SJB Mama Shields Chapter 2 Vocabulary
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14 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 ancestors | supernatural beings (or deities) who emerged and roamed the earth during the time of the Dreaming, giving shape to the landscape and creating various forms of life |
| axis mundi | common to many religions, an entity such as a mountain, tree, or pole that is believed to connect the heavens and earth, and is sometimes regarded as the center of the world |
| divination | the use of various techniques, such as throwing bones or shells and then interpreting the pattern in which they fall, for gaining knowledge about an individual's future or about the cause of a personal problem |
| diviners | ritual practitioners who specialize in the art of divination |
| The Dreaming | the mythic time of Australian Aboriginal religion when the Ancestors inhabited the earth |
| orishas | the hundreds of various Yoruba deities who are the main objectives of ritual attention |
| Quetzalcoatl | creator god worshiped at Teotihuacan and by the Toltecs |
| Sun Dance | Ritual of the Lakota and other tribes of the North American Plains that celebrate the new year and prepares the tribe for the annual buffalo hunt |
| taboo | a system of social ordering that dictates that specific objects and activities |
| Tenochtitlan | Capital city of the Aztec Empire, believed to be the center of the world |
| totem | a natural entity, such as an animal or a feature of the landscape, that symbolizes an individual group and that has special significance for the religious life of that individual or group |
| trickster figure | a type of supernatural being who tends to disrupt the normal course of life, found among many primal people |
| vision quest | a means of seeking spiritual power through an encounter with a guardian spirit or other medium, usually in the form of an animal or other natural entity |
| Wakan Tanka | Lakota name for the supreme reality, often referring collectively to sixteen separate deities |
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