World Religions-Voyage of Discovery: Primal Religions, Ch. 2

Belief systems and rituals practiced by a group; includes rules for identifying community membership and participation.

Center of the universe; connecting point of heaven and earth.

Circumcision, knocking out teeth, vision quest, scarification; Rituals marking the transition from child into adult.

Original religions with no written teachings; Focus on oral teachings, myths, rituals; Tend to live in rural areas

Area of the Yoruba?

Dread, guilt, awe, mystery, devotion, inner peace, bliss--things you feel as a result of religion

Mischievous supernatural being; Attempts to get you to see the error of your ways/thoughts.

The creation and ordering of the world are attributed to Quetzalcoatl.

Two separate worlds: heaven (invisible home) and the earth (visible home)

Why do Sun Dance participants skewer their flesh?

A Lakota ritual marking the new year, prior to the annual buffalo hunt; drumming, dancing, and physical pain for some.

Ceremonies, dances and actions performed with religious functions or meanings.

Four souls depart from a person at death; one along the Milky Way where it is judged; the others enter unborn children.

Learning or interpreting someone's future; considered essential for one to determine how to proceed with life.

A time when the Ancestors gave shape to the landscape and created various life forms, including the first human beings.

The Lakota name for the supreme reality, translated as Great Spirit or the Great Mysterious; Sixteen separate deities.

Gain spiritual power to ensure greater success in activities like hunting, warfare, curing the ill.

Lesser deities; source of sacred power that help/harm humans, depending on how well appeasing rituals are carried out.

The age of the present for the Aztecs; the last sun

Stories that teach and interpret the universe and humans' place in it

A structure where heated stones are put to give off hot steam, causing profuse sweating, leading to purification.

Supreme god of the Yoruba, primary source of power in the universe, to whom all other life forms owe their existence.

Rules about human behavior; right and wrong

Dictates that certain things and activities, owing to their sacred nature, set aside for specific groups.

Natural landmarks, sacred sites; charged with sacred power

They mediate between the gods and ancestors in heaven and human beings on earth

Natural form in which the Ancestor appeared in the Dreaming; an animal, rock formation, or another part of the landscape

Ordinary objects that symbolize or manifest the sacred or supernatural.