Chapter 2 Study Questions

1. Native American religions have some of the qualities of monotheism, polytheism, and monism. 2. The examples of animism that relates to hunting and agriculture were that hunting was a religious pursuit in which the hunter saw the animal as a fellow creature with a similar spirit, therefore a hunter prayed to the spirit of the animal before the hunt. only those animals that were absolutely needed were killed. After the hunt, one asked the animal for forgiveness. For agriculture Native Americans worshiped the soil, plants, trees. Plants, like animals are thought to have spirits and are treated as persons by many Native Americans. 3. The major taboos of native American society are, menstruating women , avoidance of the dead. 4. The purpose of the Sun Dance is, to show continuity between life and death a regeneration, to contact with spirit world, also sun dance was a way of achieving visions from the spirit world, also this practice was a right of passage. 5. In Native American thinking the primary cause of sickness, and the ways it should be cured were, sickness is caused by the invasion of the body by an foreign object, and healing comes about when the foreign body is removed. 6. The use of peyote in religious ceremonies peyote produced profound sensory and psychic experiences lasting twenty- four hours, a property that led the natives to value it and use it religiously after a certain amount of peyote has been ingested, mescaline produces hallucinations and visions. because of these colorful visions that peyote has been part of some religious ceremonies. Peyote is involved in the Christian communion ritual in the native American church by, using peyote as medicine and are convinced that it helps them to cope with, and heal from the psychological wounds brought on by war, domestic violence, and alcohol and drug abuse.