culture and world religions

8/7/2019 Culture and World Religions

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Numerous indigenous peoples occupied Alaska for thousands ofyears before the arrival of European peoples to the area. TheTlingit people developed a matriarchal society in what is todaySoutheast Alaska, along with parts of British Columbia and theYukon.


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Sitka Alaska Russian Orthodox Church


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Mormon

Temple

Anchorage

Alaska


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Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more

than 3,000 years. It is one of the oldest monotheisticreligions, and the oldest to survive into the present day.The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to asJews in later books of the Old Testament Bible such as

the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing thetitle "Children of Israel." Judaism's texts, traditions andvalues strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions,including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith.


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Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable.They also believe that Islam is the complete anduniversal version of a primordial faith that was

revealed at many times and places before, includingthrough the prophets Abraham,Moses and Jesus.Based on the Five Pillars of Islam are five basic actsin Islam, considered obligatory for allMuslims. TheQur'an presents them as a framework for worship

and a sign of commitment to the faith. They are(1) the Shahada (creed), (2) daily prayers,(3) fasting during Ramadan, (4)almsgiving,(5) the pilgrimage toMecca at least once in alifetime.


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Taoist propriety and ethics emphasize the Three Jewels of the Tao:compassion, moderation, and humility

Buddhism --- an awakening or enlightenment to help sentient beings endsuffering, achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of sufferingand rebirth.

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system focused onhuman beings as teachable, improvable and perfectible through personaland communal endeavor.

Shinto is the indigenous spirituality ofJapan and the Japanese people. It isa set of practices, carried out diligently, to establish a connection betweenpresent day Japan and its ancient past.

Bah' faith teaches that humanity is one single race and that the day hascome for its unification in one global society.


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Alaska has been identified, along with Pacific Northwest statesWashington and Oregon, as being the least religious in the U.S.According to statistics collected by the Association of ReligionData Archives, only about 39% of Alaska residents were members

of religious congregations.

Evangelical Protestants had 78,070 members, Roman Catholicshad 54,359, and mainline Protestants had 37,156. After Catholicsand the largest single denominations are Mormons with 31,000,Southern Baptists with 22,959.

Many Aleuts were converted to the Russian Orthodox religionduring the 18th century, and small Russian Orthodoxcongregations are still active on the Aleutian Islands, in Kodiak andsoutheastern Alaska, and along the Yukon River.


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Native Alaskans view of the world is quitedifferent from the Western perspective. AlaskaNatives are descended from peoples whobelieved in a dual existence: the physical and thespiritual. That is, the physical world that theylived and walked in was only one aspect ofexistence; controlling the physical and giving it"life" and character was its spiritual counterpart.This basic belief was the foundation of all AlaskaNative cultures and was their "world view."


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North Alaskan Eskimos - Religion and Expressive Culture

The traditional religion was animistic. Everything was believed to be imbued with aspirit. There was, in addition, an array of spirits that were not associated with any

specific material form. Some of these spirits looked kindly on humans, but most ofthem had to be placated in order for human activities to proceed without difficulty.Harmony with the spirit world was maintained through the wearing of amulets, theobservance of a vast number of taboos, and participation in a number ofceremonies relating primarily to the hunt, food, birth, death, the life cycle, and theseasonal round. In the 1890s a few natives from Southwest Alaska who had beenconverted by Swedish missionaries began evangelical work in the Kotzebue Soundarea. About the same time, Episcopal and Presbyterian missionaries from the

continental United States began work in Point Hope and Barrow, followed bymembers of the California AnnualMeeting of Friends in the Kotzebue Sound area.After some difficulties, the Friends were successful in converting a large number ofpeople, and these converts laid the foundation for widespread conversions toChristianity throughout North Alaska. Today, practically every Christiandenomination and faith is represented in the region.

Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/North-Alaskan-Eskimos-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz1I129Noz7


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The traditional ceremonial cycle consisted of a series of rituals andfestivals related primarily to ensuring success in the hunt. Such eventswere most numerous and most elaborate in the societies in whichwhaling was of major importance, but they occurred to some degreethroughout the region.

Intersocietal trading festivals were also important. The traditional cyclehas been replaced by the contemporary American sequence of politicaland Christian holidays.

Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/North-America/North-Alaskan-Eskimos-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz1I12nogRe


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Culture

The totality of

socially transmittedbehavior patterns,arts, beliefs,institutions, and allother products of

human work andthought.


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http://asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com/2011/01/culture-shock.html


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Indigenous cultureshould be viewed a

potential partof the solution

to Indigenous

disadvantage not aspart of the problem

Case Studies:

1) Bethel PotluckDinners

2) Culture of Abuse

3) Traditional FamilySupport systems

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