Can Non-Abrahamic, African religions be generalized?

[rousseau]

Ok, we're all stuck on Christianity, but I'd like to try to change the subject a bit.

What I am interested in discussing:

• What African religions are like from a historical and cultural point of view
• Can generalizations be made about native African religions? If so, what are they?
• If there is any variation amongst regions, what accounts for the variation?

What I'm not interested in discussing:

• Truth value of African religions or religion
• Truth value of God

 

[Sarpedon]

Most pre-abrahamic sub-saharan African religions stem from Bantu mythology. Non-Bantu speaking people have their own indigenous religious systems. Since many of these are in West Africa, they are better known to us in the Western Hemisphere.

I'm not certain what you mean by looking for generalizations. There are general commonalities in the Bantu derived mythologies, but not so much in the different groups. I also don't know what you mean by truth value in regards to these systems.

 

[rousseau]

Most pre-abrahamic sub-saharan African religions stem from Bantu mythology. Non-Bantu speaking people have their own indigenous religious systems. Since many of these are in West Africa, they are better known to us in the Western Hemisphere.

I'm not certain what you mean by looking for generalizations. There are general commonalities in the Bantu derived mythologies, but not so much in the different groups. I also don't know what you mean by truth value in regards to these systems.

What I mean when I ask for generalizations, is if there are elements common to all African religions, or as you put it Bantu and non-Bantu religions.

By truth value I mean that my default assumption is that the beliefs in these religions do not correlate with reality, and I'm not interested in debate about this.

 

[LordKiran]

Most pre-abrahamic sub-saharan African religions stem from Bantu mythology. Non-Bantu speaking people have their own indigenous religious systems. Since many of these are in West Africa, they are better known to us in the Western Hemisphere.

I'm not certain what you mean by looking for generalizations. There are general commonalities in the Bantu derived mythologies, but not so much in the different groups. I also don't know what you mean by truth value in regards to these systems.

I think he's asking if we can lump African religions together the same way we do Hinduism.

 

[Sarpedon]

The answer is: not really. In the most important elements, such as the existence of the world and the creator, there seems to be little agreement. Bantu-mythology has the world and nature as pre-existing and eternally existing, with humans being 'new' and created. Other ones have a univerisal creator, or not.

One common element, possibly is the trickster character: Anansi the spider in some of the west african independent groups, and Brer rabbit in the bantu. But the trickster is an almost universal human mythology character, so I don't know if you want to try to get milage out of that.

Over-simplistic categories are a hindrance to understanding. There's even less cohesion in African culture than there is in Indian. India at least had writing and a shared advanced economy from an early age to bring things together, and it still ended up incredibly diverse. Its better to study spread of ideas and culture rather than try to pigeonhole things.

 

[rousseau]

Most pre-abrahamic sub-saharan African religions stem from Bantu mythology. Non-Bantu speaking people have their own indigenous religious systems. Since many of these are in West Africa, they are better known to us in the Western Hemisphere.

I'm not certain what you mean by looking for generalizations. There are general commonalities in the Bantu derived mythologies, but not so much in the different groups. I also don't know what you mean by truth value in regards to these systems.

I think he's asking if we can lump African religions together the same way we do Hinduism.

It's not about lumping them together, it's about understanding the extent of cultural variation across the continent.

I'd expect cultural homogeneity across the continent to be tightly coupled to things like religious and language variation.

 

[J842P]

Most pre-abrahamic sub-saharan African religions stem from Bantu mythology. Non-Bantu speaking people have their own indigenous religious systems. Since many of these are in West Africa, they are better known to us in the Western Hemisphere.

I'm not certain what you mean by looking for generalizations. There are general commonalities in the Bantu derived mythologies, but not so much in the different groups. I also don't know what you mean by truth value in regards to these systems.

What I mean when I ask for generalizations, is if there are elements common to all African religions, or as you put it Bantu and non-Bantu religions.

By truth value I mean that my default assumption is that the beliefs in these religions do not correlate with reality, and I'm not interested in debate about this.

Africa has several large-scale ethno-linguistic groups, like the Bantu. But note: Africa went through a period of Bantu expansion starting something like 2000 years ago. Exactly what existed in Sub-saharan Africa, and exactly what cultures/ethnic groups were assimilated/displaced is hard to say. We know that the San People who number less than 100,000 today probably used to inhabit much more land than they currently do.

 

[rousseau]

Reminds me of the cultural dispersion of Native Americans in North America. But I suppose this type of variation exists pretty much everywhere, arbitrary borders or not. Borders just end up serving as a mechanism of assimilation.

 

[J842P]

Reminds me of the cultural dispersion of Native Americans in North America. But I suppose this type of variation exists pretty much everywhere, arbitrary borders or not. Borders just end up serving as a mechanism of assimilation.

At least biologically, there is way more diversity in Africa than in the Americas, indeed, than in the rest of the world. I think just the San are more genetically diverse than the rest of humanity!

 

[Sarpedon]

True, but the cultural heritage is the same as everywhere. A few wildly successful groups expand, wiping out the many smaller groups they come in contact with, leaving only those in remote areas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, this was mainly the Bantu. In Europe, we have the Greco-Roman-Christian groups, in the Middle East Arab/Islam, etc. With only a handful of tiny groups left to give us a hint of what it was like beforehand.

 

[J842P]

True, but the cultural heritage is the same as everywhere. A few wildly successful groups expand, wiping out the many smaller groups they come in contact with, leaving only those in remote areas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, this was mainly the Bantu. In Europe, we have the Greco-Roman-Christian groups, in the Middle East Arab/Islam, etc. With only a handful of tiny groups left to give us a hint of what it was like beforehand.

You can't leave the Han in China out of that discussion!

 

[Sarpedon]

Absolutely correct. I only gave a few examples. You can pick whatever other ones you like.