The native american mythology

I'd like to open up here a discussion, a hypothetical one about the beliefs of native americans and how they might have developed.

I was reading about the Hopi the other day and they strike me as being fairly monotheistic, although some argue this is due to christian influences. I think the great spidermother is cool anyway:D

So, hypothetically, how do you think the religious outlook of native americans in a world where the Europeans never find America. (Of course they'd eventually find it, but let's pretend they don't)
 
it, like all religion, is based upon the ancient aliens who visited our planet... "Erich von Danikan"... mind u, when it does come to american native history he does bring up some good points...
 
well... it probably turned towards unification. i don't have, nor can i think of, a word that would describe a unified Amerindian religion. it would be difficult to unify them. but they'd be ablde to do it. one tribe could and might have unified the tribes of that region (i.e. plains, desert, carribbean, etc.). then, there would have been several nations within the americas instead of tribes. each nation would unify all their religions into one. and each nation probably would have been strong enough to beat back the Europeans.

who knows, maybe a chinese merchent finds a way to Alaska. where he brings gunpowder with him. he manages to communicate with them and learns their languages. he teaches them how to make gunpowder, and teaches them the art of war. this spreads across the americas and by the time the Europeans arrive, there is enough of a technological similarities and strategic differences that they would have become "civilized."

then there probably would have been several types of governing systems. and religions. one of them would have become very popular and a "religous leader" (a Red Jesus...?) would have started teaching something that either would have gone against the established religions, but caught steam and would have over-powered each other.

by the modern date, there would be around 3 religions left in the Americas. all of which are popular, but one having more members, one "growing" faster, and the other being the oldest, least popular, but most concentrated (like judaism in populated cities such as LA, NYC, etc).
 

Hendryk

Banned
Mictlantecuhtli rules!!!!

Huh, sorry, just getting in character for that gaming session on Saturday ;)
 
Mictlantecuhtli rules!!!!

Huh, sorry, just getting in character for that gaming session on Saturday ;)

Myself, I am partial to Tlaloc, Xipe-Totec, and Huitzilopochtli

Regarding the question, one can discern threads of potential monotheism in a variety of Middle American and North American belief systems. However, the problem is that conquest-era European chroniclers sympathetic to natives tended to overstate similarities to Christianity, and by the time that anthropologists came around in the late 19th and 20th centuries, most native americans had been so influenced by the surrounding Christian cultures that what have been more accurately defined as a pantheism became structured more into terms such as "the Great Spirit" which lend themselves to an almost Abrahamic interpretation.

My own guess is that, had Mesoamerica stayed isolated, the animistic, pantheistic, and polytheistic religions would probably have continued - unless cults surrounding a few more generalized creator gods such as Ometecuhtli/Omecihuatl grew into monotheistic religion spread by the an aggressive city state.
 
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