FOCUS: RELIGION, MYTH, PRIMAL RELIGIONS
(FOCUS: RELIGION, MYTH, PRIMAL RELIGIONS)
After reviewing all class materials, (text, videos, handouts, lectures, discussion) respond to the following questions (in essay form),developing it with substance and providing specific examples from the class materials.
1.) Identify and explain the key elements of religion and discuss how religion can be both a positive force and a negative force in human affairs. (50 points)
2.) Name and discuss the most important common aspects of Primal or Indigenous Peoples religions and describe the meaning and importance of “myth,” using the Yoruba and Australian Aborigines peoples as examples. (50 points)
THE TAKE HOME TEST IS DUE IN CLASS (HARD COPY) ON OR BEFORE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021
YouTube video https://youtu.be/gYgdBRCb88o
-THE SPIRIT OF ALL LIFE – dreams of Fire in what was only “darkness.”
-Then THE SPIRIT OF ALL LIFE dreams of Wind and Rain; then, Fire, Wind, and Rain struggle with each other.
-Overall, THE SPIRIT OF LIFE likes the dream and continues to dream of Earth, Sky, Land, and Sea.
-THE SPIRIT OF LIFE tires, but wants to have the dream continue. So THE SPIRIT OF LIFE sends LIFE ITSELF into the world.
-Life continues the dream and shares it with FISH.
-The FISH passes the dream on to TURTLE, setting off a “chain of giving,” whereby the TURTLE passes it to LIZARD; then LIZARD to EAGLE; EAGLE to POSSUM; POSSUM to KANGAROO; and finally KANGAROO to HUMANS.
-WOMEN AND MEN walk the earth and continue to dream of: journeying, dancing, singing, laughter. HUMANS understand ALL the dreams that have been dreamed since creation (dreams of water, waves, sand, rocks, sunbeams, sky, breezes, trees, and plains of yellow grass).
-HUMANS learn that all creatures are cousins.
-HUMANS protect the dream and pass on the secret of dreaming to CHILDREN YET UNBORN.
-THE SPIRIT OF LIFE is weary and rests in the land, making HUMANS caretakers of the land and the secret of dreaming; so the dream continues to this day.
