religious needs origins may date from a much later followed by Christianity and Islam. time. However, it is thought that are the deepest. There is the oldest surviving religion today Many religions recognized the no peace until they are is Hinduism, which has its roots particular significance of one or satisfied and contented. in the folk religions of the Indian more individuals as founders of subcontinent, brought together in the faith: they may have been Isaac Hecker, the writing of the Vedas as early embodiments of god, such as Jesus Roman Catholic priest as the 13th century BCE. From this or Krishna, or recipients of special Vedic tradition came not only the divine revelation, such as Moses pluralistic religion we now know and Muhammad. as Hinduism, but also Jainism, Buddhism, and, later, Sikhism, The religions of the modern which emerged in the 15th century. world continued to evolve with advances in society, sometimes reluctantly, and often by dividing into branches. Some apparently

14 INTRODUCTION and there are major differences of or a more sophisticated set of ancillary texts have themselves opinion between religions on such scriptures, but often includes a acquired canonical status. There matters as the afterlife. We can, creation story and a history of is also often an ethical element, however, identify certain elements the gods, saints, or prophets, with rules of conduct and taboos, common to almost all religions in with parables that illustrate and and a social element that defines order to examine the similarities reinforce the beliefs of the religion. the institutions of the religion and and differences between them. Every existing faith has a collection of the society it is associated with. These aspects—the ways in which of sacred texts that articulates its Such rules are typically concise— the beliefs and practices of a central ideals and narrates the the Ten Commandments of religion are manifested—are what history of the tradition. These Judaism and Christianity, or the the British writer and philosopher texts, which in many cases are Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, of religion Ninian Smart called the considered to be have been passed for example. “dimensions of religion.” directly from the deity, are used in worship and education. Religion and morality Perhaps the most obvious The idea of good and evil is also elements we can use to identify In many religions, alongside this fundamental to many faiths, and and compare religions are the narrative, is a more sophisticated religion often has a function of observances of a faith. These and systematic element, which offering moral guidance to society. includes such activities as prayer, explains the philosophy and doctrine The major religions differ in their pilgrimage, meditation, feasting of the religion, and lays out its definitions of what constitutes a and fasting, dress, and of course distinctive theology. Some of these good life—and the line between ceremonies and rituals. Also moral philosophy and religion is far evident are the physical aspects What religion a man shall from clear in belief systems such of a religion: the artifacts, relics, have is a historical accident, as Confucianism and Buddhism— places of worship, and holy places. but certain basic moral codes have Less apparent is the subjective quite as much as what emerged that are almost universal. element of the religion—its language he shall speak. Religious taboos, commandments mystical and emotional aspects, George Santayana, and so on not only ensure that the and how a believer experiences Spanish philosopher will of the God or gods is obeyed, the religion in achieving ecstasy, but also form a framework for society enlightenment, or inner peace, for and its laws to enable people to live example, or establishing a personal peaceably together. The spiritual relationship with the divine. leadership that in many religions was given by prophets with divine Another aspect of most religions guidance was passed on to a is the mythology, or narrative, that priesthood. This became an accompanies it. This can be a simple oral tradition of stories,

INTRODUCTION 15 essential part of many communities, Conflict and history a result there arose communist and in some religions has wielded Just as religions have created states that were explicitly considerable political power. cohesion within societies, they atheistic and antireligious. have often been the source—or Death and the afterlife the banner—of conflict between New directions Most religions address the central them. Although all the major Responding to societal change human concern of death with the traditions hold peace as an and scientific advances, some of promise of some kind of continued essential virtue, they may also the older religions have adapted existence, or afterlife. In eastern make provision for the use of force or divided into several branches. traditions, such as Hinduism, the in certain circumstances, for Others have steadfastly rejected soul is believed to be reincarnated example, to defend their faith or to what they see as a heretical after death in a new physical form, extend their reach. Religion has progress in an increasingly rational, while other faiths hold that the soul provided an excuse for hostility materialistic, and godless world; is judged after death and resides in between powers throughout fundamentalist movements in a nonphysical heaven or hell. The history. While tolerance is also Christianity, Islam, and Judaism goal of achieving freedom from considered a virtue, heretics and have gained many followers who the cycle of death and rebirth, or infidels have often been persecuted reject the liberal values of the achieving immortality encourages for their beliefs, and religion has modern world. believers to follow the rules of been the pretext for attempted their faith. genocides such as the Holocaust. At the same time, many people recognize a lack of spirituality in All religions, arts, and Challenges to faith modern society, and have turned to sciences are branches Faced with the negative aspects of charismatic denominations of the religious belief and equipped with major religions, or to the many new of the same tree. the tools of humanist philosophy religious movements that have Albert Einstein and science, a number of thinkers appeared in the past 200 years. have questioned the very validity of religion. There were, they argued, Others, influenced by the New logical and consistent cosmologies Age movement of the late 20th based on reason rather than faith— century, have rediscovered ancient in effect, religions had become beliefs, or sought the exoticism irrelevant in the modern world. of traditional religions with no New philosophies, such as connection to the modern world. Marxism-Leninism considered Nevertheless, the major religions religions to be a negative force of the world continue to grow and on human development, and as even today very few countries in the world can be seen as truly secular societies.

PRIMAL BELIEFS FROM PREHISTORY



18 INTRODUCTION Primal religions—so-called because they came first—were practiced by people throughout the world and are key to the development of all modern religions. Some are still active today. By building miniature Through their versions of the cosmos, bond with the gods, the Pawnee created the Warao believe sacred places. that everything is connected. Rituals to renew life The Quechua and and sustain the world Aymara believed the For the Dogon people, every thing were a central part spirits of their dead contains the universe of the religion of ancestors lived on the Hupa. in microcosm. to guide them. The Aztecs and Mayans offered human sacrifices to satisfy their gods’ desire for blood. O ur early hunter-gatherer phenomena. The rising of the goddess gave birth to the world, ancestors considered the sun each day, for example, might be which was in some cases fathered natural world to have a seen as a release from the darkness by another god. Sometimes these supernatural quality. For some, of the night, controlled by a sun parental deities were personified as this was expressed in a belief god; similarly, natural cycles such animals, or natural feature, such that animals, plants, objects, and as the phases of the moon and the as rivers or the sea, or in the form forces of nature possess a spirit, seasons—vital to these people’s of mother earth and father sky. in the same way that people do. way of life—were assigned their In this animistic view of the world, own deities. As well as creating Rites and rituals humans are seen as a part of a cosmology to account for the The belief systems of most primal nature, not separate from it, and workings of the universe, most religions incorporated some form to live in harmony with it, must cultures also incorporated some of afterlife, one that was typically show respect to the spirits. form of creation story into their related to the existence of a realm belief system. Often this was in separate from the physical world Many early peoples sought to the form of an analogy with human —a place of gods and mythical explain the world in terms of deities reproduction, in which a mother creatures—to which the spirits associated with particular natural

The Sami people According to the Baiga, PRIMAL BELIEFS 19 believed their shamans the gods created us to had the power to visit For the Ainu, act as guardians of everything, even a rock, other worlds. the earth. has a spirit. The Maori and Polynesian people explain the origin of death. The Chewong believe that our purpose is to lead good lives and live in harmony. The natural and In the Dreaming, In the ritual supernatural worlds are Aboriginal Australians Work of the Gods, intertwined in the religion the Tikopians fulfilled see the creation as their obligation to of the San bushmen. ever-present. serve the gods. of the dead would travel. In some ensure good fortune in hunting or in the image of the cosmos. A few religions, it was thought possible to farming inspired rituals of worship, of these primal religions survive to communicate with this other realm and, in some cultures, sacrifices the present day among dwindling and contact the ancestral spirits for to offer life to the gods in return for numbers of tribespeople around guidance. A particular class of holy the life they had given to humans. the world untouched by Western person—the shaman or medicine civilization. Some attempts have man—was able to journey there Symbolism also played a key been made to revive them by and derive mystical healing powers role in the religious practices of indigenous peoples who are from contact with, and sometimes early cultures. Masks, charms, trying to reestablish lost cultures. possession by, the spirits. idols, and amulets were used Although their belief systems in ceremonies, and spirits were may seem at first glance to be Early peoples also marked life’s believed to occupy them. Certain primitive to modern eyes, traces rites of passage; these, along with areas were thought to have of them can still be seen in the the changing of the seasons, religious significance, and some major religions that have evolved developed into rituals associated communities set aside holy places in the modern world, or in the with the spirits and the deities. and sacred burial grounds, while New Age search for spirituality. ■ The idea of pleasing the gods to others made buildings or villages

20 IN CONTEXT UNSEEN KEY BELIEVERS FORCES ARE /Xam San AT WORK WHEN AND WHERE MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD From prehistory, sub-Saharan Africa AFTER 44,000 BCE Tools almost identical to those used by modern San are abandoned in a cave in KwaZulu–Natal. 19th century German linguist Wilhelm Bleek sets down many of the ancestral stories of the San. 20th century Government- sponsored programs are set up to encourage San peoples to switch from hunter- gathering to settled farming. 1994 San leader and healer Dawid Kruiper takes the growing campaign for San rights and land claims to the United Nations. T he question of why human beings first develop the idea of a world beyond the visible one in which we live is complex. Motivated by an urge to make sense of the world around them—particularly the dangers and misfortunes they faced, and how the necessities of life were provided—people in early societies sought explanations in a realm that was invisible to them, but had an influence over their lives. The idea of a spirit world is also associated with notions of sleep and death, and the interface between these and consciousness, which can be likened to the natural phenomenon of night and day.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 21 See also: Animism in early societies 24–25 ■ The power of the shaman 26–31 ■ Created for a purpose 32 ■ Living the Way of the Gods 82–85 ■ A rational world 92–99 In this twilight zone between themselves represent a permeable Since prehistoric times, the San sleep and waking, life and death, veil between the physical and the have renewed their rock paintings, light and dark, lie the dreams, spirit worlds. transmitting the stories and ideas hallucinations, and states of altered they depict down the generations. consciousness that suggest that It is impossible to ask the the visible, tangible world is not Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers of Natural phenomena the only one, and that another, Europe about the beliefs and rituals such as the supernatural world also exists— that lie behind their cave paintings, weather and and has a connection with our but in the 19th century it was own. It is easy to imagine how the still possible to record the cultural the seasons are inhabitants of this other world were and religious beliefs of the /Xam out of our control. thought to influence not only our of southern Africa, a now-extinct own minds and actions, but also clan of San hunter-gatherers who to inhabit the bodies of animals made cave paintings reminiscent of and even inanimate objects, and those of the Stone Age, for similar to cause the natural phenomena reasons. The spiritual life of the affecting our lives. /Xam San offered a living parallel to the religious ideas archaeologists A meeting of worlds have attributed to early modern The figures of humans, animals, humans. Even the clicks of the and human-animal hybrids in /Xam San language (represented ❯❯ Palaeolithic cave paintings are often decorated with patterns that There is danger are now thought to represent the around us that involuntary back-of-the-retina causes sickness patterns known as entoptic phenomena—visual effects such as and death. dots, grids, zigzags, and wavy lines, which appear between waking and sleep, or between vision and hallucination. The paintings Unseen forces are at work. The Storm Bird blows Spirits seem to Our food his wind into the chests of appear to us in the supply, the plants man and beast, and without sky, the earth, and animals, this wind we would not the animals, is sometimes be able to breathe. or the fire. African fable plentiful, sometimes scarce.

22 MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD by marks such as /, indicating shape, transform, and create. The My mother told me that the a dental click rather like a tut of /Xam believed that these beings girl [of the Early Race] put disapproval), are thought to survive were the first to inhabit the earth. her hands in the wood ash from humankind’s earliest speech. and threw it into the sky, to Elemental forces become the Milky Way. Levels of the cosmos In /Xam myth, elements of the The mythology of all San peoples natural environment were given African fable is modeled closely on their local supernatural significance or environment and on the idea personified as spirits. Supernatural trickster, many of the myths that there are both natural and figures could take the form of the surrounding him and his family are supernatural realms that are deeply animals they shared their lands comic rather than reverent; even intertwined. In their three-tiered with, such as the eland (a type of the key myth of the creation of the world, spirit realms lie both above antelope), the meerkat, and the first eland includes a scene in and below the middle, or natural, praying mantis. The creator which an ineffectual /Kaggen is world in which humans live; each is /Kaggen, who dreamed the world beaten up by a family of meerkats. accessible to the other, and into being, usually took human whatever happens in one directly form but could transform into Important elemental forces affects what happens in the other. almost anything, most often a and celestial bodies also became Humans with special powers could praying mantis or an eland. While characters in stories that explained visit the upper or sky realm, and he was the protector of game how they came to be, and why travel underwater and underground animals, he would sometimes they behave in the way that they in the lower spirit realm. transform himself into one in order do. The children of the Early Race, to be killed and feed the people. for example, threw the sleeping sun For the /Xam San, the world up into the sky, so that the light above was inhabited by the creator The people of the Early Race that shone from his armpit would and trickster deity /Kaggen (also were regarded with awe and illuminate the world. It was a girl known as Mantis) and his family. respect, but not worshipped. Not from the Early Race who made the They shared this world with an even /Kaggen the Mantis was stars by throwing the ashes of a fire abundance of game animals, prayed to, although a San shaman into the sky of the Milky Way. Rain and with the spirits of the dead, such as //Kabbo (see box, facing was not thought of as a natural including the spirits of the Early page) might hope to intercede with phenomenon, but as a large animal. Race—a community of hybrid /Kaggen to ensure a successful A fierce thunderstorm was a animal-humans, with powers to hunt. Because /Kaggen is a rain-bull, and a gentle rain was a rain-cow. Special people who had the power to summon the rain, such as //Kabbo, would make a supernatural journey to a full Natural phenomena such as eclipses, possibly never before seen by any living member of the San, might be explained through tales passed down in their rich oral tradition.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 23 A long time ago, can use this power to access Ascribing human traits to animals the baboons were little the spirit world, via trance, and —for example, the inquisitiveness of launch their essential selves up the meerkat—is a mainstay of early men just like us, through the top of their heads and myth, around which stories are woven but more mischievous into the spirit world. There, they about how the world came to be as it is. may plead for the lives of the sick, and quarrelsome. and return with healing power so humans from the heat of the sun. African fable that they can drive out the arrows Death was described in elemental of disease fired by the dead from terms: the wind that exists inside waterhole to summon a rain-cow, the other world. every human being was said to and then bring it back through the blow away their footprints when sky to the place in need of water. The /Xam offered prayers to they died, making the transition There he would kill the rain-cow the moon and stars to give them between the world of the living and so that its blood and milk fell access to spiritual power, as well as the world of the dead a decisive down as rain on the earth. good luck in hunting. When /Xam one. If the footprints remained, “it people entered a state of altered would seem as if we still lived.” ■ Rain was a vital necessity consciousness, it was believed that in the arid desert landscape in they were temporarily dead, and which the /Xam lived. It was that their hearts had become stars. essential to replenish the widely Humans and the stars were so scattered waterholes that they intimately linked that when a moved between, and which person actually died, “the star were linked to each other by a feels that our heart falls over [and] complex web of story and myth, the star falls down on account of it. known as kukummi and similar For the stars know the time at to the Dreamings of the Australian which we die.” Aborigines (pp.34–35). After death, the links in /Xam Entering other worlds belief between the worlds of human Many aspects of the natural world experience, of spirits, and of natural described in /Xam stories feature phenomena become even more the interaction of the supernatural apparent. The hair of a deceased beings with humans—how they person was believed to transform have an interest in this world, and into clouds, which then shelter how humans can, in turn, act to influence and please them. All Kabbo’s dream-life some way from the water so as San peoples believe that the spirit not to frighten off the animals realms are accessible, in altered Much of the information we that came to drink the brackish states of consciousness, to those have about /Xam San beliefs water. Wilhelm Bleek said who have a supernatural potency, comes from a man named of him: “This gentle old soul known as !gi, imparted to humans //Kabbo, who in the 1870s appeared lost in a dream life and animals by their creator. was one of several /Xam San of his own,” and in fact the The trance dance is the key released from prison into the name //Kabbo means “dream.” religious ritual in which the San custody of Dr. Wilhelm Bleek, The god /Kaggen was said to who wished to learn their have dreamed the world into language and study their being, and //Kabbo had a culture. They had been jailed for special relationship with him; crimes such as stealing a sheep as a /Kaggen-ka !kwi, a to feed their starving families. “mantis’s man” he was able to //Kabbo spoke of his waterholes, enter a dream state to exercise between which his family would powers such as rainmaking, move in the arid desert of the healing, and hunting magic. central Cape Colony, camping

24 EVEN A ROCK HAS A SPIRIT ANIMISM IN EARLY SOCIETIES IN CONTEXT Everything in the world T he word Ainu means has a spirit. “human being,” and KEY BELIEVERS refers to the indigenous Ainu Even human beings are population of Japan, now living simply containers mainly on the island of Hokkaido. WHERE for a spirit. The Ainu have close cultural ties Hokkaido, Japan with other inhabitants of the north Spirits are immortal. Pacific Rim—Siberian peoples BEFORE (such as the Chukchi, Koryak, and 10,000–300 BCE Neolithic The most important Yupik) and the Inuit of Canada Jomon people—remote spirits are the gods. and Alaska. These peoples share, ancestors of the Ainu— in particular, an animistic view of live in Hokkaido, probably Ceremonies, songs, and the world, in which every being and worshipping clan deities. offerings give the gods object that exists has a spirit that status in the other world. can act, speak, and walk by itself. 600–1000 CE Okhotsk hunter- They also believe that the spiritual gatherer people occupy coastal If we treat the gods well, and physical worlds are separated by Hokkaido. Some of their ritual they will provide us only a thin, permeable membrane. practices, such as bear worship, are seen later in the Ainu. with food. The Ainu consider the body to be simply a container for the spirit; 700–1200 Okhotsk culture after death, the spirit passes out of blends with that of the the mouth and nostrils, and arrives Satsumon to create the Ainu. in the next world to be reborn as a kamuy, a word meaning both god AFTER and spirit. When the kamuy dies in 1899–1997 The Ainu are the next world, it is reborn in this forced to assimilate into one. It will always reincarnate in the Japanese culture; many Ainu same species and gender—a man religious practices are banned. will always be a man, for example. 2008 The Ainu are officially Kamuy can be animals, plants, recognized as an indigenous minerals, geographical or natural people with a distinct culture. phenomena, or even tools and utensils produced by humans. Because all spirits, even those of

PRIMAL BELIEFS 25 See also: Living the Way of the Gods 82–85 ■ Devotion through puja 114–15 An Ainu chief performs a ceremony to honor the spirit of a slaughtered bear as it returns to the divine world, in a photograph taken in 1946. inanimate objects, are considered immortal, after death a person’s house may be burned to ensure that his or her kamuy will have a home in the other world; their tools and implements may also be broken (to release the spirits inside) and buried with the body, for use again in the next world. The power of words carelessness or disrespect, they gods and things do not. Words Some kamuy have roles in both must conduct a ceremony to can be used to make bargains the supernatural and human worlds. express their remorse. If, however, with both gods and things, and Kotan-kor-kamuy, for example, is the a person has treated a god with also to give pleasure to the gods. creator god, but he is also the god due respect and performed all the For example, the Ainu epic songs of the village, and may manifest appropriate rituals, yet still receives known as kamuy yukar, or “songs himself on earth as a long-eared owl. bad luck, the Ainu can ask the fire of the gods,” are sung in the first goddess, Fuchi, to compel that god person, from the perspective of Humans and kamuy have a to apologize and make recompense. kamuy rather than humans, and close relationship—so close that it is said the kamuy take delight kamuy have been described as In Ainu belief, even words are in watching humans dance and “gods you can argue with.” The spirits, and the use of words is one sing the songs of the gods. ■ kamuy can be prayed to, using of the gifts that humans have that special carved prayer sticks, but the ritual relationship is based more on mutual respect and correct behavior than on worship. If someone has angered a god by I also continue forever to Spirit-sending rituals god Kimun-kamuy—was hover behind the humans entertained with food, wine, Hunting rituals were central to dance, and song. Arrows were and always watch over traditional Ainu life and were fired into the air to aid Kimun- the land of the humans. used to appease the gods who kamuy’s return to the divine Song of the Owl God visited earth disguised as world, where he would invite animals. In return for offerings other gods to share the gifts of and rituals, the gods left behind sake, salmon, and sacred carved the gift of their animal bodies. willow sticks with which he had been honored on earth. After killing and eating a bear, the Ainu would perform An iwakte spirit-sending the iyomante spirit-sending ceremony was also held for ritual. The spirit of the bear— broken tools and objects that revered as the mountain bear had come to the end of their use.

SPECIAL PEOPLE CAN VISIT OTHER WORLDS THE POWER OF THE SHAMAN



28 THE POWER OF THE SHAMAN IN CONTEXT S hamanism describes one We believe in dreams, of humankind’s oldest and and we believe that people KEY BELIEVERS most widespread religious Sami practices, based on a belief in can live a life apart from spirits who can be influenced by real life, a life they can go WHEN AND WHERE shamans. These shamans, men or From prehistory, Sápmi women, are believed to be special through in their sleep. (formerly Lapland) people who possess great power Nâlungiaq, and knowledge. After entering an AFTER altered state of consciousness, or a Netsilik woman 10,000 BCE Ancestors of the trance, they are able to travel to Sami make rock carvings in other worlds and interact with the alleviate suffering and hardship the European Arctic. spirits who live there. in the community. This function is reflected in some of the (now c.98 CE The Roman historian Bargaining with the powerful largely obsolete) terms that have Tacitus makes the first record spirits who control these other been used to describe shamans, of the Sami (as the Fenni). worlds is often a key aspect of the such as witchdoctors in sub- shaman’s activities. For example, Saharan Africa and medicine 13th century CE Catholic the shaman often requests the men in North America. missionaries introduce release of game animals (essential Christianity, but traditional in some traditional societies) from In Europe, shamanism was a shamanism persists. the spirit world into this world, dominant feature of many societies to gain insight into the future, or from around 45,000 years ago up c.1720 CE Thomas von Westen, for remedies to cure the sick. In until the modern era. The Vikings, Apostle of the Sami, forcefully return, the spirits may ask humans practiced a form of shamanic converts Sami to Christianity, (via the shaman, who acts as an divination known as seiðr between destroying shamanic drums intermediary) to make offerings and sacred sites. to them or to observe certain rules and codes of conduct. 21st century Most Sami follow the Christian faith, Shamans play an important but recent times have seen a role as healers of the sick; this role revival of Sami shamanism. emphasizes that their journeys are not simply personal and private, but are undertaken primarily to In worlds we cannot see, powerful These other worlds are full of supernatural beings control the spirits, too, as both humans and supply of game and the weather. animals have undying souls. These people can enlist the help of There are some special people who can the spirits to ask for game or good weather visit the worlds in which these spirits live. for us, or cure us when we are ill.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 29 See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ Animism in early societies 24–25 ■ Divining the future 79 the 8th and 11th centuries; and shamanic elements appear in the medieval myths of the Norse god Odin, who hanged himself in an initiation sacrifice on the World Tree (“the axis of the universe”). In the 16th and 17th centuries, shamanic traces were evident in the Benandanti spirit-battlers (an agrarian fertility cult) of Friuli, Italy, and in the night-flying seely wights (fairylike nature spirits) of Scotland. In more recent times, the mazzeri dream-hunters of Corsica show clear shamanic influence. Sami shamans from close comparison with related The Sami shaman’s drum was The longest recorded history of cultures in North Asia and the used to make contact with the spirit shamanism in Europe, however, American Arctic. world. Some of these drums survive, is in northern Scandinavia, in the although many were burned by area now known as Sápmi (formerly Sami shamans, or noaidi, could Christian missionaries. Lapland). Here the Sami people, inherit their calling or be chosen semi-nomadic reindeer herders and directly by the spirits. In some the shaman’s horse); the drum was coastal fishers, maintained a fully other cultures, those chosen to decorated with images of the world shamanic religion into the early be shamans often experienced a of the gods above, the world of the 18th century, which has been period of intense illness and stress, dead below, and the world partially revived in recent decades. as well as visionary episodes in inhabited by humans (the earth)— Their religion can be reconstructed which they might be killed and the three realms connected by from historical sources as well as then brought back to life. the World Tree. The third way the shaman was helped to enter a Mankind does not end Sami shamans had helping trance was through the ingestion its existence because spirits in the form of animals, such of the psychotropic (mind-altering) sickness or some other as wolves, bears, reindeer, or fish, fly agaric mushroom (Amanita accident kills its animal whom they imitated when entering muscaria). After taking the spirit down here on a trance. Shamans are often said to mushroom, the shaman would become the animal they imitate; fall into a trance and become rigid earth. We live on. this occurs through a process of and immobile, as if dead. During Nâlungiaq, a Netsilik interior transformation rather than this process, male Sami guarded by visible, exterior change. the shaman, while the women woman sang songs about the tasks to be Three things helped the Sami performed in the upper or lower shaman enter a trance. The first realms, and songs to help the was intense physical deprivation, shaman find his or her way home. often achieved by working naked in the freezing Arctic temperatures. Stories are told of Sami The second was the rhythmic beat shamans who never returned of the sacred rune drum (among from the other world, often ❯❯ similar peoples, such as the Yakut and Buryat, the drum is called

30 THE POWER OF THE SHAMAN In some Arctic cultures, animals are believed beliefs to the Sami. As well as to have spirit guardians who protect them and subduing storms and acting ensure their well-being. Shamans have the power as healers, they also mediated to negotiate with these guardians, on behalf of between the human world and the human beings, for the release of animals from spirits of the earth, air, and sea. A the spirit world into the human world for shamanic seance was always held hunting and fishing. in subdued light, in a snow hut or a tent. The shaman would summon his helping spirits by singing special songs. After falling into a trance, he would speak in a voice that was not his own—most often in a deep, resonant bass, but sometimes in a shrill falsetto. While in this trance state, the shaman could send his soul up into the sky to visit Tatqiq, the moon man, who was thought to bring fertility to women and good luck in hunting. If he was pleased with the offerings the shamans made to him, he would reward them with animals. When the moon was not visible in the sky, the Netsilik believed that he had gone hunting for animals to feed the dead. because those responsible for be guided by a bird spirit, and Into the sky, under the sea waking them with a spell had protected by a reindeer spirit. According to one Netsilik account, forgotten the magic words. One A journey to the upper world one day the great shaman Kukiaq shaman was said to have been of Saivo would be undertaken was trying to catch seals from a lost for three years, until the person in order to plead for game or for breathing hole in the ice. He gazed acting as his guardian remembered help of some other kind; a journey that his soul needed to be recalled to the underworld of Jabmeaymo Everything comes from from “the coil of the pike’s intestine, would be made to fetch back the Nuliayuk—food and clothes, in the third dark corner.” When the soul of a sick person. This could relevant words were spoken, the only be done after the mistress of hunger and bad hunting, shaman’s legs trembled, and he the underworld had been placated abundance or lack of caribou, awoke, cursing his guardian. with offerings. The shamans were able to communicate with the seals, meat, and blubber. Communicating with spirits in the upper and lower Nâlungiaq, the spirits worlds because their shamanic Sami shamans were believed to training involved learning the a Netsilik woman fly to a mountain at the center of secret language of the spirits. the world (the cosmic axis) before entering the spirit world, either The Netsilingmiut (Netsilik above or below the mountain. They Inuit) shamans—an Arctic culture, might typically ride on a fish spirit, from present-day Canada (west of Hudson Bay)—had similar religious

Some Inuit in Gojahaven, northern the power to either withhold or PRIMAL BELIEFS 31 Canada, have maintained a belief in release the seals on which the shamans, who are thought to have a Netsilik depended for food and Au’s mysterious special relationship with the landscape clothing. She therefore had great shamanic illumination and with the spirits who control it. influence over them. When the Netsilik broke any of her strict The following account of upward and realized that the moon taboos, she would imprison the shamanic illumination was was gradually moving toward him. seals. However, if the shamans given to the Danish explorer It hovered above his head and ventured down to her watery Knud Rasmussen by Au, transformed into a whalebone underworld to braid her hair, she an Iglulik Inuit shaman. sledge. The driver, Tatqiq, gestured was usually appeased and would Au recalled a period in his to Kukiaq to join him, and whisked release the seals into the open sea. life when he sought solitude, him off to his house in the sky. was deeply melancholic, The entrance of the house moved The shamanic tradition of the and would sometimes weep like a chewing mouth, and in one Netsiliks lasted into the 1930s uncontrollably. Then, one of the rooms the sun was nursing and 1940s. Within the Netsilik day, a feeling of immense, a baby. Although the moon asked community, only the shamans inexplicable joy overcame Kukiaq to stay, he was anxious he (or angatkut)—who were protected him. He explained that in would not be able to find his way by their own guardian spirits— the middle of this fit of pure home. So he slid back to earth on were unafraid of the dangerous delight, “I became a shaman, a moonbeam, landing safely at and malevolent spirits that filled not knowing myself how it the very same breathing hole the world. A Netsilik shaman might came about. But I was a he had left from. have several helping spirits. For shaman.” Thereafter, Au example, the spirits of the shaman could see and hear in a Sometimes, however, the Unarâluk were his dead mother completely different way: Netsilik shamans would send their and father, the sun, a dog, and “I had gained my quamaneq, souls down to visit Nuliayuk (also a sea scorpion. These spirits my enlightenment...it was known as Sedna), the mistress of informed Unarâluk about what not only I who could see sea and land animals, at the bottom existed on, and beneath, the through the darkness of life, of the ocean. Nuliayuk possessed earth, and in the sea and sky. ■ but the same light also shone out from me, imperceptible to human beings, but visible to all the spirits of earth and sky and sea, and these now came to me and became my helping spirits.” Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) spent many years documenting the culture of Arctic peoples during his journeys of exploration.

32 WHY ARE WE HERE? CREATED FOR A PURPOSE IN CONTEXT T he Baiga are one of the man, Nanga Baiga, and the first indigenous tribal peoples woman, Nanga Baigin, who were KEY BELIEVERS of central India, collectively born in the forest from Mother Baiga known as the Adivasis. The Baigas, Earth, took four great nails and who call themselves the sons and drove them into the four corners of WHEN AND WHERE daughters of Dharti Mata, Mother the earth to steady it. Bhagavan From 3000 BCE, Mandla Earth, believe that they were told them that they should take Hills, southeastern Madhya created to be the guardians of care of the earth to keep the nails Pradesh, central India the forest—a task they have carried in place, promising them a simple out since the beginning of time. but contented life in return. BEFORE From prehistory The Baiga In their belief, Bhagavan, the The Baiga followed the example are thought to share a creator, spread the world out flat of Nanga Baiga, hunting freely common ancestry with the like a chapati, but it flapped about in the forest and considering Australian Aborigines. and would not stay still. The first themselves lords of the animals. Believing it wrong to tear the body AFTER You are made of the of Mother Earth with a plow, Mid-19th century British earth and are lord of the earth, they practiced a form of slash-and- forest officials restrict sacred burn agriculture known as bewar bewar agriculture. Food and shall never forsake it. (although always leaving the stump shortages follow; the Baigas You must guard the earth. of a saj tree for the gods to dwell say that the Kali Yuga, the Bhagavan the Creator in), moving every three years to age of darkness, has begun. a new patch of forest. However, 19th-century British officials 1890 A reserve that opposed the Baiga’s methods, surrounds eight Baiga forcing them to abandon their villages is demarcated traditional axe-and-hoe cultivation where bewar is permitted. and take up the hated plow. They were permitted to practice bewar 1978 A Baiga development only in the reservation of Baiga agency is established. Chak in the Mandla Hills. ■ 1990s More than 300,000 See also: The Dreaming 34–35 ■ A lifelong bond with the gods 39 Baiga live in central India. ■ Renewing life through ritual 51

PRIMAL BELIEFS 33 WHY DO WE DIE? THE ORIGIN OF DEATH IN CONTEXT A ccording to Maori belief, The trees, plants, and creatures death did not exist at the of the forest were believed by the Maori KEY BELIEVERS beginning of the world but to be offspring of Tane, the forest god. Maori was brought into being following Before felling a tree they therefore an act of incest. In one version made an offering to the spirits. WHEN AND WHERE of the Maori myth, the forest From prehistory, god Tane grew up between and became known as Hine-nui-te-po, New Zealand separated his parents—Rangi, the goddess of darkness and the sky god, and Papa, the earth death. In an attempt to overturn BEFORE goddess—because they forced him the course of events and regain 2nd and 3rd millennia BCE to live in darkness. He then asked immortality on behalf of human Ancestors of the Polynesian his mother to marry him, but when beings, the trickster hero Maui people spread across the Papa explained that this could not raped Hine-nui-te-po as she slept, Pacific Ocean, possibly from be, Tane shaped a woman from believing that after this act she origins in Asia. Their ritual mud and mated with her. would die, and that death would practices and mythology also cease to exist. But Hine-nui- develop independently but The result of this union was te-po awoke during the attack and retain parallels across this a beautiful child—Hine-titama. squeezed Maui to death with her vast region. She became Tane’s wife, unaware thighs, thereby ensuring that that he was also her father. One mortality would remain in the Before 1300 CE The Maori day, however, she discovered world forever. ■ people settle in New Zealand. the terrible truth, and descended in shame to the darkness of Po, AFTER the underworld; it was from this Early 19th century European moment that humankind’s descent settlement begins. Some Maori to the realm of death began. convert to Christianity. When Tane visited his wife, she 1840 The Treaty of Waitangi told him, “Stay in the world of light, formalizes relations between and foster our offspring. Let me whites and Maori. stay in the world of darkness, and drag our offspring down.” She then Today Around 620,000 Maori are resident in New Zealand. See also: Preparing for the afterlife 58–59 ■ Living the Way of the Gods 82–85

34 ETERNITY IS NOW THE DREAMING IN CONTEXT In the Dreaming, the ancestral beings shaped the land. KEY BELIEVERS They embedded their spiritual power within the land. Australian Aborigines The land is alive with this power. WHEN AND WHERE From prehistory, Australia The power of the Dreaming is eternal and ever-present. AFTER We can access that power and enter the eternal Now. 8000 BCE The date ascribed to certain changes to the I n the Australian Aboriginal with the Aboriginal belief that the Australian landscape in tradition, the time of the Dreaming can be accessed through Aboriginal oral tradition; creation was once called the acts of ritual, song, dance, and this has been supported Dreamtime, but is now referred to storytelling, and through physical by geological evidence. as the Dreaming. This term better things such as sacred objects, or captures the crucial element of paintings on sand, rock, bark, the 4000–2000 BCE Aboriginal Aboriginal faith—that the creation is human body, and even canvas. rock art depicts the ancestral continuous and ongoing, existing in beings of the Dreaming; some the real, eternal present, as opposed Myths of the Dreaming, called experts estimate the earliest to the remote past. It also accords Dreamings, tell of the ancestral portrayals of the Rainbow beings, who are known as the Serpent to be even older, dating them to some 8,000 years ago. 1872 Uluru is first seen by a non-Aborigine, Ernest Giles, who called it “the remarkable pebble.” European settlers give it the name Ayers Rock in 1873. 1985 The ownership of Uluru is returned to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 35 See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ Created for a purpose 32 ■ The spirits of the dead live on 36–37 ■ Living the Way of the Gods 82–85 Uluru holds great spiritual power, and forth from animal to human The origin of Uluru according to Aboriginal tradition. It forms. Finally they transform is said to be the heart of the ancestral themselves into features of the According to one legend, beings’ Songlines, whose signs may environment including stars, before the Uluru rock existed, still be seen in the great rock’s features. rocks, watering holes, and trees. the Kunia, or carpet-snake people, lived there. To the west First People or “the eternal ones The living land lived the Windulka, or mulga- of the dream,” and their role in Dreamings are thus intimately seed men, who invited the creation. Aboriginal tradition tied to natural features such as hills, Kunia to a ceremony. The Kunia tells how these beings awake in a rocks, and creeks, as well as the men set out, but, after stopping primal world that is still malleable Songlines themselves. Aboriginal at the Uluru waterhole, they and in a state of becoming. They peoples revere the topography of met some Metalungana, or journey across the land, leaving Australia as sacred because it offers sleepy-lizard women, and sacred paths known as Songlines, evidence both of their spiritual forgot about the invitation. or Dreaming tracks, in their wake. ancestors’ wanderings, and of their The Windulka sent the bell As they go, they shape human bodies. The Gunwinggu tribe bird Panpanpalana to find the beings, animals, plants, and the describes the land as being infused Kunia. The Kunia men told the landscape, establishing rituals, with the ancestral beings’ djang bird they could no longer defining the relationships between (spiritual power): it is this that attend since they had just things, and changing shape back gives it its life and its holy power. gotten married. Affronted, the Windulka asked their friends We say djang… This sacred topography the Liru, the poisonous-snake That secret place… converges on Uluru, a sandstone people, to attack the Kunia. rock formation in the Northern During a furious battle, the Liru Dreaming there. Territory, the center from which overcame the Kunia, who Gagudju elder all the Songlines are said to radiate. surrounded their dying leader, Big Bill Neidjie Uluru is venerated as a great Ungata, and sang themselves storehouse of djang, the navel to death. During the battle, of the living body of Australia. Uluru was formed. Three rock holes high on Uluru mark the Aborigines consider the land place Ungata bled to death, to be both their inheritance and and the water that spills from responsibility, and so they nurture them is Ungata’s blood. It flows it, and the Dreamings accordingly. down to fill the pool of the While they may be mortal, the Rainbow Serpent, Wanambi. djang of their ancestral beings lives forever, and is forever in the now. ■

36 OUR ANCESTORS WILL GUIDE US THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD LIVE ON IN CONTEXT We inherited the land The spirits of the from our ancestors. ancestors are enshrined KEY BELIEVERS Quechua Indians in the land. WHEN AND WHERE If we do this, the land Both the ancestors and From prehistory, central will feed us and the the land must be fed Andes, South America ancestors will guide us. with blood and fat. AFTER The religion of the Andean ways resembled that of the Aztecs From 6000 BCE Ayllu, highlands can be said to of Mesoamerica (pp.40–45), who or extended communities, be, in essence, a cult of the were their contemporaries. It develop in the Andes. dead. This tradition of reverence revolved around worship of their for the ancestors stretches back to own supreme deity, the sun god. 3800 BCE Corpses are long before the short-lived empire mummified and revered of the Incas—the culture for which However, beyond the Inca as sacred objects. the region is best known—and capital of Cuzco, with its priests, has lasted to the present day. rituals, and golden artifacts, the c.1200 CE The Inca Empire common people, whom the Incas is established. Just one of many Quechua- called the Hatun Runa, persisted speaking Andean peoples, the with a cult of ancestor worship 1438 The Inca Empire expands Incas rose to dominate much of and earth worship that dated back across the central Andes, modern-day Peru, Ecuador, and to prehistoric times. This survived reaching its peak in 1532. Chile, and parts of Bolivia and the mighty Inca Empire when, in Argentina in the 13th century. As the 16th century, it was utterly 1534 The Empire collapses they extended their empire, they destroyed by Spanish conquistadors after the Spanish Conquest. imposed a culture that in many led by Francisco Pizarro. 21st century Catholicism has been institutionalized across this region since the colonial era; however, most present-day Quechua blend elements of Christianity with their traditional beliefs.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 37 See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ Created for a purpose 32 ■ Sacrifice and blood offerings 40–45 ■ Devotion through puja 114–15 People of the mountains paraded around the fields during An Inca mummy of a girl who died Since before recorded time, Andean rituals to make the crops grow. five hundred years ago is still preserved; peoples have organized themselves Meanwhile, priests or diviners the ancestors are revered and have a into ayllus, extended family groups at the huacas and grave shrines central role among Andean peoples. or clans, each attached to a specific offered up coca leaves, blood, and territory. Within these groups, they fat, believing that if the spirits of the November 2—marking the end of worked the land, shared resources, land and the ancestors were fed, the dry season and the beginning and worshipped at their huacas, or they would in turn feed the people. of the rains, when crops can be animistic earth shrines. The focus planted—remains a focus of the of worship was to pray to the earth An enduring power Andean year, when the dead are to feed them—vital assistance in a In the 17th century, Christian ritually invited to revisit the living, mountainous region where farming missionaries burned many Andean and to take a share of the harvest. ■ was a harsh and laborious process. mummies to quash what they saw Running parallel to their entreaties as pagan beliefs. However, some to the earth was a belief that, just mummies have survived, and the as the land had nurtured their modern Quechua believe them to ancestors, it would, with the be the first beings or ancient ones. intercession of those departed The chullpa machulas, now just spirits, continue to nourish them. niches in the rocks, remain sacred shrines at which contemporary Each ayllu mummified and diviners still sprinkle blood and fat, worshipped the bodies of its dead, believing this to infuse the sites believing that the ancestors would with life and energy. Some groups, help maintain the cosmic order and such as the Qollahuayos Indians ensure the fertility of the land (see box, below) may burn coca and the animals. The bodies were leaves there, wrapped in bundles of wrapped in weavings and placed llama wool. The graves are believed in rock mummy shrines (chullpa to retain their power, even without machulas) facing the mountaintop. the mummies that once occupied Once desiccated by the freezing, them. The Feast of the Dead, on dry air, the mummies would be The dead visit us A mountain and a god the ancestral graves on the and assist us in mountain, Mount Kaata itself our work. They provide The Kaata of modern Bolivia, is venerated as if it were a many blessings. who live northeast of Lake human being—a kind of super- Titicaca, form one of nine ayllus ancestor—and is also ascribed Marcelino, of the Qollahuayas Indians. physical human attributes. The Kaatan elder The Kaata have a historic highlands are regarded as the reputation as fortune-telling head, with grasses as hair, a soothsayers; in the 15th century, cave for a mouth, and lakes for Kaatan diviners carried the eyes; the middle region is the chair of the Inca emperor, an torso, with heart and bowels honored task. The power of identified; and a pair of ridges these Qollahuaya ritualists on the lowest reaches are the was thought to derive from the legs. The mountain is a living graves of their ancestors on being that gives the Kaata both Mount Kaata. In addition to sustenance and guidance.

38 WE SHOULD BE GOOD LIVING IN HARMONY IN CONTEXT M ost societies have as both dangerous and wrong. developed a system Only by looking after the entire KEY BELIEVERS of morality based population in a spirit of fairness Chewong on an appeal to notions of human and sharing can the group hope goodness, reinforced by sanctions to survive. The Chewong believe WHEN AND WHERE from religious and social authorites. that violation of their moral code— From 3000 BCE, Very few cultures have existed by not sharing food, by showing Peninsular Malaysia where ideas such as crime and anger at misfortune, by expressing warfare are unknown, but the few anticipation of pleasure, or by BEFORE that have been found have been nursing ungratified desires—will From prehistory The tribal peoples eking out a hunter- have supernatural repercussions Chewong are one of the 18 gatherer existence in the rainforest. such as illness, or physical or indigenous tribes of Peninsular One such tribe is the Chewong of psychic attack, either by a tiger, Malaysia collectively known as Peninsular Malaysia, whose first snake, or poisonous millipede, or the Orang Asli—the “original contact with Europeans was in the ruwai or soul of the animal. ■ people”. Each tribe has its the 1930s. They now number own language and culture. around 350 people. Human beings should never eat alone. You must AFTER The Chewong are nonviolent always share with others. 1930s Europeans first and noncompetitive; their encounter the Chewong; language has no words for war, Yinlugen Bud contact with Chinese and fight, crime, or punishment. They other Malay ethnic groups is believe the first human beings also very restricted until this were taught the right way to live time because of the tribe’s by their culture hero Yinlugen Bud remote forest location. —a forest spirit who existed before the first humans. Yinlugen Bud From 1950s Chewong come gave the Chewong their most under pressure to assimilate important rule, maro, which themselves into mainstream specifies that food must always Malay society and convert to be shared. To eat alone is regarded Islam; many choose to retain their traditional practices. See also: Created for a purpose 32 ■ The burden of observance 50 ■ The Five Great Vows 68–71

PRIMAL BELIEFS 39 EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED A LIFELONG BOND WITH THE GODS IN CONTEXT L iving in the environment In Warao myth, the Bird of Beautiful of the Orinoco Delta, where Plumage is believed to provide KEY BELIEVERS the land is divided into supernatural protection to children. Warao countless islands by a network A child that dies is said to be claimed of waterways, the Warao tribe see as food by spirits of the underworld. WHEN AND WHERE the world as flat—the earth is just From 6000 BCE, the Orinoco a narrow crust between water and first cry is said to carry across the Delta, Venezuela sky. They believe that Hahuba, the world to the mountain of Ariawara, Snake of Being—the grandmother the God of Origin, in the east; in BEFORE of all living things—is coiled return, the god sends back a cry of From prehistory The around the earth, and that her welcome. Soon after a baby is born, Warao are one of the largest breathing is the motion of the Hahuba, the Snake of Being, sends indigenous groups in the tides. Their various gods, known a balmy breeze to the village, to Latin American lowland. as the Ancient Ones, live on sacred embrace the new arrival. From that mountains at the four corners of point on, the baby becomes part AFTER the earth, with the Warao living of the complex balance between 16th century Europeans at its very center. In villages under natural and supernatural that first encounter the Warao the particular protection of one forms the web of Warao daily life. ■ and compare their settlements of the gods, the temple hut also with similar structures in contains a sacred rock in which Venice, giving Venezuela the god dwells. (“little Venice” in Spanish) its name. Divine dependence The Warao gods depend on humans From 1960s Environmental to nourish them with offerings, degredation in the region especially tobacco smoke; in return, affects local fisheries and the Warao depend on the gods for displaces tribespeople health and life. This lifelong bond to the cities; some are with the gods is established as converted to Catholicism. soon as a baby is born. The child’s 2001 More than 36,000 Warao See also: The Dreaming 34–35 ■ The spirits of the dead live on 36–37 people are registered as living ■ Symbolism made real 46–47 ■ Man and the cosmos 48–49 in the Orinoco Delta area.

THE GODS DESIRE BLOOD SACRIFICE AND BLOOD OFFERINGS



42 SACRIFICE AND BLOOD OFFERINGS IN CONTEXT T he sacrifice of animals legends, the gods themselves and humans has been a had made tremendous sacrifices in KEY BELIEVERS feature of many religious forming the world, which included Aztec, Mayan, and other traditions around the world, but shedding their own blood to Mesoamerican peoples the idea of ritual sacrifice was create humankind; therefore they particularly important to societies desired similar sacrifices of WHEN AND WHERE in the ancient civilizations of blood from humanity in return. 3rd–15th century CE, Mesoamerica, notably the Mayans Mexico and the Aztecs. Sacrifice and creation The power of blood and the BEFORE The Mesoamerican peoples necessity of sacrifice are central From 1000 BCE The Mayan inhabited the area from present- to the Aztec creation myth. The civilization begins its slow rise, day central Mexico through to Aztecs believed that the gods reaching its peak—the Classic Nicaragua. The Mayan civilization had created and destroyed four Mayan period—between the (which peaked c.250 CE–900 CE) earlier eras, or suns, and that 3rd and 10th century CE. preceded and then coincided after the destruction of the fourth with the Aztec civilization, sun by flood, the god of the wind, From 12th century CE The which reached its height around Quetzalcoatl, and his trickster Aztec empire is established. 1300 –1400 CE. Aztec culture brother, Tezcatlipoca, tore the drew on the Mayan tradition, and goddess (or god in some versions) AFTER the two peoples had several deities Tlaltecuhtli in half to make a new 1519CE The Aztecs, whose in common; they went by different heaven and earth. From her body population numbers 20–25 names but shared characteristics. grew everything necessary for the million, are overthrown by life of humankind—trees, flowers, Spanish forces under the A reciprocal gift of blood grass, fountains, wells, valleys, conquistador Hernán Cortés. The Mesoamerican cultures and mountains. All this caused believed that blood sacrifice to the goddess terrible agony, and 1600 CE Forced conversion to their gods was essential to ensure she howled through the night Catholicism and exposure the survival of their worlds, in demanding the sacrifice of to European diseases destroy a tradition of ritual bloodletting human hearts to sustain her. the Aztec civilization and that dated back to the first reduce the population to major civilization in Mexico—that Further cosmic acts of creation around one million. of the Olmecs, which flourished followed, all requiring sacrifice or between 1500 and 400 BCE. In blood offerings. One relief shows To create us, the gods To create the sun, Without blood and shed their blood. the gods sacrificed sun there can be no life. their hearts. The gods call out for blood. We owe the gods If we give it to them, they a debt of blood. will not allow this world to be destroyed.

PRIMAL BELIEFS 43 See also: Created for a purpose 32 ■ A lifelong bond with the gods 39 ■ The burden of observance 50 ■ Renewing life through ritual 51 ■ Beliefs for new societies 56–57 You have yet to take care of bleeding your ears and passing a cord through your elbows. You must worship. This is your way of giving thanks before your god. Tohil, Maya god Victims of Aztec human sacrifice were typically prisoners of war, and, when in combat, Aztec warriors sought to capture rather than kill in order to ensure plentiful offerings for the gods. the first stars being born from underworld and retrieved the bones and needed to be fortified by blood flowing from Quetzalcoatl’s of former humans (remains from the blood in order for the sun to tongue after he had pierced it. four previous eras), the gods ground continue in its cycle. Thus Most notably, the creation of the them into a fine meal flour. They the continued existence of fifth sun required one of the gods to let their own blood drip onto the the Mesoamerican world was cast himself into a funeral pyre. flour to animate it and created seen as extremely tenuous, and Two gods, Tecuciztecatl and a new race of people—people in need of constant support Nanahuatzin, vied for the honor, whose hearts could in turn satisfy through acts of sacrifice. both immolating themselves; the gods’ own need for blood. Nanahuatzin became the sun and Bloodletting for the gods Tecuciztecatl the moon. The other In Mesoamerican myth, took two forms: autosacrifice gods then offered their hearts in each period of 52 years was seen (self-inflicted bloodletting) and order to make the new sun move as a cycle, the end of which could human sacrifice. Both Mayans and across the sky (the offering of spell the end of the world. Human Aztecs took part in autosacrifice. hearts is a recurring theme in sacrifice could be used to appease Mesoamerican nobles had what Mesoamerican myth and ritual). the gods and persuade them not was seen as the privilege and to bring an end to the present responsibility to shed their own Humanity’s gruesome debt age—that of the fifth sun. The blood for the gods. This involved Both the Mayans and the Aztecs Mayans believed that blood piercing their flesh with stingray were bound to their gods by a blood sacrifice was necessary for the sun spines, obsidian knives, and, most debt from these acts of creation that to rise in the sky every morning. often, with the sharp spines of the could never be repaid. After maguey (agave) plant. Blood was Quetzalcoatl descended to the The Aztecs’ sun god, drawn from the ear, shin, knee, elbow, Huitzilopochtli, was locked in tongue, or foreskin. Autosacrifice ❯❯ an ongoing struggle with darkness

44 SACRIFICE AND BLOOD OFFERINGS smoke from incense and tobacco, and with food and precious objects, blood was what they really craved. And this goddess And when his Rituals and the calendar cried many times in festival was celebrated, The Mesoamerican year lasted the night desiring the captives were slain, washed 260 days, a calendar observed by hearts of men to eat. both the Mayans and the Aztecs. Saying of Aztec slaves were slain. At the end of each year in Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli Aztec hymn to society, a man representing Huitzilopochtli Mictlantecuhtli, the god of the dates back to the Olmec people underworld, was sacrificed in and continued after the Spanish the body was rolled down the stairs the temple named Tlalxicco, “the Conquest of Mexico in 1519. Both of the pyramid-shaped temple to navel of the world.” It is thought men and women of the Mayan the stone terrace at the base. The that the victim was then eaten nobility took part—the men victim’s head was removed and by the priests. Just as human drawing blood from their foreskins, the arms and legs might also be flesh sustained the gods, so by women from their tongues. They cut off. Skulls were displayed on consuming a god (embodied in collected their offerings on strips a skull rack. Depending on the the sacrificial victim) a form of of bark paper, which were then particular god being honored communion could be enacted. burned; through the smoke from in the sacrifice, victims might be Less high-ranking celebrants these offerings, they communicated slain in ritual combat, drowned, ate figures made from dough, with their ancestors and the gods. shot with arrows, or flayed. into which sacrificial blood was mixed. To break apart and Sacrificial rites The scale of sacrifice sometimes consume these dough figures, Human sacrifice was far more reached immense proportions: for known as tzoalli, was also to common among the Aztec than example, at the rededication of the commune with the gods. the Mayans, who performed it only Aztec temple of Huitzilopochtli, at in special circumstances, such as Tenochtitlan, in 1487, around 80,400 Such reenactment of the the consecration of a new temple. victims were said to have been myths of the gods was a feature of sacrificed to the god, their clotted Aztec belief and of annual rituals. Aztec sacrifice usually involved blood forming great pools in the During the main festival of Xipe cutting the victim’s heart from his temple precinct. Even if a more body. The heart was believed to be modest estimate of 20,000 victims a fragment of the sun’s energy—so is accepted, this was still slaughter removing the heart was a means of on a vast scale. returning the energy to its source. The victim was typically held by The Aztec ritual year was four priests over a stone slab in the marked by sacrifices to various temple, while a fifth cut the heart gods and goddesses. Although the from the body with an obsidian gods could also be propitiated with knife, and offered it, still beating, to the gods in a vessel called a Descendants of the Mayans, the cuauhxicalli, an eagle gourd. Tzotzil people were put to work on the After the removal of the heart, Spanish colonists’ estates, and fused their own beliefs with Christian forms of worship in a syncretic religion.

Totec, the flayed deity, a priest This Aztec stone sun calendar PRIMAL BELIEFS 45 impersonating the god donned places a depiction of the sun the flayed skin of a sacrificed within a ring of glyphs representing Tzotzil souls captive. As the skin tightened measures of time, reflecting the and tore away, the impersonator Aztec preoccupation with the sun. The Tzotzil religion blends emerged like a fresh shoot growing Catholicism with some from the rotting husk of a seed, In contrast, the Mayan culture did non-Christian beliefs. The representing growth and renewal. not suffer the same annihilation, Tzotzil people maintain that Other Aztec sacrifices honor the possibly because the Mayans were everyone has two souls, a importance of corn, their staple more widely dispersed. In southern wayjel and a ch’ulel. The food. Every year, a young girl Mexico, even today the Tzotzil ch’ulel is an inner soul that representing Chicomecoatl, the people, descendants of the is situated in the heart and maize goddess, was sacrificed at Mayans, retain many elements of blood. It is placed in the harvest time. She was decapitated, the old culture and religion, unborn embryo by the gods. her blood poured over a statue of including the 260-day calendar. At death, this soul travels to the goddess, and her skin worn Katibak, the land of the dead by a priest. The Tzotzil religion is a blend of at the center of the earth. It Catholicism and traditional Mayan stays in Katibak for as long as Conquest and absorption beliefs. The people’s homeland, the deceased person had lived; When Spanish invader Hernán in the highlands of Chiapas in but it lives its life in reverse, Cortés and his conquistadors southern Mexico, is dotted with gradually returning to infancy, landed in Mexico in 1519, the wooden crosses. These do not just until it can be assigned to a Aztecs are believed to have reference the Christian crucifix, new baby of the opposite sex. mistaken him for the returning but are thought to be channels god Quetzalcoatl, partly because of communication with Yajval The second soul, the Cortés’ hat resembled the god’s Balamil, the lord of the earth, a wayjel, is an animal spirit distinctive headgear. They sent powerful god who must be placated companion that is shared the Spaniard corn cakes soaked in before any work can be done on with a wild animal, or chanul, human blood, but their offering the land. In their adaptation of the and kept in an enclosure by failed to appease the “god,” and ancient beliefs, the Tzotzil people the ancestral Tzotzil gods. the Aztec civilization, just four associate the sun with the The human and the animal centuries old when Cortés landed, Christian God and the moon with spirit have a shared fate—so was destroyed by the Spanish. the Virgin Mary, and also worship whatever befalls the human carvings of Christian saints. ■ is replicated in the animal spirit and vice-versa. The animal spirits include jaguars, ocelots, coyotes, squirrels, and opossums. At this feast [to Xipe Totec] they killed all the prisoners, men, women, and children. Bernadino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain

46 WE CAN BUILD A SACRED SPACE SYMBOLISM MADE REAL IN CONTEXT The world and we ourselves The first sacred spaces were created by Tirawahat, of early religions were KEY BELIEVERS the expanse of the heavens. naturally occurring ones— Pawnee groves, springs, and caves. However, He told us the earth is as worship became more ritualized, WHEN AND WHERE our mother, the sky is the need to define holy places From c.1250CE, Great arose, and buildings designed Plains, US our father. for worship encoded the essential features of each religion. AFTER If we make our lodges to 1875 The Pawnee are relocated encircle the earth and On the other hand, buildings from their lands in Nebraska to encompass the sky, we used for everyday activities often a new reservation in Oklahoma. took on cosmic significance in invite our mother and cultures in which religious and 1891–92 Many Pawnee adopt father to live with us. daily life were intertwined. This the new Ghost Dance religion, was true of the earth lodges, or which promises resurrection for If we open our lodges to the ceremonial centers, of the Pawnee, their ancestors. east, Tirawahat can enter with one of the Native American the dawning sun. Our lodges nations of the Great Plains. The 1900 The US census records a Pawnee earth lodge had a sacred Pawnee population of just 633; are a miniature version architecture, making each lodge over the next four decades, of the cosmos. a miniature cosmos as Tirawahat, traditional Pawnee religious the creator god and chief of all the practices dwindle and die out. gods, had prescribed at the beginning of time, after he had 20th century The Pawnee made the heavens and earth and Nation is mainly Christian, its brought the first humans into people belonging to the Indian being (see box, facing page). Methodist, Indian Baptist, or Full Gospel Church. Some Four posts held up each earth Pawnee are members of the lodge, one at each corner. These Native American Church. represented four gods, the Stars of the Four Directions, who hold up the heavens in the northeast, northwest, southwest, and southeast. The Pawnee believed that stars had

PRIMAL BELIEFS 47 See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ Man and the cosmos 48–49 ■ Living the Way of the Gods 82–85 The earth lodge was a mini-cosmos in the Pawnee tradition, and was constructed accordingly. This Pawnee family stands at an earth lodge entrance at Loup, Nebraska in 1873. helped Tirawahat create them, and live and communicate with the sacred spaces. The heated stones that at the world’s end, the Pawnee people. Sacred star bundles used inside them were said to would become stars. containing objects used for rituals, be ancestral “grandfathers,” and such as charts of the night sky, were treated with great reverence. The entrance to the earth lodge hung from a rafter above the skull. The hot stones were doused in would be in the east, allowing the These were said to give each water, and the steam produced light of the dawn to enter. A hearth village its identity and power. was believed to be the breath of would be positioned in the center the grandfathers. of the lodge, and a small altar of A world within a world mounded earth in the back (the In winter, a domed sweat lodge The first sweat lodge was, west). A buffalo skull would be would often be constructed inside according to legend, made by displayed on the altar, which the the earth lodge, creating a second the son of a bundle-keeper, as spirit of Tirawahat was said to mini-cosmos. These sweat lodges, part of a ritual taught to him occupy when the first rays of sun or steam huts, used for spiritual by guardian animals. As he shone on it in the morning. Through and healing purposes, were also performed the ritual he said, “Now this skull, Tirawahat was said to we are sitting in darkness as did Tirawahat when he created all things and placed meteors in the heavens for our benefit. The poles that shelter us represent them… When I blow this root upon them, you will see a blue flame rise from the stones. This will be a signal for us to pray to Tirawahat and the grandfathers.” ■ The legend of Tirawahat In Pawnee myth, after the rain.” After a time Tirawahat Our people were made creator god, Tirawahat, had spoke again and asked the man by the stars. When the made the sun, moon, stars, if he knew what the lodge time comes for all things to heavens, earth, and all things represented. The man did not end, our people will turn on earth, he spoke. At the sound know. Tirawahat said: “I told of his voice a woman appeared. you to call the earth ‘mother.’ into small stars. Tirawahat created a man and The lodge represents her breast. Young Bull sent him to the woman. Then he The smoke that escapes from said: “I give you the earth. You the opening is like the milk that shall call the earth ‘mother.’ The flows from her breast… When heavens you shall call ‘father’… you eat the things that are I will now show you how to cooked [in the fireplace], it is build a lodge, so that you will like sucking a breast, because not be cold or get wet from the you eat and grow strong.”

48 WE ARE IN RHYTHM WITH THE UNIVERSE MAN AND THE COSMOS IN CONTEXT T he Dogon people live in as two lines of storerooms, the the Bandiagara plateau chest as two jars of water, and the KEY BELIEVERS in Mali, West Africa, where penis as the entrance passage. The Dogon they practice a traditional animist building reflects the creative power religion: for them, all things are of the male–female twin ancestral WHEN AND WHERE endowed with spiritual power. beings, the Nommo (see facing page). From 15th century CE, Fundamental to Dogon religious Mali, West Africa belief is that humankind is the The hut of the hogon, the Dogon’s seed of the universe, and that the spiritual leader, is a model of the BEFORE human form echoes both the first universe. Every element of the hut’s From 1500 BCE Similarities moment of creation and the entire in oral myths and knowledge created universe. Every Dogon of astronomy suggest that the village is therefore laid out in the Dogon’s ancestral tribes may shape of a human body, and is have originated in ancient regarded as a living person. Egypt before migrating to the region of present-day Libya, Sacred and symbolic space Masked dancers perform the dama, then Burkina Faso or Guinea. A Dogon village is arranged lying or funeral ritual. This traditional Dogon north to south, with the blacksmith, religious ceremony is designed to From 10th century CE Dogon or forge, at its head and shrines guide the souls of the deceased identity evolves in West Africa at its feet. This layout reflects the safely into the afterlife. from a mixture of peoples of belief that the creator god, Amma, earlier tribes, many of whom made the world from clay in the have fled Islamic persecution. form of a woman lying in this position. Everything in the village AFTER has an anthropomorphic, or human, Today The Dogon people equivalent. The women’s menstrual number between 400,000 huts, to the east and west, are and 800,000. The majority the hands. The family homesteads still practice their traditional are the chest. Each of these big religion, but significant homesteads is, in turn, laid out in minorities have converted the plan of a male body, with the to Islam and Christianity. kitchen as the head, the large central room as the belly, the arms