Ethnic Religions

Hinduism  Largest Ethnic religion  900 million adherents  3 rd largest religion worldwide  Localized in India and Nepal  Polytheistic  Contributed to Buddhism and Sikhism

Doctrine  Up to individual to decide the best way to worship God  There are various paths to reach God including: path of knowledge, path of renunciation, path of devotion, or path of action  You can pursue your own path and follow your own convictions as long as they are in harmony with your true nature  Hindus see the divine in everything and are tolerant of all doctrines  You are responsible for your own actions and you alone suffer the consequences  No central authority or a single holy book

Beliefs  Law of Karma: all actions produce effects in the future  Dharma: one’s duty of station in this life, strive for harmonious and eternal truth within  Reincarnation: previous acts determine the condition into which a being is reborn in one form or another  Must attain atman to break cycle of reincarnation  Liberation of the soul (moksha)  Nonviolence, veneration of all forms of life (Ahimsa)

Gods  Believe in a supreme being who has unlimited forms * Brahman  His manifestations are worshipped  The manifestation of God with the largest # of adherents is Vaishnavism (70%)  Worships the God Vishnu  A loving god incarnated as Krishna  Sivaism is dedicated to Siva (26%)  Often presented in narratives:  Ramayana: Havana kidnaps Sita. Rama rescues Sita and kills Havana but the lovers are forced to separate.  Represents the tragedy in life in the real world where love of the soul for god is constantly being tested

Origins  No specific founder, no single theology, no agreement on origins  Word Hinduism sixth century B.C. to refer to people living in the area  Hinduism existed long before recorded history  Earliest surviving documents written in 1500 B.C.  Objects related to Hinduism date back to 2500 B.C.  Aryan tribes from Central Asia invaded India around 1400 B.C. brought Indo-European language and religion  Aryans first settled in Punjab (Northern India)  Migrated later to Ganges River Valley  Centuries of intermingling with the Dravidians already living in the area modified their religious beliefs

Writings  Hindu’s prefer term Vedic  Veda are Vedic text that provide the only written source for understanding religious life in ancient India  Vedas compromised of 1,000 hymns followed by chants and prose works  Over time only highly-trained priest could perform the complicated Vedic rituals  Upanishads  Record wisdom of Hindu teachers and sages as far back at 1000 B.C.E.  Nature of morality and eternal life  Transmigration of souls  Causality in creation  Bhagavad-Gita  Part of the Mahabharata- one of the longest books in the world  Dialogue between Arjuna (hero) and Krishna  Incredibly important cultural text

Holy Places of Hinduism  Hinduism closely tied to geography of India  Natural features rank among holiest shrines (riverbanks ad coastlines)  Pilgrimage (tirtha) an act of purification  Act of receiving redemption  Holy Places organized into a hierarchy  Importance of shrines are established through tradition  Example: Mount Kailas  Base of Himalayas  Holy because Siva lives there  Many travel despite long distance  Purification can be attained by bathing in holy rivers.  Ganges is holiest river in India  Sprung forth from the hair of Siva  Hardwar the most popular site for “purification”  Recent improvements in transportation have increased accessibility to shrines

Ganges River

Places of Worship  Hindu Temples  Serves as home to one or more gods  Not for congregational worship  important religious functions take place in the home  Wealthy individuals or groups maintain temple  Size and frequency determined by locals  Usually contains symbolic artifact or image of the god  Contains pool for ritual baths

Worship and Practices  Worship called Puja  Worship often takes place in home  No particular day or time  No religious hierarchy  Rituals  Marriage: match must be approved by both parents, usually arranged, horoscopes drawn up, bride’s family pays dowry  Death: body cremated, body not required after death due to reincarnation Death:

Conflict  Hinduism vs. Social Equality  Strongly challenged since 1800 since British colonialism  Hinduism has rigid caste system  The class or distinct hereditary order into which a Hindu is assigned according to religious law.  Each individual should belong to a caste in the social order  Caste system originated around 1500 B.C.  Brought by Aryan invaders  Four Castes  Brahmans: priests  Kshatriyas: warriors  Vaisyas: merchants  Shudras: agricultural workers or artisans  Distinctively lower caste  Untouchables were the outcastes, lowest of all. did work considered too dirty for other descended from indigenous peoples  Castes split into thousands of subcastes throughout centuries  Type of Hinduism practiced, depends on caste

Gandhi  British pointed out problems with system  Neglect of the health of untouchables  Economic problems  System has relaxed in recent years  Indian government has legally abolished the untouchable caste  Now have equal rights  Quota system to give untouchables places in universities

Judaism  Some believe it’s the first monotheistic religion  14 million Jews today  - Considered “parent” religion of Christianity and related to Islam  Unique ethnic religion because it’s not clustered geographically

Judaism -An ethnic religion based in the lands bordering the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea - Called Canaan in the Bible Palestine by the Romans Israel since ,000 years ago Abraham, the patriarch or Judaism, migrated from present-day Iraq to Canaan. -Abraham and God have a covenant in which the Jews agree to worship one God and God agrees to protect his “chosen” people, the Jews -Name Judaism derives from Judah, one of Abraham’s sons. Israel is another biblical name for Jacob

History continued.  Moses led the Jews from Egypt, where they had been enslaved, to Canaan, where an internal conflict split the nation into two branches, Israel and Judah.  Israel’s tribes were “lost” to the conquerors  Judah survived longer, but were also conquered by Babylonians and Assyrians.  Jews regrouped and rebuilt Jerusalem  Romans conquered in 70 CE and drove the Jews out  A resurgence movement in 19 th century divided Jews into Orthodox Jews and Conservative Jews

Doctrine  Fundamental to Judaism is the belief in one powerful God  Called themselves the “chosen” people, because God had selected them to live according to his ethical and moral principles  Believe in one God who created humankind for the purpose of bestowing kindness upon them  People are rewarded for faith and are punished for sins, but they can atone  10 commandments

Holy book  The Torah is comprised on the first five chapters of the Hebrew Bible  Contains Old Testament and the Talmud  Collection of rabbinical and historical teachings passed down from one generation to the next

Sacred Places and symbols  Most prominent feature of the Jewish-influenced cultural landscape is the synagogue  House of Jewish worship  Architecturally varied  All have an ark housing the Torah, written in Hebrew  The six-pointed star is an important symbol

Sacred Sites  Most important site is Wailing Wall  It is at the edge of the Temple Mount  Temple Mount was once the site of two great Jewish Temples  Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac  Dome of the Rock  The western wall is all that is left of the temples  Jews gather there to remember the destruction of the temples and to offer prayers  called” “Wailing Wall” to depict the suffering of the Jews over time“Wailing Wall”

Diffusion  Different from other ethnic religions  it is practiced in places other than just the place of origin  Most Jews do not live in Israel due to the forced Diaspora of the Jews by the Romans in A.D. 70  Most migrated to Europe  Into Iberian peninsula  Often Jews were persecuted by other nationalities  Example: Holocaust  Forced to live in Ghettos  Most Jews now live in Israel  Largest population of Jews live in the U.S.  Northeast, NY  Prominent in major cities in Western Europe

Primary Branches of Judaism  Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism  Seeks to retain the original teachings of the faith  Reform Judaism  Developed in the 1800s as a branch attempting to adjust the religion to fit more modern times  Conservative Judaism  Most recent branch and is most moderate branch

Subgroups  Because of Diaspora, Jews were separated into Subgroups  Ashkenazim: Jews that lived in Germany and France before migrating to Eastern Europe  Mizrachim: Jews that never left North Africa or Middle East  Sephardim: Jews from Spain or Portugal  Large scale migration of Ashkenazim from Europe to America in 19 th century  Today 13 million Jews in the world  6 million live in North America  5 million live in Israel

Jewish Calendar  classified as an ethnic religion because its major holidays are based on events in the agricultural calendar  Examples: Fall is a time of hope- Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Atonement) are in the fall  Other important holidays: Pesach (Passover), Sukkot, and Shavnot (Feast of Weeks)  Today, Israel follows the lunar calendar rather than the solar calendar

Hierarchy  no centralized structure of religious control.  To conduct a full service, 10 adult males must be present

Other Ethnic Religions

East Asian Ethnic Religions  Taoism (Daoism)  Linked to philosopher Laozi, lived around 6 th century C.E.  Laozi taught that people should live in harmony with nature and all aspects of their lives  Seek the “way”  Yin and yang  Created feng shui  Confucianism  Linked to Confucius, lived around 6 th century C.E.  Built system of morals and a way of life for the Chinese  Focuses more on the worldly life than rather the ideas of heaven and hell  Shintoism Shintoism  Syncretic, ethnic religion  Blends principles of Buddhism with a local religion of Japan  Forces of nature considered divine  Emperors become deities  From the 1800s until after WWII, Shintoism was the state religion of Japan  Emperor forced to renounce his divinity

Shamanism  Term given to any ethnic religion in which a community follows its shaman  religious leader, healer, or truth knower  Strongest presence in Africa  but has historically existed in North America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia  Still important in parts of Mexico and Guatemala  Shamans teach animism  A belief that objects such as trees, mountains, and rivers have divine spirits in them  They are “animated”  Native American religious beliefs often have animistic traits, finding spiritual and religious significance in features of the landscape Native American  100 million people in Africa follow animistic religions Africa

Issues with Ethnic Religions  Universalizing religions often supplant ethnic religions  East Asia  Buddhism can “mingle” with other religions  Embraced by Shintoists in Japan  Mauritius  Unihabited until 1638  Dutch settlers arrived  Brought Christianity  Controlled by French in 1721 who brought in African slaves  Brought Islam  Later Indian workers brought in by British  Brought Hinduism  Became independent in 1992  All religions diffused by migration  Africa  Less animists due to increase in Christians and Muslims  46% of Africa is Christian  Can create “merged” religions  Led to creation of Christian churches not formally recognized