What are beliefs?

Question

beliefs in relations to tribes?

Answer 1

They are personal attachments to feelings of how an individual thinks things should be when felt on a primeval level without thought or influence, unlike public traditions or mores.

Answer 2

Beliefs are part of a system comprising humans, environment, and some unforeseen forces acting on them, unknown but all pervading according to the specific tribes cultural complex. We have therefore to participate in the belief system of the tribe before we can assert that a particular thought process is a belief for them. In most tribal communities, the belief system influences behaviour and life cycle observances. The system may incorporate a "God" or a number of deities who function as the superior, supernatural deciding judgment determining all occurrences, or a specified set of occurrences. Most communities have devised means of ascertaining this superior will, through rites and rituals, and through especially gifted individuals, known in literature as "shamans", variously translated as Oracles, etc.

All human communities have belief systems. Elements in these systems, e.g., belief in one god, tend to persist. Beliefs comprising the system may or may not be founded in empirical experience. Eliade (Encyclopaedia of Religions) held that all Knowledge is ultimately Belief. Many beliefs are under constant change. Material circumstances may modify or eliminate some beliefs that used to be dearly held previously. For example, Hindus believed that sailing on the seas (kaalaapaani) would have evil consequences; but now overwhelmingly the most number of Hindus do not hold this belief.

So, please, next time you think of beliefs in relation to tribes, think rather of the systems that determine their life patterns.

Answer 3

These are ideas, myths or stories agreed upon by a particular clan, which though they may not be scientifically accurate, convey a certain intuitional and/or emotional understanding...kind of like an epic poem, which is often transmitted orally, usually through songs, from generation to generation!