National traditions of the peoples of South America. Peoples of South America: culture and traditions

South America

Idols on blood

In ancient times, on the territory of Brazil lived the Indians of the Tupinambos tribe, who were very fond of various pagan rituals. French travelers of the 16th century. described in detail the sights of the land of this tribe in the so-called Atlas of the Franciscan monk.

The French were especially interested in the huge temple, which, in their opinion, could accommodate more than 500 houses. There were 40 towers on the sides of the temple, and the entire building was decorated with stone carvings, sculptures and colorful paintings. Inside the temple there were unusual images of the gods Tupinambos: the more famous the god, the larger the size of his sculpture. These sculptures were made from flour made from grains of plants and vegetables. Legends said that the Indians, to please their deities, mixed flour with the still warm blood of babies sacrificed and killed with a knife to the heart. After the bloody ritual, the idols were installed in the temple and decorated with the hearts of the murdered children. The Indians themselves did not see anything terrible in this ritual; they considered it the only way to convey requests and pleas to their gods.

Peruvian secrets

While exploring the huge Chavin de Huantar complex at an altitude of 3 thousand meters above sea level in the Cordillera in Peru, scientists discovered mysterious ritual objects and artifacts. Judging by the mysterious images, as well as the finds of bas-reliefs and smoking pipes, but the absence of ordinary household items, the complex was used exclusively for ritual purposes.

The buildings, decorated with religious drawings, are 4 thousand years old. The heads of people and a variety of mythical creatures rise above the walls. The main part of the complex is stepped pyramids and recessed squares in front of them with numerous columns and stone bas-reliefs depicting mysterious monsters.

One of the bas-reliefs depicts the process of the ritual: people in jaguar masks are holding in their hands a South American cactus, a known hallucinogen used in many rituals. A shaman is depicted in front of a crowd of people, as if controlling jaguar people. Everyone’s faces are turned towards the platform, apparently the altar.

Researchers discovered a labyrinth inside the pyramid, in which special niches were built for lit torches. Most likely, flat platforms sunk into the ground served for ritual dances of people intoxicated by the juice of cacti. Perhaps a special caste of clergy lived in the complex, engaged, in addition to rituals, in astronomical observations.

This is evidenced by the images of constellations on some bas-reliefs.

Symbols of sacrifice among the Aymara Indians

According to the rituals of the Aymara Indians, each rite must be accompanied by special objects sacrificed and gifts to the gods. According to the religion of these tribes, each community symbolizes some part of the human body, while the community living in the central part of the Indian settlement is associated with the heart.

For the correct observance of rituals, it was necessary to have certain objects - symbols of each community. The upper part of the body, or the upper zone in the ritual, was represented by the dried fetus of the lama, wool of different colors and a silver cross - a sign of heaven. The central zone was represented by a symbol of blood - red wine, a symbol of power - the interior fat of the lama, a symbol of underground metal - coins. The lower zone consisted of coca leaves, mint, aromatic resins, and seeds of some plants.

Each community accordingly brought the objects assigned to it to the ritual of sacrifice.

In the rituals of the Aymara Indians, left and right sides are distinguished. During the ceremony, women stood on the left side, men on the right.

The elder of the community and his two most important assistants were located during rituals on the right side of the sacred space, the rest of the participants were on the left.

Cannibals

In many parts of the world, in ancient times there lived tribes who ate human flesh during rituals. There were cannibals not only in Oceania, but also in South America. German adventurer Hans Stenden in the 16th century. ended up in a shipwreck on the Brazilian coast, where all his companions were eaten by local savages, and he himself survived only thanks to his luck. Stenden later described the cannibal ritual in his memoirs.

On the day of the sacrifice, the prisoner was dragged tied to the central square of the village. Women surrounded him and insulted him in every possible way. Old women, painted black and red, with necklaces made of human teeth, brought ritual clay pots with magical designs. These pots were intended for preparing the meat of murdered victims for food.

At the height of the ritual, the victim was killed with an ax to the head, and then the old women drank the warm blood of the victim. If the captive had a wife, she was forced to rejoice with everyone else at the body of the victim.

Nursing mothers smeared the nipples with the blood of the victim, and children were allowed to put their hands inside the body, after which it was cut into pieces and boiled in ritual vessels or roasted on a spit.

In many areas of South America, future victims were fed for a long time, and after the murder they feasted on human flesh. The Indians specifically took concubines from other tribes, and the children born from them were eaten, after nursing them until they were 10–11 years old.

Fertility rituals

Rituals carried out to ensure good harvests were common throughout the Earth. The woman was considered the embodiment of the field or meadow, and the man was the embodiment of the seed.

The indigenous population of South America associated such rituals with sexual relations, which affected the nature of the rituals. Before the festival of pear ripening, ancient Peruvians fasted for several days and abstained from sexual relations.

On the first day of the ritual, naked men and women gathered together and ran in a race, after which the men made love to the women they had captured. In the Amazon Valley, during a fertility ritual, men and women of all ages had sexual intercourse with each other completely randomly, in front of the entire population of the village. Among the inhabitants of Patagonia, ritual intercourse was accompanied by dancing and singing, and older people encouraged young people to participate in orgies.

Similar holidays were held by many Indian tribes of the South American continent; in some places such rituals have survived to this day.

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It is impossible to describe the population of South America using only criteria of ethnic origin. It is too much of an oversimplification to describe Guyanese society as one of various racial groups. Terms such as Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese refer to ethnic identity. But significant physical and cultural differences exist between ethnic communities. This division may lead to the mistaken belief that there are two Guyanas with completely different origins, behavior and political and economic interests in the same country.

All immigrant groups adapted to the dominant British culture in the colony. In many ways, the descendants of different immigrant groups are more similar to each other than to their distant ancestors. In addition, the descendants of immigrants have moved beyond their previous social niches. Indo-Guyanese can be found not only in the sugarcane and rice plantations, but also in the cities, where some of them have become entrepreneurs, professionals or simply workers. Afro-Guyanese can also be found at all levels of Guyanese society.

All immigrants in Guyana share a common experience. They all worked on plantations. With the abolition of slavery, the nature of the labor force changed, but not the work itself. The Indians did the same work as the African slaves before them, and lived in the same housing as the former slaves. All immigrants were exposed to the dominant influence of the British value system and had nowhere to preserve their values.

Africans consider themselves to belong to different cultural groups, and Indian society has also been differentiated by religion and caste. For the English, however, race was the only characteristic, and all Indians were classified into one group and all Africans into another.

The greatest influence on assimilation was the use of language. English became the primary language of all Guyanese, with the exception of some old people and some Amerindians. The universal use of English has proven to be a powerful unifying cultural force.

The descendants of immigrant groups became increasingly anglicized. Cultural differences weakened. And even physical differences were blurred through intermarriage. Cultural differences retain their symbolic meaning. Many of these cultural differences were not inherited, but arose locally. For example, Guyanese Hinduism is closer to Islam and Christianity than in the homeland of Hinduism itself. Humanity tends to think in stereotypes. So the population of South America is divided into stereotypical groups by the population of South America itself.

Racial stereotypes developed in Guyana early in the founding of the colony. British planters characterized Africans as physically strong but lazy and irresponsible. Indians were characterized as hardworking, but clannish and greedy. To some extent, these stereotypes were recognized by the immigrants themselves, with positive stereotypes readily attributed to themselves and negative stereotypes to others.

In the process of the country's development, stereotypes explained the behavior of representatives of different nationalities. Africans were characterized as short-sighted when they refused to work for low wages on plantations or enter into long-term contracts with planters. Indians were called selfish when all efforts were directed towards maximizing the acquisition of capital.

In modern Guyana, ethnic characteristics are less susceptible to stereotypes. Other differences matter more now. There is a gradation into “metropolitan” manners and “coolie” manners. However, what is considered metropolitan manners in the provinces can at the same time be recognized as coolie manners in the capital itself.

Along with these stereotypes, the colonial attitude towards European countries also persists, when all British customs, morals and behavior were idealized. The British education system contributed to the preservation of Eurocentrism. The idea of the superiority of British culture was recognized and accepted among slaves. In particular, former slaves still believe that adherence to Christianity is a sign of human civilization.

The middle class, which was formed from the end of the nineteenth century from among Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese, was also based mainly on British values, the idea of which was the most progressive and civilized.

Lecture No. 8 (2 hours) Customs and traditions of the peoples of South (Latin) America. Territory. Modern states of South America. Current population size. Inhabitants of South America before European colonization. Races and ethnicities. Ethnic history of the peoples of South America. Material and spiritual culture. Economic activity. Family. Life Rituals and traditions. Modern centers of international tourism. Peculiarities of tourist behavior in South American countries.

Seminar lesson No. 9 (2 hours) South America after conquest and colonization by Europeans. Racial and ethnic history. Transformation of ethnic identity. Cultures and ethnic groups of South America in the postcolonial era. Processes of convergence of rituals and traditions under the influence of European culture.

Independent work (4 hours) Using the recommended sources, make a summary, reflecting the following questions: Customs and traditions of the peoples of South America. Territory. Modern states of South America. Current population size. Inhabitants of South America before European colonization. Races and ethnicities. Ethnic history of the peoples of South America. South America after conquest and colonization by Europeans. Racial and ethnic history. Transformation of ethnic identity. Cultures and ethnic groups of South America in the postcolonial era. Processes of convergence of rituals and traditions under the influence of European culture. Material and spiritual culture. Economic activity. Family. Life Modern centers of international tourism. Peculiarities of tourist behavior in South American countries.

Section 5. Customs and traditions of the peoples of the Arab East

Topic 5.1 The role of Islam and Sufism in the formation of customs and traditions of the peoples of the Arab East

Lecture No. 9 (2 hours) Modern Islamic world. History of territorial settlement, racial and ethnic composition. Islamic traditions in the economic and family life of ethnic groups. The concept of Sufism and its role in the traditions and customs of the peoples of the Arab East. Features of material and spiritual cultures. Modern centers of international tourism. Peculiarities of behavior of tourists in the countries of the Arab East.

Seminar lesson No. 10 (2 hours) Customs and traditions of the peoples of the Maghreb countries, the Near and Middle East. Ethnic history of the peoples of the region. Islamic traditions in the economic and family life of the ethnic groups of the Arab East. The concept of Sufism and its role in the traditions and customs of the peoples of the Arab East.

Independent work (4 hours).

Using the recommended sources, make a summary, reflecting the following questions: The modern Islamic world. History of territorial settlement, racial and ethnic composition. Islamic traditions in the economic and family life of ethnic groups. Features of material and spiritual cultures. Modern centers of international tourism. Features of the behavior of tourists in the countries of the Arab East. Customs and traditions of the peoples of the Maghreb countries, the Near and Middle East. Ethnic history of the peoples of the region.

Form of control: survey during a seminar lesson, preparation of abstracts.

Topic 5.2 The problem of expansion of customs and traditions of the peoples of the Arab East

Lecture No. 10 (2 hours)

The concept of expansion. Arab expansion to European and American countries. Modernization of Islam. Islamic Pan-Islamism. Islamic nationalism and Wahhabism. Islamic confrontation and the problem of the expansion of terrorism and Islamic extremism. Participation of Wahhabis in committing terrorist crimes. The danger of a terrorist threat for Russia and the entire world community at the present time. The role of propaganda in explaining the differences between the customs and traditions of Islamists and Wahhabis. “The Theory of Orientalism” by E. Said: an approach to understanding the East-West problem.

A number of peoples still have a rather strange, in our opinion, custom of head deformation. With the help of various tricks, which boil down to limiting the development of the cranium, representatives of these peoples achieve an unnatural head shape. Since the growth of the cranium occurs much more slowly than other bones of the skeleton, and with age the bones of the skull become less pliable to external influences, in order to obtain a deformed shape, “sculptors based on living heads” have to “work with the material” for quite a long time and start from early childhood.” blanks". Below are photographs of such head deformation by the tribes of the Congo, Sudan and the New Hebrides islands (western part of the Pacific Ocean):

As archaeological finds show, this custom was quite widespread and has its roots in ancient times. For example, traces of the practice of deformation can be traced on both American continents. In North America, deformation of skulls can be traced among the Mayans and various other tribes. Moreover, it was practiced until very recently.

It is characteristic that in some places the practice of deforming skulls was quite widespread. For example, on the artificial island of Haina, now separated from the Yucatan Peninsula by a narrow strip of water from 10 to 100 meters, in one of the burial grounds, out of 24 preserved adult skulls, 13 were male - in eight cases there was intentional cranial deformation. 11 were female, of which only four cases showed intentional deformation of the skull. In general, the ratio of deformed and non-deformed skulls is 12:12. In most cases, the deformation is of a traditional Mayan fronto-occipital nature, but sometimes it even extends to the nasal area.
The practice of deformation was also very widespread in South America, which can be found in a number of cultures of this continent - Chavin, Lauricocha, Paracas, Nazca

There is a version that even the well-known moai of Easter Island depict figures with elongated heads, and their strange reddish “headdresses” are actually just hair, under which this elongated head shape is hidden.

Thus, the practice of head deformation has (and had in the past) a very wide geography. At the same time, a certain pattern can be traced: with all the variety of methods and forms of influence on the shape of the skull (from tight bandages-caps to special structural wooden devices), the desire to achieve only one result of deformation is clearly dominant - an elongated head.

A completely logical question arises: what are the origins of such a massive (and uniform in all regions!) desire for an elongated head shape?.. The question is far from idle, given the data of modern medicine that such an effect on the head, in addition to causing inconvenience and unpleasant sensations contributes to the occurrence of regular headaches and seriously increases the risk of negative consequences for mental and physical health in general.

Official history does not give any comprehensive answer to this question, attributing everything only to a cult ritual with an unclear motivation. However, even with all the real power of influence of religion and cult on the entire way of life of people, it is clearly not enough. For such a “fanatical desire for ugliness” there must be a very powerful incentive. And the incentive is quite stable, given the ubiquity and duration of this “tradition.”

Recently, more and more researchers are leaning towards the neurophysiological version. Changing the shape of the skull also affects various areas of the cerebral cortex, which contributes to changes in certain characteristics and skills of a person. Serious research in this area has not even begun yet. But even without them, among the tribes still practicing skull deformation, no special positive changes in mental abilities have been noticed. And clergy (shamans and priests), for whom the ability, for example, to fall into a trance or enter into meditation is very important, do not at all strive for deformation of the skull.

Among the elongated skulls in South America, the following were found.

These skulls were photographed by Robert Connolly during his travels around the world, during which he collected various materials about ancient civilizations. The discovery of these skulls came as a surprise to him. Robert Conolly published photographs of these skulls, as well as the results of his research, on a separate CD-ROM, entitled "The Search for Ancient Wisdom" in 1995.

The first thing that catches your eye is the abnormal shape and size, which have nothing in common with the skull of a modern person except the most general features (a “box” for the brain, jaw, holes for the eyes and nose)...

The fact is that during the deliberate deformation of human skulls, the shape of the skull can be changed, but not its volume. The photographs above show skulls that are almost twice the volume of an ordinary human skull (this can be seen in the drawings next to the photo)!

(To be fair, it should be noted that among people there are also cases of enlarged skull sizes due to some diseases. However, with such a degree of deviation of the head size from normal sizes, people are close to the state of a “vegetable” and do not live to adulthood.)

Unfortunately, although for those who admit the possibility of the real existence of ancient “gods” in the flesh, the version voiced by Däniken really suggests itself, it is not so far from interpreting a strange tradition as a cult rite...

Of course, imitation of a real prototype is much better consistent with the fact of the uniformity of the form of deformation over a vast territory covering almost all continents than the desire to imitate a fictitious cult image, but is it still possible to move a little further?..

Let us turn to another phenomenon, also associated with the impact on the cranium, namely: craniotomy since ancient times.

The fact of successful trepanation operations in ancient times (the Daily Telegraph recently reported the discovery of a skull with traces of trepanation on the banks of the Thames, dating back to 1750-1610 BC) is considered to have already been reliably established. The fact is that, firstly, the nature of the holes during trephination differs sharply from wounds inflicted by a blow with any weapon - there are no cracks in the skull around the hole. And secondly, it is possible to definitely determine the patient's survival after such an operation. Surgeons and anthropologists know that in the case of a successful trepanation, that is, when the patient manages not to die, the hole in the skull is gradually closed by regenerating bone tissue. If there are no signs of healing on the skull, this means that the patient died during the operation or shortly after it. In this case, there may be traces of bone inflammation along the edges of the hole.

There is nothing particularly surprising about the trepanation itself. Certain cranial operations were common among various ancient peoples throughout the world; First of all, these are a series of small holes in the back of the head - they were drilled to reduce intracranial pressure. In addition, as the researchers note, in ancient times it was believed that trepanation helps relieve headaches. Some thought that epilepsy and mental illness were caused by evil spirits and that if you made a hole in the skull they would fly away.

However, the American continents, as in the case of deformation of skulls, are characterized by a downright manic desire for trepanation surgery.

Sometimes trepanations were even performed several times on one head. Judging by the traces of healing of the holes (bone regeneration), people who underwent this extraordinary operation, as a rule, survived.

“Several trephination techniques are known: gradual scraping of the bone; sawing out a certain section of the skull in a circle; drilling holes in a circle and then “taking out the cap.” As a rule, the diameter of the hole is from 25 to 30 mm. There are curious cases when the skull contains traces of several successive trepanations: next to the first, with traces of closure, a second hole was made, which also began to close. However, the ancient surgeon did not calm down and cut out a third hole right next to these two. This attempt turned out to be fatal - no traces of bone restoration are observed in this case. The operation was carried out on the right temporal lobe. Another curious case was observed on a skull with trepanation right in the center of the crown. Neurosurgeons are well aware that this is where almost the most vulnerable part of the brain is located. Whether this was known to the ancient Zapotec doctor before the operation began, we do not know. We are only sure of one thing: the patient’s death was instantaneous” (G. Ershova, “Ancient America: flight in time and space”).

In Mesoamerica, with similar lifestyles of different peoples, trepanations were carried out primarily by the Zapotecs in Oaxaca, but they did not reach such a scale as the inhabitants of South American Paracas, where various techniques were widely used: square or rectangular plates were cut out, which were then removed; holes were drilled in the outlined circle or the bone was cut off. Sometimes the holes were covered with a thin gold plate.

By the way, in one of the Paracas burials a set of surgical instruments from that distant era was even found. These were obsidian tools of various sizes, on which traces of blood were preserved. In addition, there was also a spoon made of a sperm whale tooth, wrapped in cotton threads, a piece of cloth, bandages and threads.

A kind of “record” was also set in Paracas: trepanned skulls are found in almost half of the cases - from 40% to 60%!!!
Obviously, this percentage exceeds all reasonable limits. Firstly, even with the current level of development of knowledge about the brain and neurosurgery, it is unlikely that there will be such a number of people (even 40%) who have undergone operations involving opening the skull. And secondly, it is obvious that with a hole in the head it is quite problematic to engage in vigorous activity; those. for quite a long time, both the “perforated” themselves and those caring for them inevitably fell out of the process of providing the tribe with everything they needed (this is not of fundamental importance for isolated cases, but for the mass practice of trepanation this factor also cannot be discounted). So what could have caused such sadomasochistic mass insanity?..

“Most trepanations were done in the area of the left temporal lobe. In Mesoamerican Monte Alban (the center of the Zapotec civilization), archaeologists discovered many dead people in whose skulls drilled or cut holes were made during their lifetime. Burials with trepanned skulls differed from ordinary ones: as a rule, they were found under the floors of small dwellings, and the victims of ancient neurosurgical experiments themselves belonged to representatives of low social status.

In South America, there are often cases of trepanned heads being buried separately from the body, to which a pumpkin was placed in place of the head. For peoples who believe in an afterlife, this means only one thing - depriving the deceased of the possibility of this very afterlife!.. Is such an “irreversible punishment” compatible with a high social status?.. Perhaps, of course. But not on a mass scale!..

By the way, if trepanation was carried out for medicinal purposes, one would expect the absence of such social inequality, and at least the absence of such a social bias in this direction - complex operations on representatives of the lower social strata of society.

At the same time, researchers note another social imbalance: cranial deformations were practiced mainly by noble (!) Mayans.

And finally, one more fact: among the photographs of deformed skulls there is not a single trepanned one!!!

That is: for representatives of peoples who practiced both deformation and trepanation, there was little choice - either to suffer in childhood, undergoing a painful procedure for changing the shape of the head, or to be constantly under threat of being subjected to a much more painful (and riskier) trepanation procedure. Judging by the scale of the deformation and trepanation operations carried out, there were very few chances to keep your head intact...