Name of Indigenous culture/religion?

Question

Name of Indigenous culture/religion?

Answer 1

One in particular, or do you want a comprehensive list? In Australia the indigenous people are the Koori.

Answer 2

Although I can't claim to have comprehensive knowledge, when there are thousands of indignous cultures in the world, I am a considerable expert compared to many others.

I live in Mexico, and for the past 8 years have had an indigenous family living in my home as guests to work on an empowerment project for their people.  So, where the Huichol are concerned at least, I have considerable expertise.  I've also studied several other indigenous cultures of Africa, and have profound respect for them all.

The spirituality of most indigenous cultures, though they appear to differ quite widely in the visible aspects, are all essentially forms of nature worship.  Ancient people in the Ice Age worshipped the Earth as "the Mother of All," which is along the same lines.  It was not only appropriate and logical for them to worship the natural forces around them, but is just as valid today as it ever was - although we would no longer revere the Earth as a deity, it isn't necessary to have the same level of respect and reverence for the source of all that lives:  this planet.  We come from it, directly or indirectly.  It nourishes us throughout our whole lives.  When we die, we return to it, directly or indirectly.  That's worthy of profound reverence, even today - maybe even particularly so today.

Indigenous people, to my knowledge, do not name their spiritual beliefs.  They have no scriptures, officialdom or edifices.  First of all, they don't need to name them; they ARE them.  And while many people try to evangelize them, and often claim successes, the real successes are actually very few.  Indigenous spirituality is extremely comfortable for these people.  Believing in things that violate nature and natural law are brushed off by them.  When "converted" to another faith, all that is really happening is the people are picking and choosing what aspects of the other faith they like, and adding it to what they already believe.  It is we, of the larger cultures, who brush off nature and reality in favor of myths and doctrines which are supremely unnatural, even anti-nature.  It's no wonder that few indigenous people are genuinely converted to something like that.  They already know better, you see.

Catholics have taken over Mexico.  They've converted most of the indigenous people, too.  If you asked my Huichol friends what their religion is, they'd say, "Catholic."  Yet I have never known one to go to mass or confession, use a rosary, or anything else.  They make a sop to Catholicism by eating some disreputable-looking dried fish during lent, and that's about it.  Well, they celebrate Christmas, too, but in their own way.  They really like Jesus, because his nature seems to them compatible to their own spirituality.  But he has not supplanted it.  Jesus was simply added to it.  Again, in their own way.  A way that no other Christian would recognize as any form of Christianity.  The lady in the famly didn't even hesitate to have her tubes tied after she and her husband decided they had "enough children."  Catholic?  Hardly.  Most Mexicans aren't true Catholic, either, but an odd mixture of indigenous and Catholic.  Many don't even know what a requiem mass is.  They are totally unfamiliar with many things that are basic to Catholicism elsewhere.  The Church accepts these things because they know they have no choice.

Religion isn't remotely the same thing as spirituality.  Religion is organized, with edifices for worship and hierarchies, sacred texts, rituals, etc.  Spiritualities do have their rituals, but little else in common with religion.  Spiritualities do not encourage judging others, nor do they moralize.  Judgment of people, and morals, are entirely secular things to them.  Religions do little else.

Religion has more to do with people attempting to control other people with spiritual beliefs that will make them blindly obedient than it has to do with anything genuinely spiritual.  They are quite capable of appearing to be extremely spiritual, yet it is more vapor than reality.  How many "religious" people do you know who actively LIVE their beliefs every day?  Spiritualities are genuinely cherished by those who have them.  They truly live what they believe, which is easy to do since what they believe is very compatible with nature and its realities.  And there are no hidden agendas about them, which I find quite thoroughly refreshing.

I hope this helps a bit.