Tribal Traditions
Australian Aborigines
Yoruba
Why Study Primal Religions?
• We study “primal” traditions for 2 reasons:
1. Primal religions provide insight into the mythic
and ritual dimension of religion
2. Primal religions are the source from which all
the world’s religions have sprung.
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Groups we will look at
 Australian Aborigines, Yoruba, Plains Indians
of North America, Aztecs
What characterizes a Primal Religion?
• Primal religions today are
generally practiced by people
of oral (non-literate) cultures.
– Non-literate people means that
they do not depend on
scriptures or written teachings
– What they lack in written texts,
they make up for in oral
material- myths or stories that
are passed down from
generation to generation
• Primal religions tend to be traditions practiced by
– Tribal peoples who live in villages
– BUT, they are also practiced by city dwellers such as
• Modern Yoruba
• Ancient Aztecs
Autralian Aborigines: The Dreaming
• The foundation of Aboriginal religion is
the concept of the Dreaming:
Devil’s Marbles
• The world was originally formless.
• Supernatural beings called Ancestors
emerged and roamed about the earth.
• The Ancestors gave shape to the
landscape and created the various forms
of life, including the first human beings.
• The Ancestors organized humans into
tribes, specified the territory each tribe
was to occupy, and determined each
tribe’s language, social rules and customs.
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Great power is said to be found
below the sacred places left behind
by the Ancestors.
Prior to a baby’s birth, the mother
is to visit a sacred place so her baby
will receive spiritual essence
Near Wauchope North of Sydney
Australia
Totem
• Each Aborigine is a living representation
of an Ancestor.
• This relationship is symbolized by a
totem
– The natural form in which the
Ancestor appeared in the Dreaming
(or vision)
– Is decorated with pictures of spirits,
often in the form of animals
• An individual will always be identified in
certain ways with the Ancestor.
• A totem pole showed a family’s
importance and power. They were also
a way of remembering the dead.
• Totem poles could be more than 40 feet
high.
Taboo
 Taboos dictate who can do what and
when when it comes to ritual
practice:
 A taboo usually
 orders society through its rules
 Determines who may and may not:
 participate in certain activities
 handle certain objects
 contains punishments for those
who violate these boundaries
 Examples: from other faiths
– Only priests may consecrate
Eucharist (Christianity)
– Men must not touch Women
during menstruation and right after
childbirth (Judaism)
– Only priests can tell your future
(Yoruba)
Initiation Rites in Tribal faiths
• The power of myth, and
the performance of ritual
to re-enact myth, are
basic features of all primal
traditions.
• The purpose of the
initiation rituals awaken
young people to this
spiritual identity, and at
the same time redefine
their social identity within
the tribe.
– Initiation rituals (see hw)
An African Tradition: the Religion of the Yoruba
• Africa
– the second largest
continent in terms
of landmass
– home to some four
hundred million
people and several
hundred religions
• including the
religion of the
Yoruba.
• PURPOSE
• The purpose of the Yoruba
religion:
– maintain the balance
between the human
beings of earth and the
gods and ancestors of
heaven while guarding
against the evil deeds of
sorcerers and witches
• Yoruba sees reality as being
divided into two separate
worlds: heaven and earth
Heaven
– Invisible home of the
gods and the ancestors
• Earth
– Ordinary world, visible
home of human beings,
descended from the
gods
– Populated by perverted
form of human beings,
witches and sorcerers,
who can cause
disastrous harm if not
controlled
Yoruba Cosmology
Gods and Ancestors
• Primal traditions hold a
belief in both a supreme god
and a host of less powerful
deities.
• The supreme god of the
Yoruba is Olorun
• The many deities of the
Yoruba worship are known
as orishas
• The supreme god, lesser
deities, and ancestors all
inhabit heaven
Divination
• Divination is an extremely
important aspect of Yoruba
religion because knowledge of
one’s future is considered
essential for determining how to
proceed with one’s life.
• The procedure for divination
requires the diviners to memorize
hundreds of Wisdom stories
• the diviner recites the
appropriate story for each person
who asks for divination
• Diviners add a ritual aspect –
wearing a mask, special clothing/
using implements
Sangoma diviners, Botswana
Yoruba Ritual
• Several types of ritual practitioners
mediate between the gods and
ancestors in heaven and the human
beings on earth
• For example: when someone dies, a
ritual specialist mediates between
the ancestors and the living
– Wearing ceremonial masks and
costumes
– this specialist becomes a living
representation of an ancestor
by dancing at festivals
– When an important person dies
• The specialist imitates that
persons
• The specialist conveys
comforting messages from
the deceased to the living.