Term
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Definition
no sacred books (except Egypt)
oral sources
lived experience
priests/priestesses |
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Term
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Definition
| stories, myths, proverbs, prayers, ritual incantations, songs |
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Term
| other means of epistemological transmission |
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Definition
| art, ceremonies/rituals, religious objects/places, ceremonial symbols, magical objects/practices |
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Term
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Definition
only one god
self-existent and sustainer of all
all else created by god |
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Term
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Definition
god is uZivelele
"he who is of himself, the self-existent one" |
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Term
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Definition
sometimes other spiritual beings are closely associated with god
representaions or manifestations of god |
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Term
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Definition
god is unknowable
"the unseen one, the unknown one"
called by the masai |
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Term
| other characteristics of god |
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Definition
distant, yet near
personal
all-knowing
loving/merciful
above gender |
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Term
| most common cosmological belief |
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Definition
universe is created, governed, filled and sustained by God, the supreme creator
universe is endless |
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Term
| two interrelated levels of reality |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
humans
physical level
but people can prject themselves into the invisible |
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Term
| invisible level of reality |
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Definition
god and spiritual beings
spritual level
presence is felt on physical level |
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Term
| main types of spirit beings |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
personifications of major natural phenomena and objects
(mountains, lakes, earthquakes, ect.) |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| earthly phenomena and objects and remnants of people after death |
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Term
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Definition
spirit world is hereafter
life continues after death |
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Term
| proof of belief in life after death |
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Definition
| pyramids and burial sites |
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Term
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Definition
god's children
at the center of creation |
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Term
| common human creation stoy |
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Definition
people were children living with god as parent
god gave them one or more of three great gifts
but they lost the gifts, and so lost paradise
heaven and earth became severed |
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Term
| three great gifts god gave people |
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Definition
rejuvination (as they grew old)
immortality (protecting against death)
resurrection (in case of death) |
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Term
| faculties of consciousness |
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Definition
body and sense (destroyed after death)
spirit (continues after death)
heart |
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Term
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Definition
struggling, wrestling, desperation, sorrow
purity of heart, humility, trust, and faith
peace and love
praise, gratitude, and thanksgiving of god |
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Term
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Definition
strive spiritually to approach god
love ethically |
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Term
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Definition
(birth, name giving, initiation around puberty, marriage, death)
affirm identity of individual
connect community to individual |
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Term
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Definition
burial (most societies)
burial of belongings
burial monuments (Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia)
ask dead for assistance |
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Term
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Definition
(healing, divination, exocism, protecting people)
coheres with belief in magical power of cosmos |
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Term
| negative effects of magic/witchraft |
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Definition
| causes fear, accusations, quarrels |
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Term
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Definition
| result in observance of social norms and respect for people |
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Term
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Definition
| mountains, waterfalls, groves, animals |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
conform to communal norms
behave correctly
embedded in values, customs, traditional laws, taboos
taught by family and cummunity |
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Term
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Definition
prayers, invocations, rituals, offerings, sacrifices
brings blessings |
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