Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Impact of colonialism on religion
Impact of colonialism on religion
English colonization of the new world impact on religion
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Impact of colonialism on religion
Religion in Peru In 1532, the Spanish arrived in the Andes and began their campaign of conversion and colonization. Because of widespread Spanish rule over the following centuries, about 90 percent of the modern Peruvian population identifies as Catholic. But Catholicism in Peru is distinct from Catholicism anywhere else, blending with much older indigenous practices and holidays. Throughout Peruvian cities and villages, you can stop and admire the cathedrals that the Spanish built, which are close by (and sometimes directly on top of) the ruins of Inca and older indigenous civilizations. For example, Qurikancha, the Incan Temple of the Sun in Cusco, originally shone with an a layer of gold, removed by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Nearly 100 years later, the Spanish completed construction of the Church of Santo Domingo on the …show more content…
ruins of the temple, incorporating walls that Inca had built into the church. You can still see this blended temple today, an architectural metaphor of the history of Peruvian religious practices. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the religions of the disparate Peruvian indigenous groups often involved some kind of nature worship.
Gods and goddesses typically took the form of anthropomorphized snakes, birds, the sun and the moon, and mother Earth. What we know of the Inca pantheon of gods and goddesses comes from archaeology of temples and shrines, and some records preserved by Spanish priests after the conquest. Just as Peruvians now celebrate a version of Catholicism mixed with native beliefs and practices, the Incan religion absorbed some of the central tenets of the cultures the Inca people had conquered. Like many Andean religions, Inca considered the sun god the most prominent. Called Inti, the Inca rulers considered him their direct ancestor. His wife is Mama Quilla, the goddess of the moon, whose cycles dictated the Inca calendar. Viracocha, another major deity, is depicted as an old man. Inca worshipped him as the creator of all living things, although he is not supposed to have played a major role in daily life. Temples and shrines to these deities still stand, and have become popular tourist
destinations. Before the Inca, the warlike Wari people had a significant presence throughout the Andes. Their religious practices included ritual burning of the skulls of captured peoples. Shrines, such as at the Huaca Pucllana ruin in modern-day Lima, contained mummies buried with ritual offerings. Not much is known of Wari religious life outside of these recent archaeological finds, but the Huaca Pucllana structure is still an active archaeological site. Similarly to the Wari, little is known of the religions of the earlier Moche and Chimu Andean peoples. Based on their art, it is evident that human sacrifice was meant to ensure a sufficient harvest. These themes of sacrifice continued to be an important part of Andean religious life, reborn in the Christian story of Christ’s sacrifice. The priesthood was an important part of Inca religious structure. Inca rulers relied on priests to tell them what the future held. Shamans used plants and animals as part of divination rituals. To this day, shamans conduct rituals developed well before the colonial era. Using a medicinal plant called ayahuasca, they induce hallucinations as the means to a spiritual journey, one that allows the supplicant to experience profound spiritual revelations. Inca attributed special spiritual importance to the valley in Urubamba, near Cusco. They called it the Sacred Valley, and its effect transcends time and nationalities. Modern tourists who visit the Sacred Valley feel the same sense of awe, and attribute the sensation to the mystical properties of the valley. This area has become a prominent destination for New Age tourism and a popular spot for meditative retreats. When the Spanish arrived, their armor and more technologically advanced weaponry made it impossible for the natives to drive them away. From the 16th century onward, Catholicism has dominated Peruvian religious life. Peruvians have kept many holidays and traditions from the Inca religious calendar, often celebrating them alongside Christian holidays.
Meso-American religion involves a variety of beliefs and rituals of the people of Central America and Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s C.E. The beliefs of the ancient Meso-American religious traditions were focused around an annual calendar that had an accompanying ritual cycle. This calendar was associated with various Meso-American deities, often representing different aspects of the cosmos including a creator god, a god of war, a sun god, a fire god, etc. Various beliefs were practiced by the ancient Meso-American peoples that included diverse forms and levels of the afterlife, with each containing its own deity. Religious rituals and practices were typically governed by priests that had been educated in astronomy and genealogy. These priests were often adorned with jewels, ornaments of many colors, exquisite jewels and many had dual roles as diviners. Using idols was common in Meso-American religion and they were usually depicted in the form of animals or having animals as a part of them. Several of these ancient traditions included rituals of sacrifice to the gods, even human sacrifice.
The Aztec’s and the Inca’s have many similarities, such as religious beliefs, and views about gods. Inca’s views about training for war are different, and the Aztec’s artifacts are somewhat different. The farm land compared to the Inca’s differs also, because where the Aztec’s lived the land was elevated about ten thousand feet. The religious beliefs of the Aztec’s were bloody; they believed they had to make many sacrifices to appease the gods. The sacrifices were an important aspect of the Aztec religion.
While yes, the Inca, the Mayans, and the Aztecs had many gods and their religion was somewhat of the same. An example of this is when the tribes all sacrificed people, but the Inca only sacrificed children. A thing that is even more surprising is that they only sacrificed the most behaved kids, the best kids. But that was kind of small thing in the history of these three tribes in their religion and how big it was. Like about their gods, also about some of the ways they were created and even more. Another surprising thing is that criminals were thrown off a cliff. But if they survived they would be treated as a sacred person to their society. I wonder how well they were really treated. The Aztecs had a myth about how they were going to make a great city ruling over all of the Aztecs. It is now in modern-day Mexico
The Aztec Civilization covered most of present day Mexico. It was made up of marauding bands of warriors who migrated from the north. The God of Sun and War for the Aztecs was Huitzilpochtli.
Before Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, The Spanish Inquisition made it known to anyone within Spain’s domain of influence that if a person was not of the Catholic religion, they were to be punished severely and sometimes even fatally. This influence would undoubtedly be brought over to the Americas a century later, as the colonization of the New World would begin by then. While it was very essential for the Spanish (as well as the Portuguese) to improve their economy by using the resources they found in Latin America, it seemed to a number of them as if that was the only reason for being there, or the main reason at the very least. During the Spanish Inquisition and from that point after, it was the Pope’s main goal, to convert everyone to Roman Catholicism; an opportune moment arrived as the Americas were found, along with the Natives who resided there who were waiting to be converted.
In Puerto Rico, the majority of the population, about two-thirds of the inhabitants, are Roman Catholic. This dates back to when the there were Spanish colonies present during the 15th century who were Catholic. Although Catholics hold the majority, Protestants account for one-fourth of the population. Protestants date back to 1898 when missionaries came from the United States to Puerto Rico. Even though Catholics and Protestants hold the majority of the population, the Constitution guarantees freedom for all faiths. Some people are non-religious (2.3%) or another religion (3%). Some islanders ascribe to espiritismo (spiritualism) and others practice Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean belief system brought to Puerto Rico from Cuba. There is also a small Jewish community.
What is culture? Culture is such a complex concept that it is not defined by one simple thing. When studying the culture of a particular group of people we look at their beliefs, fashion, art, music and even food. By simply trying food from a particular culture we can learn much about its history and even geography. Recently I had the opportunity to try authentic Peruvian cuisine. Not only did I get to try new food and get to learn about a new culture, I also got to be able to compare it to my own Colombian culture.
The Inca Empire consisted of a hierarchical structure, extremely difficult to escalate, with the Sapa Inca as supreme Lord as he was often associated with the gods. Then the power continued along to the high priest (Villac Umo) who was believed to have the ability to talk directly with the
1.) Intro: I decided to focus my Religious Ethnography on a friend whom I recently have become close with. Adhita Sahai is my friend’s name, which she later told me her first name meant “scholar.” I choose to observe and interview Adhita, after she invited me to her home after hearing about my assignment. I was very humbled that she was open to this, because not only was it a great opportunity for this paper, but it also helped me get to know Adhita better. I took a rather general approach to the religious questions that I proposed to the Sahai family because I didn’t want to push to deep, I could tell Hinduism is extremely important to this family. Because this family does not attend a religious site where they worship, I instead listened to how they do this at home as a family instead.
Religions play a crucial role in impacting how adherents live their lives and their understanding of humanities enduring questions of life. Religion is an active system of faith. Christianity is a religion centred on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the bible. A living tradition is one that is active amongst followers in present society. Whereas a dynamic tradition is capable of adapting and amending in order to meet the needs of society. Christianity is formed as a living and dynamic tradition, which is defined by its distinct characteristics. Characteristics include, sacred texts and writings, rituals and ceremonies, beliefs and believers and ethics. Ultimately, Christianity is shaped as a living and dynamic tradition through the characteristics of religion’s impacts on adherents.
Both the Mayas and the Aztecs worshipped their gods through human sacrifice. The Olmecs were so dedicated to their gods that they transported 50 tons of boulders from the mountains to the shore. For the Mayas, even their games were related to their religion. The Aztec society was constantly at war for the sole purpose of making sacrifices to their many gods. Religion dominated the cultures of these Mesoamerican empires.
Being an agriculturally dependant empire, the Aztec’s religion was based highly on the forces of nature and worshipped them as gods. The god of war, Huitzilopochtli, was the most important deity. They had many other important gods, such as Tlaloc, the god of rain, Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind and of learning, and Tenochtitlan, the sun god. The Aztecs believed in order to appease these and many other gods that they needed to perform human sacrifices. The main purpose of the great Aztec pyramids was, in fact, human sacrifices. They also believed that there were “lucky'; and “unlucky'; days for baptism and to declare war on, which were decided by a priest.
The major Mayan gods and goddesses all have common characteristics and, according to “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). One of these characteristics is that Mayan gods and goddesses have “features which they share in large part with the gods of neighboring people of Middle America” (Thompson, 198). The majority of the gods and goddesses take a form that combines animal and human features. For example, rain and earth deities often have characteristics derived from crocodiles and snakes (Thompson, 198). The Mayan deities also have a duality complex in which they could be both benevolent and malevolent, but this duality could also apply to age and sex such as a god or goddess being portrayed as youthful or aged or a masculine god sometimes being portrayed as feminine (Thompson, 199). Worship of animals, such as the Jaguar, was present (Thompson, 200) and numbers were seen as deities as well (Thompson, 239). Each deity corresponds to a number. For example, the sun god is the god of the number four as well and the moon goddess is the goddess of the number one. Inanimate objects had spirits, like animals and numbers, which had the ability to achieve the rank of de...
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)
Within the Inca religion they strongly believed in numerous Gods and focused on their purpose for being on earth. There is a theory that Inca believe that a God know n as Viracocha created the earth and the humans. Some women were known as oracles who they believed to be connected with the Gods (Rosen 1). According to Rosen, they strongly believed that if they were obedient and faithful to the Gods, then their nature and society around them would be balanced (1). Compared to western Christianity culture; there is belief that God created hell and earth along with all living things. Christianity believes in worshipi...