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The nature of African religion
The impact of Christianity and Islam on African traditional religions
The nature of African religion
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Ancient Africa and ancient Greece hold many similarities and differences. Now of course all of these things can differ between the two civilizations. For example, religion in Africa is fairly different from religion in Greece. However, they both have a god or deity that they believe in. Despite their differences, they both have trade, religion, warfare, and a form government. Trade is one of the main concepts that civilizations are built on. A trade route can connect multiple societies together. For example, ivory was traded all over Africa. In fact, Egypt often traded its ivory to Greece for other materials. Through this, the cultures became connected because of their trading relationship. Trading in Africa differs greatly from trade in Greece …show more content…
It is why many of us push through life. It is there to help us explain what science can’t always do. Religion in Greece is polytheistic. They believe in multiple gods that oversee every aspect of their daily lives from poetry, to war, to fire. This is their way of explaining nature and an attempt to feel some false control over it. While Greece has one religion all around, Africa is much more diverse. Some places like Egypt, for example, are polytheistic. They have multiple gods that reign over their lives like Greece. On the other hand, many other parts of Africa were Islamic. They believed in monotheism, in stark contrast to the Greek pagan beliefs. Yet in both cases, religion controlled their societies. Many African states followed Islamic law and it became almost a universal code for them. Similarly, Greek states wouldn’t dare oppose their gods and abided by rules that pleased the gods. These aspects of these two civilizations were only there because of their religion. They wouldn’t sacrifice their livestock and/or other things otherwise; it wouldn’t be practical. This is why religion is such a significant part of civilization, it wouldn’t be the same …show more content…
Even anarchy can be considered a form of government just as much as democracy is. Greece had many forms of government from democracy, to oligarchy, to tyranny. The form of government could completely differ from one state to another. Africa was much more centralized in this aspect. While some African societies didn’t have a centralized system of power. However, even theses societies had a method of decision making, even though it was based on lineages. The eldest male of the lineage would make the decisions for that specific lineage, regardless of the amounts of other lineages in the tribe. However, these societies were few compared to the Muslim states. The Muslim states were societies were their government was based on Islamic law. While many of these societies had a king and could be considered monarchies, even the king had to abide by Islamic law in some way. This is why it wouldn’t be too farfetched to consider it a form of government. A majority of Africa had this system of government unlike Greece which could have a different type in three neighboring states. This again is because of the geography. Two neighboring states could seem like two different countries, especially if they were separated by water while in Africa they were generally
By the fourth century B.C.E. there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece was not a single political entity it was a collection of about 1500 separate poleis or cities scattered around the Mediterranean and black sea shores. The cities that were not democracies were either oligarchies or monarchies (often times called tyrannies). Of the democracies, the oldest, the most stable, the most long-lived, and the most radical, was Athens.
Egypt and Mesopotamia; two different civilizations that were similar in some ways, as well as different. They had their difference of their geographical location, as well as their different aspects of life. Even though they had their different life aspects, they had also had several similarities between each other.
Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions shared two key similarities: polytheism and priestly authority. The religions in Mesopotamia and Egypt were both polytheistic. Their religions were polytheistic because Mesopotamians and Egyptians could not explain many things in that occurred in their lives. Therefore, they assumed that there are different gods for everything. This means that the religion had many gods for different things. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, priests were part of the upper class and were very important in the daily lives of civilians. Priests were part of the upper class because they were thought to have the ability to communicate with the gods. In Mesopotamia, the priests held the highest authority in the religious structure. Egyptian priests were not as powerful in government as Mesopotamian priests were, but they still had significant power. Egypt’s highest religious and military leader was encapsulated in the position of pharaoh. The pharaoh was at the top of all social classes and was considered to be a god-like figure.
To begin, most Africans have come from societies with traditional African religious backgrounds unrelated to Islam or Christianity. As a whole, African religious traditions combine belief in a Supreme Being with the worship of other gods and ancestors and use ritual and magic to mediate between human beings, nature, and the gods. In many African languages, there is no word for God, because in their tradition every thing and place embodies God. Many African religions have common tenets. They share a belief in a community of deities, the idea that ancestors serve as a way to communicate with these deities. They also share the belief...
In Africa trade was affected by the geographical confinement from the Sahara Desert. This is influential on Africa's social and technological inhibitions because it regulates both the public interactions with other civilizations and precludes civilizations above the Sahara Desert from accessing technology that can only be given to them through trade. An example of how trade was affected in Africa by the Sahara Desert is that the Axum or (Aksum) civilization only traded past the Sahara Desert through the Nile River. This only permitted them a small pathway of interaction with North Africa giving them little more accessibility than most civilizations under the Sahara Desert. This demonstrates the impact made by the Sahara Desert on trade within Africa. Trade done in Africa is significant because it gave the civilizations in Africa resources for them to live on and the isolation made by the Sahara Desert had limited them. The prevention of trade through isolation had both technologically and socially impacted Af...
Religion was and remains a vital part of the lives of most Africans. For some it encompassed their entire existence. It substantiated and explained their place in the universe, their culture, and their relationship to nature and humankind. It also dictated their roles in the community and society at large. Religion among most African ethnic groups was not simply a faith or worship system, it was a way of life, a system of social control, a provider of medicine, and an organizing mechanism.
All three societies had some form of belief in higher powers such as gods and other polytheistic beliefs. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt had more duties involving their beliefs compared to Greece because both of those societies had ways of taking care of their religious sites such as feeding the gods daily or cleaning the temple area daily whereas there was not a huge emphasis on daily chores for Greece. Each society had originated around an ecologically useful area. Greece had a better advantage when compared to Egypt and Mesopotamia because both were prone to flooding. The Nile in Egypt constantly overflowed or ran dry causing harm to those who lived off of the river. The laws of each society were very male centered. Men were dominant over women in each society, but women in Egypt and Greece had more rights than those of Mesopotamia. Egyptian women could sue and file for divorce while Greek women could get jobs and retain property. The men gained more repercussions in Greece seeing as how rape and adultery would initiate a fine in Athens and not joining the army in Sparta would make you lose citizenship and the right to marry. Each society was also governed in some way making them similar, but the way they were governed makes them different. Mesopotamia was ruled by whoever conquered them, Egypt was ruled by a king, and Greece also had a king or an elected official. Each society did have slaves in some way, along with lower class. Egypt and Greece gave the middle lower class the option to become somewhat of a higher class through education and money. Power was determined mainly by wealth, birth, and income in the societies in some shape or form. Military was more of an important focus in Egypt and Greece than in Mesopotamia. The family structure of each civilization is still male centered and the male typically controls the family. Marriage and divorce is common in all
The Mesopotamian and Greek societies had the same type of government within city-states, they were both theocracies. A theocracy is a government centralized or ruled by divine power. ...
Despite a few minor differences, Greek and Egyptian traditions appear quite similar. The many parallels may be a result of the connections between these two cultures. Though they were separated by the Mediterranean Sea, they often traded with each other, leading to a spread of ideas. Another reason is that Egypt was once governed by Greeks, such as the Ptolemaic Kings, who furthered the spread of Greek ideas and traditions in Egypt. Though their rule in Egypt ended with the suicide Cleopatra VII, their influence had a lasting impact. Greek and Egyptian cultures were connected through trade and rulers and as a result their mythology shares many similarities.
These governments came in different styles such as a monarchy which was led by a king. Another form of government that was seen among the Greeks was aristocracy in which the polis was ruled by a small group of noble, land owning families. One of the more notable polis of ancient Greek was that of Sparta in which they used the oligarchy as there form of government. This type of government is where the people are ruled by a few powerful people. Finally, there was democracy which means “rule of the people” (The Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome 1-7). This was the government that Athens utilized and helped establish. These varying types of government can be seen throughout governments today, however, it is the government established by the Athenians and their political structure that had a greater impact on the west than that of its Greek polis counterparts.
Throughout the ancient world, religions and ideologies have developed into forms and practices that influence the very essence of civilizations. Religions could pose as a form of foundation for the beliefs, ideas, social organizations, and economic structures of a certain group of people. They provided a means of justification and form of unity between people and they helped establish and infuse new ideas into a culture. Religions were used as source to explain the misconcepted beliefs in nature and science as well as natural phenomina and it was also used to provide a source of motivation, control, and stability in a civilization.
Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in many gods and goddesses, known as Polytheistic religion.1 In Ancient Egypt early practices of religion began in different villages who worshiped their own gods, adapting animal like symbols such as crocodiles, scarab beetle, and bull. As time progressed Ancient Egypt believed in many gods and goddesses and the most significant ones included Amon-Ra, originally the sky god, and sun god combined. Egypt also worshipped Osiris, the god of the afterlife who judged people after death, and Isis the goddess of royal throne who was the protector of her husband Osiris. Unlike the Egyptians, Greeks worshipped all their gods and goddesses. Greeks worshipped Zues the ruler of all gods and goddess who resided and ruled on Mount Olympus. They worshipped Athena the goddess of wisdom and war, which Athens one of the central polis was named after. Unlike Egyptian deities, Greek gods and goddesses w...
Although there is some similarity between religion in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, they are mostly different. For starters, Greek worshipers believed that the gods would treat them well and meet their needs if they offered them animal sacrifices and fruits of the harvest. To the Greeks, animal sacrifice was similar to prayer. It was the central ritual act in Ancient Greece especially of oxen, goats, and sheep. A sacrifice would mainly take place when someone decided that they owed something to or wanted something from a god, there was also regular times in the year meant for sacrifices. Many sacrifices were family matters, like if someone was sick, perhaps one or two chickens might be sacrificed with the family standing around, and then the family would eat the chickens for dinner. Opposite of how the Greeks, Egyptians
Ethiopia was able to resist Islamic attempts at conquest and did not convert to Islam. West Africa held on to their core cultural features even as their leaders converted to the Islamic faith. (Andrea). In the Sudan region, kings still portrayed themselves as divinely chosen, which is a West African tradition, and women were still given higher positions in the government. Even Islamic punishments that were considered too brutal to Africans, such as cutting off the hands of thieves, were not used by many African nations (“The Spread of Islam”). In the primary source, al-Masudi continuously referred to the people of the area as “idolaters,” and tribal despite the influence that Islam had on the coast. Looking at this primary source, it is clear that the African people are still holding on to their own culture while taking into them the influence and trade that Islamic regions have provided (Andrea
Religion plays a lot of roles in many different cultures. Most things are religion based like in the United States. We are based off Christianity in many different things. In East and Southeast Asia, religion had a big role in shaping the modern history.