After getting my B.A. in Biblical Studies at Biola University and abandoning my Masters in Theology at Fuller Seminary, I decided to enroll at Cal State Fullerton as an Anthropology major in part because I recognize that I had been learning and crossing religious and cultural lines my whole college career and studying the history and culture of humanity made sense. Right off the batt, in my Anthropology of Religion class my professor, Dr. Jacob Pandian, tried to explain how polytheistic cultures were fundamentally different from monotheistic cultures, in that they are not caught up in presenting reality as some kind of Unified Truth, but that whatever truth there was existed in countless varieties and expressions. At the time I didn’t grasp that message at all, in that I was still caught up in the idea that there had to be One Truth somewhere, even though I hadn’t seemed to have found it in my previous (Christian) religious experiences. Anthropology wasn’t at all interested in establishing or determining some ultimate truth. Their mission was to explore and analyze all the different ways that humans and human cultures had expressed their understanding of Truth. 

I was reminded of this when watching this video on the Religions of the African Diaspora, in that this is very much about uncovering the cultural beliefs and practices that a dominant culture, built on a belief in One Truth, would just as soon sweep away, because there is no room in that world view for more than one world view. The world would be such a different place if we began with the idea that there is room for more than one way to see reality. It’s sad that some fail to understand that historically our ability to survive in so many different places is, in part, because we learned to approach the challenge of all of these diverse environments differently and accepted that what works in one place may not work in another place and trying to operate other wise is prone to failure. It shouldn’t be surprising at all that the cultures and religions that came from such a large area would be, by nature, diverse, just as the land itself was diverse. Turns out that the universe is not a “One Size Fits All” kind of thing. Enjoy. 

Update: The following video spends a bit more time going over African Indigenous religions, when going over the history of Vodou in the Americas and how, in some groups it blended with elements of Catholicism, but remained it’s own thing. 

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Tags: anthropology of religion, Crash Course Religions, diaspora, diversity, video Tuesdays

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