FEATURES OF NATIVE AMERICAN
Features
Features of ReligionMastery Objective
Students analyze the features of primal religions and the importance of origin stories in understanding modern society.
Written Assignment
Lessons
Day 1 (Overview and Origin Stories)
Students analyze the features of primal religions and the importance of origin stories in understanding modern society.
- Primal Religions, Huston Smith Chapter 9 in World Religions
- Beginnings in The Religious History of America
- Soul of an Indian, excerpt from Charles Alexander Eastman
Written Assignment
Lessons
Day 1 (Overview and Origin Stories)
- PowerPoint overview of primal religions in America, Australia, and Africa. The PowerPoint includes comprehension questions that students can complete as the presentation progresses.
- Origin stories from around the world. Students read eight origin stories and complete a chart comparing them. This lesson comes from Big History. These origin stories are important because they help us better understand the kinds of questions that origin stories answer and the motivations of humans in asking these types of questions.
- Brief discussion about the stories. What did students find similar? What differences did they find? What do they tell us about ourselves?
Day 2 (Characteristics of Primal Religions)
- Students complete a Research project on the characteristics of indigenous religions. Using classroom computers, students research the characteristics of primal religions and create a google presentation which they can then submit on Classroom.
- After students complete their presentations, they should then examine features of primal religions today. Students use this document to research example of primal religions today including animism, magical beliefs, tree sprits, and rites of passage.