They watch us all
They’re only making sure that we
don’t trip and fall
Now they look so hard
But they can’t tell us why they’re
here and just what for
Because they don’t know
Who opened up the door. (Jackson Randolph Lynch)
Thinking about the musings from Day 17: The Dangers Of Presentism….
I would suggest to you that presentism is a very powerful concept that can alter one’s view of the world, both past and present. I would also suggest that once a person understands how presentism works, that person can then begin the process of trying to overcome it, especially when dealing with anything relating to history.
Somewhere towards the end of the second week, I begin the process of taking my concept of ‘Someone Upstairs Runs The Show’ and begin integrating it within the parameters of the CollegeBoard, AP World History expectations, (at least, before their last re-design of the course back in 2019).
The seven belief systems that students were ultimately responsible for during the Foundations/Classical units of 8,000 BCE to 600 CE were:
1) Polytheism/Animism;
2) Hinduism;
3) Buddhism;
4) Confucianism;
5) Taoism/Daoism;
6) Judaism and;
7) Christianity;
Before diving into the 7 belief systems, I let the students know the following going forward using syllogism:
PART A – I do not have a masters or doctoral degree in any of the 7 comparative belief systems;
PART B – My students do not have a masters or doctoral degree in any of the 7 comparative belief systems;
PART C – We don’t have class time to impart our own case of presentism as a means to declare why one belief system may or may not be better than the others, because among other things, our course is an AP World History class, not an AP Comparative Religions class;
With the basic ground-rules set, I begin the process of delivering the basic content regarding the first of these belief systems:
Polythesism/Animism….
I bring up the idea that I believe that the human continuity of ‘Someone Upstairs Runs The Show’ started on Day 1 of humanity. It doesn’t matter what they believe in regards to how humans got here: Adam and Eve, Monkeys, Aliens or ‘All Of The Above’. What matters more is that archeologists have found overwhelming evidence around the globe that humans who pre-dated ‘civilization’, (3,500 BCE, with the rise of the Mesopotamians in the Middle East), believed that there was a spiritual realm that controlled their destiny. There are six elements that archeologists believe humans demonstrated before civilization, (for our purposes, referred to as ‘hunter/gatherers’), was formed:
1) Animism (that all plants, inanimate objects and natural phenomena all have a soul);
2) Shamanism (a practice that involves a priest or Shaman, who through achieving an altered state, can interact with the spirit world);
3) Ancestor worship;
4) Gods and goddesses;
5) Worship of ancestors or gods and goddesses who are active in human affairs and;
6) A belief in an afterlife.
Originally this belief system began with the concept of, at least theoretically, an infinite amount of spirits. Once people began to settle down to form civilizations, from around 3,500 BCE onward, humans began to form gods from these spirits. The main God they all had in common was the sun god, which makes sense due to the fact that the sun dominates our lives from dawn to dusk. All humans had the ‘major’ gods covered in two ways:
1) They had their own name and;
2) Their own purpose/power(s).
For example, during the Classical Era, (600 BCE – 600 CE), the 16 most well-known gods of the Greeks and Romans (in parenthesis) are as follows:
| Who: | Purpose: |
| 1) Zeus (Jupiter) | King of the Gods, thunder and heavens |
| 2) Hera (Juno) | Goddess of love and marriage; |
| 3) Poseidon (Neptune) | God of the sea; |
| 4) Demeter (Ceres) | Goddess of the harvest; |
| 5) Ares (Mars) | God of War; |
| 6) Hermes (Mercury) | God of commerce, science and doctors; |
| 7) Aphrodite (Venus) | Goddess of love, beauty and fertility; |
| 8) Athena (Minerva) | Goddess of wisdom and war; |
| 9) Apollo (Apollo) | God of music, archery, prophecy, healing, light; |
| 10) Artemis (Diana) | Goddess of hunting and the moon; |
| 11) Hestia (Vesta) | Goddess of the home and hearth; |
| 12) Hades (Pluto) | God of the underworld and dead; |
| 13) Persephone (Proserpine) | Goddess of the underworld; |
| 14) Hephaestus (Vulcan) | God of fire and metal-working; |
| 15) Dionysus (Bacchus) | God of wine and festivity; |
| 16) Eros (Cupid) | God of love; |
| 17) Pan (Pan) | God of wild beasts and the forests; |
According to godchecker.com, the pantheon listed there contains almost 400 Greek gods and goddesses, with 113 of them beginning with the letter A. According to Wikipedia, the Romans had over 200 gods and goddesses.
Geographically speaking, those who practice(d) Polytheism/Animism reside in arguably the most remote areas of the globe, in pink and labelled ‘Animism’ on this map:
1) The jungles of Africa;
2) The tundra of Russia and;
3) The desserts of Australia.
In other words, it appears that humans in these remote regions never got the text message about other religions coming after them. (I suppose it was because there are no cell phone towers in these regions….
So how does Polytheism/Animism work in the real world today?
Can Polytheism/Animism ‘Coexist’ with other belief systems?
That is a discussion best left for next time….
Do not feel discouraged if you don’t know much about the concept of Polytheism/Animism. Do not feel discouraged if you are not sure whether or not this ancient belief system makes sense in today’s ever-changing world. Instead, embrace the idea that we have archeologists who have dug through the layers of time to bring these people to life in the present world. Embrace the idea that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to believe that Someone Upstairs Runs The Show.
11 Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 18: The Basics Of Polytheism/Animism.
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: