fandomhigh | World Religions, Wednesday, 2nd Period

Jesse's once again sitting with his feet up on his desk while the students file in. This time the clipboard is already waiting on one of the student desks to be passed around for sign-ins. Under the sign-in sheet is a stack of handouts. "Take one of those handouts on the clipboard when you sign in. Today we're gonna talk about a few things and you're gonna need that to keep up."

"First things first. Take a minute to read the academic meaning of the word 'mythology.'¹ I want to get this straight up front - if I talk about myth in here, I'm not giving it a higher value than if I use the word 'religion.' Some of the resources I'm gonna use are gonna talk about myth and that doesn't mean I'm saying these things are fairy tales. People around the world take their beliefs very seriously and we're gonna respect that." Jesse's personal opinions notwithstanding.

"We've got some big territory to cover today. Animism², American Indian beliefs³, and Australian Aboriginal beliefs⁴. They've got some things in common - in general all of them appreciate that there is value in nature, usually some idea of the soul in all things, or at least all living things. They've got some differences - animism isn't so much a religion as a general world view, American Indians and Australian indigenes developed their religions in widely separated places with different environments; they have different myths and rituals.

After a general introduction, he goes more in-depth to compare and contrast the three topics before giving the students their in-class work.

"Work alone or in groups, up to you. Pick a character, god, mythical creature, whatever you want, from American Indian or Australian mythology. Pick one you can identify with, whether it's because you've experienced something similar, it shows your own feelings, it's just something you think is cool, and explain that. If you're working in a group, I don't care how many of you get together to talk. If you're gonna go it alone, you've got to write it down for me and turn it in."

He sits back down behind his desk and grins at the students. "I hate homework. If I give y'all homework, I gotta do homework, so get this stuff done in class. Show me you're payin' attention, and that's good enough for me. We'll find out on the tests whether you were or not."

¹Academic views of Mythology
²Animism
³Overview of American Indian religious beliefs
⁴Aboriginal mythology

Dreamtime
Native American mythologies

Syllabus

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"No idea," Conner said. "The aboriginal stuff is pretty new to me, though. It looks fun."

"I dunno, that Quetzalcoatl guy might be interesting. If only cause his name's Quetzalcoatl. Funny name, isn't it? Quetzalcoatl?"

"Yeah, I can never spell that one. Sure, why not?"

"And if we're supposed to relate, well, I can always say that I felt a compassion for him, since like me, his parents obviously were on mean mean crack when they named him."

"Well, Mangar-kunjer-kunja isn't any better, even though the last thing I want to relate with is a lizard god who created humans," Conner pointed out. "Besides, your name's not that bad."

"Mine's horrible," Cally said. "I'm named after a foot wart."

"Well, that's dumb," Conner said. "Warts should have gross-sounding names. Who'd want to give a wart a nice name?"

Cally suddenly realized where Conner's mistake was.

"My name's Veruca," she said.

"Oh. That's not so bad either." The reflexive little nose-wrinkle might've betrayed him, though.

"Yeah. If you don't know what it means, possibly," Cally said. "But I think we're a little distracted from our boy Quetzalcoatl."

"Just a little. Is that the main reason you relate? 'cause of the name?"

"Well, it's the reason I chose him. 'Cause I just like saying Quetzalcoatl."

"Why does that make me want chocolate?" grumbled Conner, who had his laptop out and was browsing the web for information on Quetzalcoatl.

It took him a while. He misspelled it four times. "Snakes? He's associated with snakes? Why is it always snakes?"

~~Coming soon, Quetzalcoatl on a Plane!~~

"Because platypuses aren't that intimidating?"

~~Well, he does have feathers too.~~

"But a platypus god would be cool!" Conner tapped a few more keys. "Kind of interesting how kings eventually started to adopt his name and rule like they were the god, or something. Creepy, but interesting."

"Who knows, maybe they actually became him?" Cally offered. "It's less outrageous than Jell-o dragons."

"Maybe they did. That's still creepy," Conner said with a frown. "But symbolic, I guess."

"Gah, I suppose I really should try and find something I actually identify with," Cally said. ~~But the mun can't exactly research while at work.~~

"Same here," Conner mumbled, going over his notes and Wikipedia. ~~Me neither, d'oh.~~

Cally poked at her notes ~~and voted that we pick this back up when we're off work~~.

World Religions, Wednesday, 2nd Period

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