Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
1. Why does the title of this book use the phrase “Indigenous Religious Traditions” rather than “Indigenous Religions?”
Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
Tisa Wenger [+]
Yale University
Tisa Wenger, associate professor of American religious history at Yale University, is the author of We Have a Religion: The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom.
Description
This chapter begins by noting that the concept of religion as a distinct sphere of human belief and practice has a distinctly European and largely Christian history. European colonial authorities referred to Indigenous traditions by derogatory terms such as “heathenism” or “paganism” and did not view them as legitimately religious. Indigenous people have claimed and adapted the concept of religion for themselves, but have often found European ideas about religion to be an uneasy fit. The phrase “religious traditions” is not a perfect solution but offers useful distance from a category (religion) that has too often imposed a Christian-shaped mold.