RLG101H5 Lecture 5: INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS- CHANGE AND SYNCRETISM
Document Summary
It doesn"t mean that the real indigenous religions have disappeared since change and syncretism takes place among all religions through history. Their religious practices can be found anywhere such yoruba funeral rites in london, their religions may be connected to history but they"re not buried by it. It wasn"t till recently that anthropologists studied aboriginal people since they assumed there was no aboriginal history to look at. Since such cultures were unchanged from the start, the europeans referred to them as primitive which means first, for them history was assumed to begin when they first encouraged civilized cultures. An idea that stuck out to me this week was syncretism. Syncretism is combining different religious practices and cultures. When i was reading the change and syncretism" article, i read about how the europeans thought of the aboriginals as blank slates and thought they had no religion of their own.
