Sacred Texts In Indigenous Religions

Issues regarding sacred texts in indigenous religions exists because there are many obstacles scholars have to overcome when studying them. Scholars have primarily focused more on religions that had produced written texts than on those that expressed themselves through orally transmitted stories, histories, and rituals. Religions with written text and scriptures are sometimes referred to complex. They are complex however, some oral religions are considered simple. That is not the case, most are complex (36).Another problem is any religion grounded in a written text faces the problem of how to reproduce the sacred text without somehow falsifying its truth. For instance, even modern scribes and others who labored to repair damaged hand-copied

Torah scrolls regard them as so sacred that they in a sense have "life."

http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/translating_sacred_text.htm

Beliefs and Practices

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24097

One practice is in a indigenous religion is that after the birth of a newborn, the newborn is often celebrated with a public event that may occur immediately or anytime from a week to a year after the actual birth.

In some parts of Africa, babies do not become members of the community until they receive their names in a special public ceremony that is accompanied by song, dance, and a meal. In some Native American indigenous religions, after a women would give birth, the infant was usually plunged into the river. They repeated that 2 to 3 years daily after the birth. An example of a belief is the “four noble truths” in the indigenous religions Buddhism. The belief is that there is a truth of suffering, a truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that frees us from

suffering.

Women and/or Women in Leadership

References to women and their power come mostly from the time of the Goddess, but little is written from the eyes of the women in rites of passage and indigenous religions. “Woman is by nature a shaman,” Chukchee proverb. Female shamans have often been tried as witches as there is a similar relationship to the respect of mother earth, use of herbs for healing and the ability to travel within unseen worlds and offer guidance and healing. Even on All hallows eve, little girls dress up in ugly witches masks and still believe they are something to do with the devil and black magic. Women and their practice of medicine are still to this day are still misinterpreted in contradictions and misunderstandings.
https://contemporaryshaman.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/women-shamanism-and-spirituality/

Art/ Artistic Expression

Masks, drums, statues, rattles and other objects that are importanat I native religions were once seen as curiosities to be collected and housed in anthropological museums.

For example, in ancient african religions, masks are usually worn by men and rarely y women. They wore them during ritual ceremonies related to life events such as death. They can represent many things such as spirits of animals, people or ideas, ancestors, whether male or female, power and history of the religion, and provide protection from spirits. When they represent spirits, they are considered sacred for the religion. For the people of Burkina Faso, once boys and girls reach puberty, they are “kidnapped” and taken away from the community. Then, they are taught the meaning and the importance of the

masks.
http://people.opposingviews.com/african-masks-used-during-religious-ceremonies-6381.html

Indigenous Religions - In Popular Culture

The Disney movie called Brother Bear, is a perfect example of indigenous religions shown in popular culture. Throughout the movie, aspects of a native Alaskan religion is practiced by the main characters. Ancestors play a big role in the movie. When the northern lights are shown above the sky, you can see the ancestors of the animal kingdom marching in the sky. Another example is the totem. Totems are used in this movie and also play a major role. When a man comes the age of maturity, he is given a small personal totem with the animal that represents him. The main character received a bear. When he killed a bear, he became a bear.

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/features/view/26444/movies-about-native-americans