Are Native American and African Religions best described as Monotheistic, Polytheistic, or Monistic? Provide examples, reasoning and appropriate evidence for your position.

Monotheism is described as the belief in a single supreme god. Polytheism is described as the belief in more than one deity. And Monism is described as that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.

Religions of Native Americans are Polytheistic, where”all the nature is alive with spirits.” (Hopfe, Religions of the World pg. 30) Spirits of animals and plants appear in their visions. They have guardian spirits of a variety of different animals, spirits of their dead people, and those who live in the land of the dead. The center or heart of nature is called “Mother Earth”. (Hopfe, Religions of the World pg. 30) Native Americans believe in many different gods and spirits, believing that they exist everywhere.

Native Americans protect themselves from the spirit world is by using Taboos. Taboos are “all actions, circumstances, persons, etc., which owing to their dangerousness fall outside the normal everyday categories of existence. (Hopfe, Religions of the World pg. 34) Taboo is more or less a religious way people avoid certain people, places or objects. For example, in order to avoid their dead, Native Americans had a specific person, someone other than a family member handles the dead and sometimes the dead person’s belongings were all burned.

Another way the Native Americans worshiped was by doing different rituals. They used dance to contact the spirits in order to get ready for a special occasion. For any occasion, the dance was done in conjunction with songs, drums, rattles and or sacred flutes. Tobacco was also used to contact the spirits, they also used peyote, which is a “small spineless carrot shaped cactus, it contains nine narcotic alkaloids.” (Hopfe, Religions of the World pg. 38) Eating or drinking peyote causes a person to hallucinate or have visions. They used the visions in religious ceremonies.

Religions in African religions are also portrayed as Polytheistic. They have beliefs of a High God, who is a supreme being that “created the world and then withdrew from active participation.” (Hopfe Religions of the World pg. 50) Many believe that the High God did his work then retired to a faraway place. However, he may be called upon at certain times of need. African religions also believe in The Lesser Spirits. Africans believe that “the universe is populated by spirits as well as humans and animals.” (Hopfe Religions of the World pg. 52) In African societies many different things are worshiped, such as mountains, forests, pools, streams, storms, thunder and lightning, tides and other storm systems.

They have built temples with priests to worship storm spirits. Water is used in various rituals and is sacred with the African religions. In many different African Religions, departed family members were thought to live on in the spirit world, taking a huge interest in those that lived in this world. The ancestors can help as well as do harm. They do not fear any god as much as their “fear of, as well as respect for, the ancestors.” (Hopfe, Religions of the World pg. 53)

Hopfe, Lewis M. Religions of the World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.

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