Chapter 2 Key Terms

Question 1

Ancestors

Answer 1

(for Aboriginal) supernatural beings/deities who emerged and roamed the earth during the time of the Dreaming, giving shape to the landscape and creating various forms of life

Question 2

axis mundi

Answer 2

an entity (such a mountain, tree, or pole) that is believed to connect the heavens and earth and is sometimes regarded as the center of the world

Question 3

divination

Answer 3

use of various techniques for gaining knowledge about an individual’s future or about the cause of a personal problem (Yoruba)

Question 4

diviners

Answer 4

ritual practitioners who specialize in the art of divination (Yoruba)

Question 5

The Dreaming

Answer 5

mythic time of Australian Aboriginals religion when the Ancestors inhabited the earth

Question 6

orishas

Answer 6

hundred of various Yoruba deities who are the main objects of ritual attention

Question 7

Quetzalcoatl

Answer 7

Mesoamerican creator god worshipped at Teotihuacan and by Toltecs, believed by Aztecs to have presided over a golden age

Question 8

Sun Dance

Answer 8

ritual of the Lakota and other tribes of the North American Plains that celebrates the new year and prepares the tribe for the annual bison hunt; performed in late spring or early summer in a specially constructed lodge

Question 9

taboo

Answer 9

system of social ordering that dictates that specific objects and activities, owing to their sacred nature, are set aside for specific groups and are strictly forbidden to others; common indigenous-Aborigines

Question 10

Tenochtitlan

Answer 10

capital city of the Aztec empire, believed to be the center of the world

Question 11

totem

Answer 11

a natural entity (animal or feature of landscape) that symbolizes an individual or group and has special significance for the religious lotf of that individual group; Aborigines & indigenous

Question 12

trickster figure

Answer 12

type of supernatural being who tends to disrupt the normal course of life, found among the many indigenous peoples

Question 13

vision quest

Answer 13

means of seeking spiritual power through an encounter with a guardian spirit or other medium (usually in the form of an animal of other natural entity) following a period of fasting and other common self denial; Lakota & North America Plains

Question 14

Wakan Tanka

Answer 14

Lakota name for the supreme reality, often referring collectively to sixteen separate deities