Both of the Jewish culture and the Sioux Indian culture were closely related. They were both fairly monotheistic, and they both believed in a God that was all powerful and created everything. For example, the book of Genesis states that God created all of the land, ocean, sky, along with all of the life that inhabits those. The Seven Directions also state that God created all of these things as well, just in different terms. Where the book of Genesis says that God created light and called the light day and the dark night, the Seven Directions uses east with yellow to describe light and west with night to describe dark. Both mean exactly the same, but are stated in different ways.
Where Genesis just says that God gave us life, the Seven Directions go more in depth with the living spirit he gave to us as humans. He bestowed upon us adolescence, understanding, learning, and a spiritual being. Those all tie in with our mental, physical and emotional beings.
This God that both the Plains Indians and the Jewish people believed in took an active role in their lives. They both worshipped him and were believed to be in communication with him. He took an active role in their lives and they believed he controlled their destiny. The fact that these two amazingly different, yet so much alike cultures could exist never knowing one another is fascinating. It is quite obvious that the God they both believed in was the same.
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3 comments:
FINALLY! Good comments and glad that you found the culture interesting and that you learned something. It is truly amazing that these cultures arrive at the same conclusions about there being one universal God. As you get further into this section, you will find that even more similarities exist. And yet the fact remains that there is no way that there could have been any contact physically since they were on two different continents. Even the Jesuits in the 1400's saw the striking similarities, but, unfortunately, the White's greed for land and dominance squashed their writings and, instead, perpetuated the "savage" mentality so as to provoke hate and justify their actions of waging war. SO, here we are, years later, just discovering how closely we are related and bound together in our spiritual beliefs.
I liked your input on the simalarities and differences
Yes, this is very good because it really differentiated the similarities and differences but kept true to the same message of one God.
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