•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP

•The aboriginal society is highly decentralized and egalitarian, with people in overlapping and interdependent roles that minimize the possibility that divisive interest groups will come into serious conflict.

•Their social system allows the sorting of people into a workable number of social categories that specify appropriate interpersonal behavior, especially in the critical areas of marriage and access to spiritual property.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP 
(2)

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP  (3)

•Complementary Opposition:  A structural principle in which pairs of opposites, such as males and females, form a logical larger whole.

•Gerontocracy:  an age hierarchy that is controlled or dominated by the oldest age groups.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (4)

•Section system:  A social division into four sections or eight subsections intermarrying, named groups, which summarize social relationships.  Members of each group must marry only members of one other specific group.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (5)

•The totem estate groups are among the most important social categories.

•In an aboriginal society, there might be dozens of totemic estate groups, or clans, that regulate rights in spiritual property and indirectly provide access to natural resources.

•Who one marries is partly determined in reference to the totemic groups of one’s parents, and marriage establishes access to territory associated with one’s spouse’s totemic estates.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (6)

•All social interaction takes place between people who can place themselves in specific kinship categories.

•Aboriginal kin terms also indicate marriageability and relative totemic estate group affiliation.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP  (7)

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (8)

•Kinship terms represent cultural categories, and their specific application varies considerably.

•In a given system, someone might refer to serveral women using the same term mother.  The term might then mean “woman of mother’s generation who belongs to mother’s totemic estate group (clan)”

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (9)

•The biological facts of mother hood might be irrelevant in this context.  When the biological relationship needs to be designated, a modifier such as real or true  might be added

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (10)

•Moieties sort people into two sides by estate groups.  All people. Totems and natural phenomena are assigned to a specific moiety.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (11)

•Moiety groupings help organize ritual activities. 

•One moiety may own a particular ritual, while another moiety actually carries out the ritual.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (12)

•This is a form of complementary opposition because the ceremony could not be performed without the cooperation of both groups.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (13)

•Many aspects of aboriginal society are related to the widespread practice of polygyny.

•Polygyny automatically creates a scarcity of potential wives, which is partially alleviated by the large age difference between men and women at marriage.

•Girls may be promised in marriage long before they are born, and men might be well beyond 30 years of age before their first marriage, perhaps to a much older widow, while a 12 year old girl might marry a 50 year old man.

•GENDERN, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (14)

•Polygyny also offers important benefits for the entire society.

•Polygynous households may provide child-bearing women with greater security.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (15)

•An older man is more likely than a young man to have a thorough knowledge of the territory and a wider network of kinship connections which will benefit his entire household especially in times of resource shortage.

•Delaying marriage provides the young men with an opportunity to learn the intricacies of the totemic landscape and the locations of critical waterholes.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP   (16)

•The aboriginal society is a gerontocracy.

•The old men occupy the upper “class” and use polygyny and Dreamtime ideology to control women and the labor supply.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (17)

•Elders do have moral authority; however, relationships among individuals at different generation levels are hierarchical and may be expressed as kinship responsibility or “looking after.”

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (18)

•Elders do arrange the marriages; however, this is considered to be nurturing and guiding not domination or exploitation.

•No one has generalized power over all others.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (19)

•In the age system, status is always relative.  Everyone at a given level is equivalent and everyone moves up.

•No one is permanently excluded from access to basic resources or political power by membership in a lower social class.

•As they mature, everyone—both men and women alike—move to positions of greater decision making ability in society.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (20)

•Through out the world, foraging people that are characterized by high mobility and low population density are the most egalitarian societies known.

•GENDER, MARRIAGE AND KINSHIP (21)

•Equality is reflected in the conspicuous absence of differences in material wealth among individuals in the availability to each  household of the resources needed to secure its existence, and in the absence of permanent political leaders with coercive power over others.

 

RELIGION

The key element of the aboriginal culture is the complex, multidimensional concept called the Dreaming, which recognizes the interdependence and vitality of all parts of the cosmos

RELIGION (2)

The term Dreaming refers variously to creation, the moral order, an ancestral being, people, a spirit, the origin point of a spirit, a specific topographic feature, and a totem species, object, or phenomenon.

As a philosophy of life, the Dreaming provides both a cosmogony to account for the origin of everything and a cosmology to  explain the fundamental order of the universe.

RELIGION (3)

The aborigines, as with open societies, is primarily concerned with healing, love magic, and natural fertility rather than with witchcraft.

Individual souls are recycled and may exist briefly as ghosts, but they are not permanently commemorated in ancestor cults.

RELIGION (4)

Totem:  In Australia, specific animals, plants, natural phenomena, or other objects that originate in the Dreaming and are the spiritual progenitors of aboriginal descent groups.

Cosmogony:  An ideological system that seeks to explain the origin of everything

Cosmology:  An ideological system that explains the order and meaning of the universe and people’s places within it.

RELIGION (5)

There is no all-powerful god and no rank order in the Dreaming.

There is no heaven or hell, and the distinctions between sacred and profane, natural and supernatural, are blurred

RELIGION (6)

Dreaming locations, or sacred sites, are centers for ritual activity and help define territorial boundaries and regulate use of resources.

RELIGION (7)

Some sites contain the spirit essence of their creators and are the places where special “increase ceremonies” are performed to perpetuate particular species.

RELIGION (8)

Aborigines experience the mystical as a perpetual unity with the cosmos as they follow the Dreaming Law in their daily life.

A seemingly mundane activity, such as seasonally burning grass, can be considered a religious act because it perpetuates life and the cosmic balance between sun and rain, people and game.

RELIGION (9)

Because they saw no aboriginal farms or permanent houses, British authorities mistakenly concluded that the aborigines had no fixed relationship to the land.

Australia was declared terra nullus, an empty wasteland, free for the taking.

RELIGION (10)

The Dreamtime ancestors or totemic beings, make a direct link between people and their land by means of the sacred sites which are the physical remains of the ancestors of their activities. 

The most dramatic example of this is Uluru, a giant monolith in central Australia.

RELIGION (11)

Uluru is a perpetual Dreamtime monument crammed with cultural meaning.

A series of stories recounts the activities of ten totemic beings and their relatives, including various snakes, reptiles, birds and mammals, who created the existing landscape and established the clan boundaries.

RELIGION (12)

Rocks, stains, caves, pockmarks that represent the bodies, camps, and physical signs of the totemic beings at Uluru also traveled widely across the country leaving permanent Dreaming paths.

Entry to or even knowledge of sacred sites is often restricted and unauthorized intrusion may be severely punished.

The spirit essence localized at certain sites also completes the direct link between people and their individual Dreaming, because this animating power is believed to be an essential but not an exclusive element in human conception and reproduction.

RELIGION (13)

An individual is a physical part of the Dreaming and this spiritual connection is a more important cultural fact than biological paternity.

Dreaming tracks also serve as devices to help fix in memory the location of permanent waterholes which are critically important.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST

Manioc production, is the key to successful human occupation of Amazonia.

It depends on a specialized system of shifting cultivation that minimally disrupts the forest ecosystem.

The forest itself ultimately maintains soil quality, regulates the local climate, recycles nutrients and water.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (2)

Natives of the area rely on a diverse mix of crops in their gardens or swiddens.

The overlapping layers of different plant species minimize erosion and losses to insects and disease.

Sweet potato vines and beans quickly cover the ground, then are shaded by maize and manioc, which in turn are shaded by bananas and various fruit trees.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (3)

Slash and burn is the favored system of farming.

This is a farming technique in which a forest is cleared and burned to enrich the soil for planting.

The burning concentrates nutrients in the ash, thus eliminating the need for additional fertilizer.  Unburned logs provide an easy source of wood for cooking fires.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (4)

Shifting cultivation requires a great deal of specialized knowledge, which has an elaborate vocabulary.

Native Amazonians distinguish several different types of soil and forest and they take into account the special characteristic of each when selecting a garden site.

Because manioc require more than 6 months to produce large tubers, manioc must be grown on land that is not seasonally flooded.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (5)

Although the gardens are seldom carefully tended more than 1 year, they may yield manioc for up to 3 years.

New gardens might be made each year, so that at a given time every household has gardens at different stages of production

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (6)

Gardens are abandoned in part because rapid forest regrowth makes weeding a burdensome task.

In most forest soils, continuous replanting would soon lead to a decline in fertility and yield

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (7)

Reclearing of old garden sites is avoided because, during the early stages of forest succession, the vegetation is very dense and difficult to clear with hand tools.

Village sites may be shifted every few years to reduce conflict or to find better hunting ground.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (8)

Most Amazonians grow a dozen or more varieties of manioc carefully distinguishing them based on characteristics of tuber and leaf.

Rain forest villages usually remain small, averaging less than 100 people and seldom exceeding 300 people.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (9)

A single garden belonging to an Ashaninka household in the Peruvian Amazon potentially could produce some 30,000 pounds of manioc in a year.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (10)

All manioc tubers contain potentially toxic substances.  In “sweet varieties” they can be eliminated merely by peeling and cooking.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (11)

The bitter variety is used for flour by an elaborate labor-intensive process of squeezing and sifting then roasting the grated pulp

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (12)

Amazonian villages clearly demonstrate some advantages of life.

Men do the heavy work of garden clearing in seasonally concentrated bursts of effort.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPCIAL RAIN FOREST  (13)

Women carry out the bulk of routine cultivation, harvesting, and food processing.

Men, women, and children forage for wild plant food, insects, and small animals.

Everyone may join large-scale fishing expeditions, but men provide most of the daily animal protein by hunting and fishing.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (14)

This production system guarantees that each household can meet nutritional needs with relatively moderate work loads while maintaining a reasonable labor balance between sexes.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (15)

It also provides strong incentives for maintaining low population densities because as densities increase, work loads quickly accelerate due to game depletion and the increasing distances that women must walk to their gardens.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (16)

Most villages do not exceed 300 although manioc gardening could produce enough calories to support a permanent village of 500 people as long as they could get enough animal protein in game and fish.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (17)

Available protein sources do not seem to be a problem either especially in the riverine enviroment or the flood forest zone.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST  (18)

Meat and fish are pooled and distributed to each household in the village to smooth out the variation in productivity between households.

All of these activities are individually directed, and everyone controls the necessary tools.

This production system guarantees that each household can meet its nutritional needs with relatively moderate work loads while maintaining a reasonable labor balance between the sexes.

It also provides strong incentives for maintaining low population densities.

FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST (19)

Cultural preferences for large frame animals, maximum leisure and household autonomy seem to be more important than supporting the largest possible villages.

VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA
Local settlements in Amazonia resemble the bands of Australian aborigines in that both are usually exogamous groups.
Because rain forest villages are frequently moved, individual houses and landholdings are not inherited.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (2)
Ordinarily, gardens are only owned by those who clear and cultivate them until they are abandoned to the forest.
In Amazonia, genealogical reckoning is shallow and even discouraged by frequent taboos on speaking the names of dead ancestors.
This prevents ancestor cults or invidious ranking of descent lines. The results is a highly egalitarian social system that encourages easy access to natural resources.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (3)
Larger social groups often are named after rivers, but territories frequently overlap and generally seem much more flexible than in Australia.
Because they spend most of the year at a permanent residence, they could be considered “domesticated” societies.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (4)
The world of Mundurucu men and women is sharply divided. Men are primarily hunters, although they also do the heavy work of garden clearing. Women cultivate, harvest, and process bitter manioc.
Mundurucu men assume public roles which is symbolically reflected in the physical structure of the village.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (5)
Adult males and older boys sleep communally and spend much of their time in the eska, an open-walled men’s house, whereas all females and young boys sleep in close-walled domestic houses.


VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (6)
Mundurucu are divided into exogamous moieties.
A moiety is one part of a two-part social division.
Mundurucu moieties are color-coded “red” and “white,” and membership is allocated through males.
People marry their cross-cousins who belong to opposite moieties.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (7)
Matrilocality requires that a young man leave his own village and move into the men’s house in his new wife’s village.
Men consider themselves to be the superior sex and they frequently draw on symbolic support for this position, but the women reject this understanding.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (8)
Clan loyalties are strong, and ancestral spirits are symbolically present in sacred flutes, which are hidden in the men’s house.
The potential for intervillage conflict is reduced by the practice of matrilocality.

VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (9)
The entire mythic charter for the male view is enshrined in the central myth of the phallic sacred flutes.
The myth tells how women originally possessed mysterious flutes that reversed normal gender roles. As long as the women had the flutes, they occupied the men’s house, relegating the men to carry water and firewood and to be seduced by aggressive women.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (10)
The downfall for the women was that the flutes demanded meat, but only men could hunt.
Eventually, the men grew impatient with this arrangement and threatened to stop hunting, thereby forcing the women to surrender the flutes and restoring normal gender roles.
The myth explains why men are both sexually and publicly dominant.
Men are superior to women—not because they are inherently superior, but because gender roles differ.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (9)
The hunting by males is culturally the most important gender role.
The sacred flute myth highlights a central problem: men are sexually attracted to women and physically dependent on them, but they fear their power.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (12)
Patrilineality gives men rights over the status of children, but only women can produce children
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (13)
The myth suggests that men know their vulnerability and must constantly assert themselves, or women will overcome them.
The mythic flutes are symbolically embodied in the 4-foot-long hollow wooden tubes, which are stored and regularly played in the men’s house.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (14)
The flutes reinforce the male role in patrilineality and hunting because they contain the spirits of the patriclan ( a named descent group with membership assigned through the male lines) and they must be offered meat.
Mundurucu male dominance is a male ideology of gender roles. Publicly, women remain in the background actively maintaining their separation from men, but in practical terms they have real power in their daily lives.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (15)
Mundurucu women are in charge of their households.
Senior women control food distribution, handing out both manioc and meat.
Households are centered predominantly on sisters, mothers, and daughters.
Kin ties between women are very strong.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (16)
One of the most distinctive features of domestic cultures is the way they preclude any concentration of political power that might threaten the autonomy of households and communities.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (17)
Village leaders serve the people and are granted no undue power.
The largest local settlement in Amazonia is a politically autonomous unit even if it contains only twenty-five people.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (18)
Villagers can move the village whenever they choose, can kill intruders and control their natural resources.
Given exogamy, there cannot be complete village autonomy because spouses must come from other villages.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (19)

A leader or headman, may be called a “chief” by outsiders; however his authority is extremely limited.
Normally he is a powerless coordinator who formally announces what everyone had already decided to do
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (20)
An Amazon village is essentially a “society against the state” in that it is designed to prevent the concentration of political power that would allow anyone to gain control of the economy for his own benefit.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (21)
The headman is granted a certain degree of privileged status, usually polygyny.
He frequently works harder than everyone else and is denied real power.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (22)
Most headmen need more than one wife in order to brew the extra manioc beer expected from a generous headman.
The headman can hold his position only as long as he serves the community
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (23)
Since a headman is limited to using his verbal powers, it may be almost impossible for him to keep peace in a “village” larger than 200-300 people.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (24)
A source of village conflict is the shortage of game and the related competition between village men for access to women.
In the absence of a powerful headman the situation can lead to village fragmentation.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (25)

Throughout Amazonia, hunting success is equated with virility and the successful hunter can support wives and lovers through gifts of meat.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (26)
Successful hunters also have free time to engage in infidelities while less skilled hunters are still in the forest.
This leads to conflict and villages break apart before potential game depletion sets in.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (27)

When game is really abundant, individual differences in hunting abilities are less prominent and men may turn to raiding other villages to capture women.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (28)

Successful raiding would increase village size, raise the pressure on hunters and, again, result in village fragmentation.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (29)

Domestic-scale cultures are characterized by chronic inter-village conflict because they have no overall political authority to enforce peace.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (30)
In Amazonia, inter-village conflict is carried out
For personal reasons
To avenge previous wrongs
To prevent future attacks
To capture wives
To gain individual prestige
To obtain material benefits
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (31)
The objective is not political conquest; domestic-scale conflict is better seen as raiding and/or feuding.
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMAZONIA (32)
Where raiding is especially common, extensive “no-man’s lands” may develop between hostile groups and can serve as de facto game reserves to replenish adjacent hunting territories.

 

RELIGION II
The people of the Rain Forest, most particularly, the Amazonians, have a central concern for creation, life and death, and relationship between nature and culture.
In domestic-scale societies, there are no priests, no full time professionals to formalize the belief system or codify in writing.

RELIGION II (2)
Animism, a belief in spirits which can take on any form (both human and non-living) is their major source of religion.
Humans, animals, plants and a variety of anthropomorphic beings can have superhuman characteristics.
RELIGION II (3)
All of these beings can intrude directly in the affairs of humans and control natural resources.
Shamans are religious specialists who, by training and self-selection, are particularly adept at communicating with the spirit world—curing illnesses and dealing with misfortune.
RELIGION II (4)
In the absence of a centralized political authority, shamans often play a key role in the politics of village life by using their spirit power to enforce social control.

RELIGION II (5)
The fear of being accused of sorcery is a powerful means of enforcing social control and strengthening kin ties in a small community.
Behaving aggressively or doing anything that deviates from social norms can bring one under suspicion of sorcery.
RELIGION II (6)
Kin ties are critical because individuals who are surrounded by supportive kin rarely are accused of sorcery.
Spirit beings normally are invisible, but they can assume visible form and freely transform from human to animal form and back again.
RELIGION II (7)
In Ashaninka thought, any unusual animal or otherwise unexplained event may be attributed to a spirit.
The Ashaninka recognize and name scores of specific spiritual entities; some include the souls of their own ancestors, which are ordinarily considered harmless.
RELIGION II (8)
The principal actors in the myths and their spirit representatives in the forest and rivers invariably are oversexed demons seeking to seduce people, especially vulnerable women.

RELIGION II (9)

Malevolent spirit beings may appear as blue butterflies, tapirs, jaguars, hairy red humanoid dwarfs, or hoof-footed human impersonators.
They are found in the deep forest, and they frequent whirlpools and rocky cliffs.
Human contact with or even sight of a malevolent spirit beings may cause illness or death
RELIGION II (10)
Animism: A belief in spirits that occupy plants, animals, and people. Spirits are supernatural and normally invisible but may transform into different forms. Animism is considered by cultural evolutionists to be the simplest and earliest form of religion.
Shaman: A part-time religious specialist with special skills for dealing with the spirit world; may help his community by healing, by divination, and by directing supernatural powers against enemies.
RELIGION II (11)

Myth: A narrative that recounts the activities of supernatural beings. Often acted out in ritual, myths encapsulate a culture’s cosmology and cosmogony and provide justification for culturally prescribed behavior.
Natural symbols: Inherent qualities of specific plants and animals used as signs or metaphors for issues that concern people.
RELIGION II (12)
A central feature in this cosmology is the theme that women in animal form were originally the possessors of culture, which was wrested from them by men who humanized them and took control of culture in the form of fire and cultivated plants.
The Mundurucu have the same theme in the myth of the “sacred flutes.”
RELIGION II (13)

The entire cosmology is permeated by sexual antagonism; it is primarily a male construction, relegating women to a negative role, as in their symbolic association with sickness and death.
RELIGION II (14)
The myths consistently focus on the cosmic issues of reproduction and fertility, the relationship between sexes the origin of culture, and illness and death.
The dominant characters are drawn from especially powerful natural symbols found in the rain forest.
RELIGION II (15)

Sexual antagonism in the cosmology is evident by the striking gender division in the society, which often physically separates men and women.

The vivid sexual imagery also can be attributed to the fact that sex is one of the only activities that men and women engage in together and thus is a major preoccupation.
RELIGION II (16)
Men also seem to be jealous of women’s role in reproduction and in the myths, masculine characters sometimes assume important creative roles.
This jealousy is reflected in the special vulnerability of women to assaults by demons when their biological role is especially evident.

RELIGION II (17)
Usual female symbols are the anaconda, caiman tapir, king vulture and frog. Hollow bee hives and gourds are also female symbols.
A giant anteater is also used as a male symbol.
RELIGION II (18)
During times of biological vulnerability such as puberty, menstruation and pregnancy, women may be secluded and observe specific food taboos.
The basic cosmology of these people also keep the natural system balanced. They assume that a balance must be maintained between a finite supply of fish and game and the human population that depends on them.
RELIGION II (19)

People threaten that balance through over-hunting and through uncontrolled sexual behavior which leads to overpopulation.

RELIGION II (20)


The game animals are protected by a spirit being, the Keeper of the Game who is usually identified with the jaguar.
RELIGION II (21)


The Keeper of the Game regulates the supply of animals and may release them to be hunted at the request of the shaman who communicates with him while in a hallucinogenic, drug-induced trance or with the aid of tobacco smoke.
RELIGION II (22)
The Keeper of the Game may withhold game or send sickness if he feels that people are being irresponsible.
In preparation for hunting, people must practice sexual abstinence and observe other specific requirements.

CULTURE SURROUDING FOOD
There are many similarities between ancient and modern cultures surrounding food.
Many societies rank food according to the same hierarchy.
Members of every culture believe that their way of doing things is normal.
The term ordinary does not only mean normal ; it also means order or rule.
CULTURE SURROUDING FOOD 2
French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss studied what people ate and how different cultures prepared their food even through myths in order to identify the underlying human structures.
CULTURE SURROUNDING FOOD 3
Every culture puts the food they eat into three broad categories, two natural (raw and rotten) and one mediated by culture (cooked).
Most every culture tries to turn nature into culture or the raw into the cooked.
CULTURE SURROUNDING FOOD 4
Anthropologists use food to explore and analyze the organizing principles of cultures.
Most every culture has comparable categories of classifying people and their food sources:
1. People who are very close like parents and siblings, and who are not marriageable. Incestuous taboos prevent people in this category from engaging in sexual intercourse with one another.
CULTURE SURROUNDING FOOD 5
a. Pets which are very close and are always considered inedible.
2. Those people who are kin, but not very close (first cousins in English society), clan siblings etc. In general, marriage among members of this category are prohibited or strongly disapproved.
b. Animals which are tame, but are not very close, like farm animals. They are mostly edible, but usually only when they are immature or castrated.
CULTURE SURROUNDING FOOD 6
3. Neighbors (friends), who are not kin and are either potential spouses or enemies.
c. Field animals or “game” with whom the English alternate having a friendly or hostile relationship. Game animals usually enjoy human protection but are not tame. These are edible in sexually intact form, and are killed at certain seasons of the years according to proscribed sets of hunting rituals.
CULTURE SURROUNDING FOOD 7
Distant strangers, those who are known to exist, but with whom there is no kind of social relationship possible.
d. Remote wild animals, which are not subject to human control and are, for the most part inedible
e. Vermin, a category which is loaded with taboos. Although unwanted, most vermin live in close proximity to humans and are intrinsically inedible.

 

PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE
To design a reliable food system based on domestic animals, a subsistence herder must solve several problems:
Which animals to use
What food products to produce
How many animals to herd
What age and sex categories to maintain in the herds
When to slaughter
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (2)
When to time the breeding
How to feed and water the herd
How to protect the herd from disease
How to protect the herd from predators.
Whereas hunters let nature take care of most of these matters, herders must constantly attend to the needs of their animals.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (3)
Most East African pastoralists are considered and consider themselves to be cattle people because of the dominant cultural role that cattle are assigned.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (4)
Virtually all aspects of East African pastoral society are in some way connected with the need to maintain cattle.
The Nuer and Maasai demonstrate close connections between cattle and all areas of life
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (5)
East Africans also depend on other distinct domesticated animals: camels sheep and goats.
Cattle play major social, ritual and subsistence roles while providing important material products.
Camels become increasingly important as rainfall declines or pastures become overgrazed.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (6)
The small stock (sheep and goats) may provide more of a household’s meat than cattle and can be a significant source of milk.
Small stock are also useful to speed recovery after a serious drought because they reproduce more quickly than cattle.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (7)

Reliance on animal domesticates makes for a situation that is the reverse of the protein limitation situation in Amazonia.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (8)
East African pastoralists have some difficulties producing adequate carbohydrates and calories except where they can grow grain or obtain it by barter with neighboring farmers.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (9)
As grazers, cattle and sheep feed primarily on grasses and herbaceous vegetations; as browsers, goats and camels rely on woody shrubs and trees.
Utilization of diverse domesticates also helps level out seasonal fluctuation in food production.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (10)
Camels often produce milk year round.
Cows produce only during the wet season.
Sheep and goats produce most milk during the dry season.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (11)
Rather than emphasizing meat production which obviously represents a onetime use of an animal, herders are concerned primarily with milk production.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (12)
Milk maximizes biological efficiency because the calories in milk can be produced four times more efficiently in terms of energy cost than the calories in meat.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (13)
Blood and milk can be produced without harm to the animal and they complement each other in that blood is a major source of iron and can be drawn from animals that are not producing milk.
Cattle are not as efficient as goats at meat production, so cattle are rarely slaughtered except ritually.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (14)
Traditional herding is a labor-intensive activity.
Individual herds may be subdivided to better reflect the abilities and requirements of different types of animals.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (15)
Herds are moved seasonally to take advantage of the best pastures. Transhumance (moving herds for optimum grazing) is practiced.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (16)

Pastoralists manage their herds to maximize the number of female animals to keep milk yields and growth potential high.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (17)
Given the natural mortality rates of cattle and their reproductive biology, a herd is unlike to contain more than 30% fertile cows, and only half of these will be producing milk.
The actual number of animals needed to satisfy household nutritional requirements can be estimated, based on calculations of the annual production of the herd.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (18)


Pastoral milk is more concentrated in its nutritional value.
It is 30% higher than that of European milk.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (19)

The pastoralists herding strategies contribute to the long-range survival of their families in a very difficult environment.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (20)
Pastoralism permits precise control over reproduction and harvesting of the animals.
It leads to large increases in food production per unit of land.
It is a complex, delicately balanced system that requires major adjustments in the organization of society and labor.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (21)
The primary objective of subsistence is to extract the maximum food value from the animals for direct consumption as efficiently as possible and with long-term security.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (22)
Cattle people use cattle more for social and ritual purposes than for subsistence.
Cattle are treated as wealth objects and sources of prestige.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (23)
The pastoralists of East Africa use cattle:
Milk is consumed fresh or sour, or processed as cheese.
Blood is boiled or allowed to coagulate and roasted in a block.
Dung is used for cooking and dung fires help drive off biting insects.
Dung is used as construction plaster as well as for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.
PASTORAL SUBSISTENCE (24)
Cattle urine is used in the cheese making and tanning of skin while the skin and bones of dead animals have many uses in the manufacture of various artifacts such as containers and ornaments.

NUER SOCIETY: BRIDE-WEALTH, LOVERS AND GHOSTS

In the Nuer society (pastoral subsistence), the supreme value of their cattle comes from their use as bride-wealth, which was the basic requirement for establishing a fully legitimate household.
Bride-wealth are goods, often livestock, that are transferred from the family of the groom to the family of the bride in order to legitimize the marriage and the children of the couple.

NUER SOCIETY (2)


Nuer marriage involves rights over cattle and women and is an agreement between the families of the bride and groom.
NUER SOCIETY (3)

It requires a lengthy series of negotiations, public and private ceremonies, and transactions, which are not complete until children are born to the couple.

NUER SOCIETY (4)

The process of Nuer marriage is initiated by preliminary talks between the two families in order to specify the animals that can be transferred.
NUER SOCIETY (5)

The bride’s family can demand cattle for six different categories of claimants by order or precedence: the bride’s grandparents or their ghosts, the bride’s parents, her uncles, her aunts, the spirits of her father and mother; and her brothers and half-brothers
NUER SOCIETY (6)
Ideally, some 40 head of cattle ultimately are transferred to the bride’s father, who is then obligated to distribute them to each of the claimants on his side of the family and to the bride’s mother’s family.
NUER SOCIETY (7)
In a typical distribution, 20 animals would go to the bride’s immediate family with her father getting the largest share, and 10 animals would go to each set of uncles and aunts.

NUER SOCIETY (8)
Each category of claimant receives a specific number and type of animal.
The bride’s full brother can receive 3 cows, 2 oxen, and 1 cow with its calf (7 animals in all).
In the negotiations, animals are promised by name to specific people.
NUER SOCIETY (9)

The preliminary negotiations are formalized in the betrothal ceremony, which is the first public marriage ritual.
Betrothal is marked by the sacrifice and distribution of an ox by the bride’s father to the groom’s family.
NUER SOCIETY (10)
The first installment of bride-wealth cattle also is transferred to the bride’s father.
Several weeks later; at the wedding ceremony, negotiations are finalized and more cattle transferred, but the transfer and the marriage are not considered official until a later consummation ceremony with its own series of rituals.

NUER SOCIETY (11)
The couple does not establish a joint homestead until after their first child is weaned.
Until then, the wife remains in her parents’ homestead, and her husband is a visitor who must maintain a ritual distance from his in-laws.
NUER SOCIETY (12)
Many domestic arrangements are possible.
An infertile woman might become a “husband” and have children by marrying another woman who then takes a male lover who becomes the biological father or genitor of the female husband’s children.
In this case, the female husband is the legitimate father or pater of the children, as well as the husband, and her family transfers cattle as bride-wealth to the family of her wife.
NUER SOCIETY (13)
In a ghost marriage, someone marries in the name of a sibling or other relative who has died without having completed a marriage and who thus has left no descendants.
In all cases, cattle are transferred to the bride’s family, while the deceased, male or female, becomes the pater; the stand-in relative lives with the wife as “husband” and genitor but has no rights over the children.
In a Levirate marriage, a man marries his deceased brother’s wife. It resembles a ghost marriage except that the dead husband was already married and the bride-wealth had been transferred.

NUER SOCIETY (14)
The original, now dead, husband is still considered the husband, and the brother who stands in his place has less control over his wife than the “husband” in a ghost marriage.
Genitor: the biological father of a child
Pater: the culturally legitimate, or sociological, father of a child
Levirate: a cultural pattern in which a woman marries a brother of her deceased husband.
NUER SOCIETY (15)
For the Nuer, the concept of paternity, or “belonging to,” is far more important than biological parentage or the details of domestic arrangements.
Paternity is establish by bride-wealth cattle.
Marriage also links one to a set of ancestor ghosts and spirits that must be ritually acknowledged.
NUER SOCIETY (16)
The Nuer is organized by clans, lineages and territorial groups into an acephalous or headless political system which operates in the absence of formal political offices.
The clans and lineages are based on an agnatic principle which meant that they recruited members exclusively through males by means of patrilineal descent, or filiation.
The highest descent-based unit is the clan.
NUER SOCIETY (17)
East African pastoralists do remember ancestors, and they marry outside of specific categories of kin; however, they seem not to organize themselves into corporate descent groups.
Their lives are organized around politically autonomous villages, households and overlapping networks of kinship

 

These men may be assaulted and beaten and have their cattle slaughtered by a large group of women acting in a publicly sanctioned role as enforcers of community morality. These roles do not give them control over strategic resources or allow them to extract labor or tribute.

 

CHINESE VILLAGE-STATE

 

The Chinese state was thought to function like an enormous village based on patrilineages, ancestor worship and kinship-based reciprocity.

Village life revolved around subsistence farming and the performance of rituals.  In pre-revolutionary China, 500 million people were supported by very small farms, usually less than 5 acres.  Chinese agriculture was a capital-maintaining labor-absorbing, intensive hand-gardening system.  The Chinese subsistence system made limited use of draft animals or animal protein.

 

After 1900, famers began to cultivate smaller plots of land more intensively because of:

          1.      large scale deforestation

          2.      erosion

   3.      the Chinese practice of giving each son an equal division

            of the family land.

 

The class structure in which a small elite controlled most of the best

farmland kept the poorest classes at a permanent disadvantage.

 

The upper classes refused to engage in any labor.  The middle class was

composed of owner-tenants and the landless class hired out their labor.

 

The Chinese village was the lowest rural unit in an organizational

hierarchy.  The villages were grouped around local centers called

standard market towns.  The Chinese social organization was based on

the patrilineal clan.

 

CONFUCIANISM AND LITURGICAL GOVERNMENT

 

Confucianism is a scholarly tradition and moral order, based on the

humanistic teachings of Confucius.  It was not a religion; however, it

became a state cult because it advocated filial piety and the perpetuation

of the ritual and political traditions.  The most precious tradition the

Chinese have is the proper regard for ancestors.  Confucianism related

the duties of the individual to that as a functioning agent in the universe.

 

Confucius sought to promote practical ideals of

1.    Good government

2.    Citizenship

3.    Domestic life

 

The Confucian Great Tradition represented the power of the state in the form of great palaces, temples, rituals, literature and artworks.  Commoners, who represented 98% of the population were only passive participants in the Great Tradition.

 

Confucianism created a form of moral nationalism.  Its essential weakness is in its monarchical basis and hierarchal scheme.  The idea of democracy is contrary to Confucian thought.

 

In their daily lives, commoners directly perpetuated shamanistic cultural traditions.  The  most common elements shared by the elites and commoners included the basic family system with its emphasis on patrilineal descent as well as the worship of ancestors.

 

The lowest level deity who operated at the household level was the stove or kitchen god.  Complementary opposition was also a basic feature of Chinese popular culture.  Concern for proper alignments was reflected in the layout of cities, temples, tombs and houses as well as the timing of ritual events, in the selection of mates and even in the seating of guests.

 

CHINESE WEDDING TRADITIONS

 

The chief objectives were the joining and enhancing of two families and ensuring succession with numerous descendants.  Reverence to parents and ancestors, omens to encourage fertility and wealth, financial and social obligations contracted by both families at the betrothal, extensive gift giving etiquette and the bride’s incorporation into her husband’s family are the recurring elements.

 

Several days after betrothal, the girl’s family sent porters with an inventoried dowry to the boy’s house.  The dowry consisted of practical items including chamber pots and fruit as well as strings of coins.  The procession demonstrated the wealth and social status of the girl’s family as well show their love for their daughter.

 

Child betrothals were acceptable.  Many couples did not meet until they were betrothed.

 

CHINESE DOMESTIC LIFE AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN

 

Pre-revolutionary China would consider the ideal family one which produced many sons who would bring their wives to live in their father’s house or at least in this village.  This practice would increase the strength of the lineage and ensure its perpetuation.  Wealthy families could also add  new members by adoption.

 

The ideal family was a large family containing two or more married sons, often called a joint family.  The small family either had no married sons or was a stem family with only a single married son.

 

Sons were preferred over daughters and women did not own lineage property.  A brdie was dominated by her mother-in-law.  This domination reinforced the control of the extended family by the elders and also reflected the common practice of adopting a girl into the family for the son to marry.  Marriages were arranged, monogamy was the pattern although concubinage occurred, divorce was difficult and widow remarriage was discouraged.  Marriage was so essential for women that if they died unmarried, their spirits could be married later.

 

A woman brought a sizable endowment of domestic articles and possibly personal wealth with her when she married.  A wife could also manage her husband’s share of the family estate and keep her own private earnings.  As a wife, a woman had important responsibilities in the domestic rituals and her tablet would rest in her husband’s ancestor hall.

 

TAOISM

Tao can be roughly translated into English as “path.”
The founder of Taoism was Lao-Tse, a contemporary of Confucius.

TAOISM (2)

He was searching for a way that would avoid the constant feudal warfare and other conflicts that disrupted life during his lifetime.
The result was his book: Tao-te-Ching

TAOISM (3)

Taoism started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved into a religion in 440 B.C. when it was adopted as one of the state religions.
Lao-Tse became popularly venerated as a deity.

TAOISM (4)
Taoist Beliefs:
Tao is the first-cause of the universe. It is a force that flows through all life.
Time is cyclical, not linear as in Western thinking.
Yin (dark side) is the breath that formed the earth. Yang (light side) is the breath that formed the heavens.

TAOISM (5)
The Tao surrounds everyone and therefore everyone must listen to find enlightenment.
The five main organs and orifices of the body correspond to the five parts of the sky; water, fire, wood, metal and earth

TAOISM (6)


Each person must nurture the Ch’s (air, breath) that has been given to them.

The goal of everyone is to become one with the Tao.

TAOISM (7)
Development of virtue is one’s chief task.
The Three Jewels to be sought are compassion, moderation and humility.
One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making it.

TAOISM (8)

It is the practice of going against the stream not by struggling against it but by standing still and letting the stream do all the work.

TAOISM (9)
A Taoist is kind to other individuals, largely because such an action tends to be reciprocated.
Taoists believe that people are compassionate by nature—left to their own devices they will show this compassion without expecting a reward.

TAOISM (10)
There were 5 principal Taoist sects which emerged:
The Heavenly or Celestial Masters: founded about 200 A.D. by Chang Tao-ling who reputedly possessed remarkable healing powers. It advocated faith healing through the confession of sin and at one time recruited members as soldiers and engaged in war against the government.
The Supreme Peace sect: adopted practices much like those of the Heavenly Master sect and launched a great rebellion that went on for several years.

TAOISM (11)
The Mao-shan (Mount Mao) sect, introduced rituals involving alchemy, the practice of mediums and visionary communication with the divinities.
The Ling-pao (Marvelous Treasure) sect, introduced the worship of divinities called the Heavenly Lords

TAOISM (12)
The Ch’uan-chen (Completely Real) sect was founded in the 12th century as a Taoist monastic movement.
Eventually the Heavenly Master sect absorbed most of the beliefs and practices of the other sects and became the most popular of the Taoist groups.

TAOISM (13)
Yu-huang-The Jade Emperor
He is the great High God of the Taoists. All other gods must report to him.
His chief function is to distribute justice, which he does through the court system of Hell where evil deeds and thoughts are punished

TAOISM (14)
According to legend, Yu-hang was the son of an emperor. He exhibited, from his birth, great compassion.
He ruled as well; however, after a few years on the throne, he abdicated and retired as a hermit spending his time dispensing medicine and knowledge of the Taoist texts.
Some Taoist scholars see in this the myth of the sacred union of the sun and the moon, their son being the ruler of all Nature.

TAOISM (15)

Yuan-shih T’ien-tsun--The First Principal
Although Yu-huang is the High God, there are other abstract deities above him. He rules; they simply exist and instruct, First and foremost is Yuan-shih T’ien-tsun.
TAOSIM (16)
Yuan-shih T’ ien-tsun has no beginning and no end. He existed “before the void and the silence, before primordial chaos.” He is self-existing, changeless, limitless, invisible, contains all virtues, is present in all places and is the source of all truth.

TAOISM (17)
San-ch’ing—Three Pure Ones
These are named Yu-ch’ing (Jade Pure), Shang-ch’ing (Upper Pure) and T’ai-ch’ing (great Pure).
They are believed to be different manifestations of Lao Tzu. They are not rulers, but rather seek to save humans by teaching and benevolence

TAOISM (18)

San-kuan: The Three Officials
The San-kuan rule over all things in the three regions of the universe, keep a register of good and evil deeds and award good or bad fortune accordingly. T’ien-kuan is the rule of heaven and grants happiness. Ti-kuan is the ruler of earth grants remissions of sins and Shui-kuan is the ruler of water and averts all evil. “All of them have compassion for all people which is unbounded.”

TAOISM (19)

Picture Only


THE THREE RULERS

TAOISM (20)
San-Yuan—Three Epochs or Principals

The san-yuan originate from a time in the Eastern Chin Dynasty when the year was divided into three unequal periods.
Shang-yuan ruled the first six moons (winter and spring); Hsia-yuan ruled the 7th and 8th moons (summer); and Chung-yuan ruled the 9th to 11th moons (fall).
It was believed that they dwelled in the North Star.

 

TAOISM II

Taoism also contains the Pa-hsien also called the Eight Immortals.  These are popular deities modeled on historical figures.  They were believed to live in grottos in Heaven.

TAOISM II  (2)

Lu-Tung-pin

–Was a scholar, doctor and official.  He became a Taoist after a long and distinguished life as an official which ended in disgrace.

–He was very popular in his life and after his death became venerated as the King of Medicine.  He represents the wealthy and literacy.

•TAOISM II  (3)

•Ts’ao Kuo-chiu

–His brother committed a crime for which he was ashamed and he retired and became a hermit who studied the Tao and learned the recipe for perfection.

–One day another immortal found him and asked him what he was doing.  He replied that he was studying the Tao.  They asked where was Tao?  He pointed to  heaven and his heart.  At that point they gave him the recipe for perfection.

•TAOSIM  II  (4)

•Chang Kuo-lao 

–He was once head of the Imperial Academy but he retired to live as a hermit on Mt. Chung-t’iao in Shansi.  He was summoned to court by the Empress We; however, when he reached the Temple of the Jealous Woman he fell down dead.  Shortly afterwards he came back to life.

•TAOISM II (5)

•Chang Kuo-lao had a magic mule which could travel thousands of miles a day.  When he reached his destination the mule would turn to paper and Chang Kuo-lao could fold it up and put it in his pocket.  He could then unfold it, spit on it and it would become a mule again.

•TAOSIM II  (6)

•Li T’ieh-kuai

–He has an iron crutch and a black face.  He represents the crippled and deformed.  He tries to alleviate human suffering.  He was taught to be an immortal by Hsi-wang-mu, Queen of the Immortals.

–The legend is that one day when his soul went to Mt. Hua, he told his disciple to guard his body and cremate it after seven days if he had not returned.  On the sixth day the disciple’s mother fell ill and so leaving to take care of her, he burnt the body a day early.

•TAOISM II  (7)

●On returning he could find no body so his soul entered that of an old man who had just died.  Only then did he discover that it was a crippled body.

●At first he wanted to leave it but Lao Tzu persuaded him to stay and gave him a golden circle and an iron crutch.

•TAOISM II (8)

•Li T’ieh-kuai forever carries a gourd with him in which he keeps medicine to help people.  Some say that it contains the elixir of life made from the peaches of immortality that grow in Hsi-wang-mu’s garden.

•TAOISM II  (9)

•Ho Hsien-ku

–She is usually represented holding a lotus blossom (a traditional symbol of purity) and a peach.  The legend is that she lived in the time of the Empress Wu and in the Yun-mu or Cloud Mother Mountains. 

–She is the patron deity of women

•TAOISM  II  (10)

•Legend says that one night she had a dream that she should grind up a stone called Yun-mu and eat it.  She did and vowed chastity at the same time.  She then floated from mountain peak to mountain peak gathering fruits which she gave to her mother.

•She disappeared on the way to the court of the empress and became an immortal.

•TAOISM II  (11)

•Han Hsiang-tsu  

–Represents youth.  He is reported to have accomplished all manner of remarkable feats including the production of extraordinary plants.

–He became immortal by eating one of the peaches of immortality.  He carries with him a basket of fruit or flowers.

•TAOISM II  (12)

•Han Chung-li

–Represents military men since he was a Marshall of the Empire.  In his old age he became a hermit and lived on Mt Yang-chiu.  There he met the Five Heroes who taught him how to be immortal.

•TAOISM II  (13)

•During a famine he turned base metals into silver which he distributed to the poor people.

•When he achieved immortality he was carried by a stork into the heavens.

•He is recognized as a figure who holds a fan or a peach.

 

Chudapantaka then achieved perfection and became noted as one of the first disciples in ‘mental aiming at excellence’; he is chiefly occupied with the mind and mental contemplation.

 

BUDDHISM II
In the practice of Buddhism, the Bodhisattvas are very important.
The term bodhisattva literally means “essence of Bodhi” or enlightenment.

BUDDHISM II (2)
A Bodhisattvas is one on the way to the awakening.
Bodhisattvas are considered to be of various degrees of attainment or rank relating to their level of buddhahood
BUDDHISM II (3)

According to the scholars, “all who comprise the great assemblage of Bodhisattvas are powerful and beneficial to countless beings, so that all things seem to be at their command.”
BUDDHISM II (4)
According to Buddhist writings, Bodhisattvas also can “cause a lotus tree to grow from the middle of the ocean, or transform a teardrop into an ocean. Everything in nature is at the Bodhisattva’s call

BUDDHISM II (5)
The great wisdom is the Manjusri Bodhisattva. He represents great wisdom which empowers one to distinguish universal morality from all wrong-doing. In learning the wisdom of Manjusri, one can distinguish between morality and perversion, thereby taking control of one’s destiny toward the right path.

BUDDHISM II (6)
The great compassion, Avalokit (Kuan Yin)
She is the embodiment of great compassion for the affliction and suffering of the world and will come to the aid of anyone who invokes her name.
By possessing her compassion, one can be mindful of society and work harder for the welfare of others.

BUDDHISM II (7)
The great benevolence bodhisattva or Maitreya is also know as the “happy buddha.” He has tolerance toward all living beings and immense kindness. He brings abundance of joy and hope to the world through his discriminating attitude.

BUDDHISM II (8)
The great vow or Ksitigarbha bodhisattva is known for his great vow that attaining Buddhahood would come for him only when hell is emptied of all afflicted beings. He set aside his own happiness in order to liberate others from their sufferings.

BUDDHISM II (9)
The great practice, Samantabhadra bodhisattva. He is well know for his great practice of Dharma teachings for the benefit of all. By adopting his example, Buddhist feel that they can attempt to accomplish the task of benefiting the society at large.

BUDDHISM II (10)
There are two “fat” Buhhdas which are not considered true images of Buddha.
Mi Fo, the guardian king of prosperity who is associated with fertility.
Hotei, the laughing monk who seems to support heavens or the Chinese emissary sent to invite Buddhist teachers to that land.

BUDDHISM II (11)
The apsara are celestial nymphs or dancers represented usually as flying figures. They are the divine symbol of happiness.

BUDDHISM II (12)
Representation of an Apsara on a temple wall.

BUDDHISM II (13)
The stories of Buddha’s former lives contain several incidents in which divine beings are described as traveling through the air.
Such a being is called a dakini which is a term generally translated as “space-goer,” “celestial woman,” or “cloud fairy.”
The ini ending indicates a feminine word ending.

BUDDHISM II (14)
Dakinis have been explained as “emanations of Enlightened Mind” and also as “holding to the bodhisattva commitment.”
The wish for enlightenment is for all beings.

BUDDHISM II (15)
Dakini refers to the feminine principle of wisdom that manifests in female form to benefit all beings.
They can appear as beautiful maidens in a variety of forms.
They are generally depicted wearing only their ornaments in a dancing or lunging position.

BUDDHISM (16)
A yidam is an enlightened meditational deity who embodies the union of wisdom and compassion, yet is not separate from the meditator.

BUDDHISM II (17)
A Dharma protector is usually portrayed as an enlightened being in wrathful form, a protector’s primary function is to eliminate the spiritual obstacles hindering the practitioner.

BUDDHISM II (18)
A Guru is usually the founder or holder of a lineage; a fully realized being whom one identifies wholly with one’s spiritual guide.

 

HINDUISM

Hinduism comes from the Persian hindu which translates as “river.”  It may also be derived from the Persian word for Indian.

Hindus call their religion sanatama dharma, “eternal religion” or “eternal truth.”

HINDUISM (2)

Hinduism is not a single, organized religion.

It is a compilation of hundreds, possibly thousands of smaller belief systems.

Consequently, Hinduism is very complex to outsiders.

HINDUISM (3)

Hinduism acknowledges the Divine as a complement of opposites:  the synergy of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine that maintains the balance of all existence.

HINDUISM (4)

Fire (masculine) is balanced by water (feminine).  Hindus honor both each morning with prayers to flowing water and the day’s first rays of sunlight.

HINDUISM (5)

Hinduism is based on the concept that human and animal spirits reincarnate or come back to earth to live many times in different forms.

HINDUISM (6)

The belief that souls move up and down an infinite hierarchy depending on the behaviors they practiced in their life is visible  in Hindu societal policies.

HINDUISM (7)

The caste system survives and charity towards others is unheard of because each individual deserves to be in the social class in which they were born.

A person is born into the highest class because they behaved well in the past life and a person is born into poverty and shame because of misbehaviors in a past life.

HINDUISM (8)

A Hindu can be polytheistic (many gods), pantheistic (god and the universe are one), agnostic (unsure if god exists) or atheistic (no god) and still claim to be Hindu.

HINDUISM (9)

Central to Hinduism are the concepts of reincarnation, the caste system, merging with brahman (ultimate reality), finding morality and reaching Nirvana (the peaceful escape from the cycle of reincarnation).

HINDUISM (10)

The Hindu paths to salvation include the way of works (rituals), the way of knowledge (realization of reality and self-reflection) and the way of devotion (devotion to the god that you choose to follow).

HINDUISM (11)

Brama:  the creator god

Brahman:  ultimate reality

Dharma:  the teachings of virtue and principle

Karma:  the culminating value of all of one’s life actions, good and bad, which together determine one’s next rebirth and death

Moksha:  the term for liberation from the bondage of finite existence

HINDUISM (12)

Veda:  the oldest of the Hindu scriptures, consisting of four collections of sacred writings.

Yoga:  the Hindu path of union with the divine.  Any sort of exercise (physical, mental or spiritual) which promotes one’s journey to union with Brahma

 

HINDUISM II
In the Hindu tradition, the whole creation is the dynamic game of three fundamental forces symbolized by three gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva
HINDUISM II (2)
The triad is made up of the creator (Brahma), the sustainer (Vishnu) and the destroyer or transcendent (Shiva).
The correspondence of these three principles (creation, sustenance and destruction) in our daily existence is to be found in birth, life, and death.
HINDUISM II (3)
The path of the human being to spiritual perfection has to be trod with a creative positive inner attitude or “cosmic optimism.”
This optimism may be awakened and amplified through the process of resonance with Brahma’s specific energy.
HINDUISM II (4)
A Hindu does view Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as three distinct deities independent of each other.
They represent the same Supreme Force in its three different aspects.
Brahma is the creator of the universe and of all beings. His world is Brahmaloka, containing all the splendors of the earth and all other worlds.
HINDUISM II (5)
Brahma is considered the creator of the universe.
Before the cosmos existed, Brahma was alone, self-contained and self-content.
HINDUISM II (6)
Eventually, he felt inadequate and longed for company. Brahma split himself and created the goddess Shatarupa. Her many forms captivated Brahma and he longed to posses her.
HINDUISM II (7)
Shatarupa would turn into something else everytime Brahma got to her.
She turned into a cow, a mare, a goose and a doe.
Brahma kept pursuing her, taking the form of the corresponding male, a bull, a horse, a gander and a buck. Thus, all creatures of the cosmos, from the smallest insect to the largest mammal, came into being.
HINDUISM II (8)
Brama sprouted five heads so that he could watch Shatarupa at all times.
To restrain Brahma’s lust, Shiva wrenched off one of Brahma’s five heads.
HINDUISM II (9)
This helped Brahma come to his senses, and he took Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge as his consort. With her help, he regained control of his mind.
The four current faces represent the Four Divine States of Mind: loving, kindness, compassion, sympathy and equanimity.
HINDUISM II (10)
Brahma’s most common representation is four-headed with four arms, and red skin.
He is usually holding a cup, a bow or a book of prayers.
HINDUISM II (11)
He has a vehicle, a white swan. The swan is endowed with magic power: she may separate soma (divine nectar) from water, as well as good from evil.
Unlike other gods, Brahma carries no weapon.
HINDUISM II (12)
According to “Shatapath Brahman” writing, Brahma was born from “Brahman” or god.
Wishing to create the universe, Brahman first created the water in which he placed his seed.
This seed transformed into a golden egg, from which Brahma appeared.
According to the Puranas Brahma is the son of God and the feminine energy or Maya
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Maya is the symbol of cosmic illusion whose veil does not allow mortals to perceive God.
Maya has two aspects: ignorance which estranges mortals from God or the liberating knowledge that leads mortals to communion with God
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Saraswati is Brahma’s feminine counterpart.
She “radiates more than the light of ten billion moons.”
Her ornaments are purified in the heavenly fire.
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Saraswati is the mother of the Vedas, the embodiment of nature and the patron of the arts and sciences.
She is always smiling and her beauty surpasses all imagination.
Her body is covered in jewels and pearls.
When identification with Saraswati is perfect, all the 64 arts become known.
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The Hindu tradition sustains that the universe exists for one day of Brahma.
At the end of this day, human measurements of four billion years, the whole universe is dissolved.
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Brahma then rests for one night. This process, named pralaya repeats for 100 Brahma years (his lifespan).
After his “death” another 100 years pass until he is reborn and the whole creation begins anew.