The sun dance on the page is described as a ceremony, which a sitting bull is involved in major religious rites. This act is a form sacrificing his self, which loses his consciousness. He offers religious praying to their God that they call as The All. After praying, and as part of the ritual, cuts on his arms fifty times on the right as well as fifty cuts on the other will be performed, while in the state of unconsciousness. Once the sitting bull regains his consciousness, he will then tell his visualization of soldiers that falls from the sky. On the other hand, the sundance is described earlier in the book about Custer’s moral teaching portrays that he wanted the new generations of Indians to leave their norms and be enrolled in a Christian school to learn different ways of living and urged to abandon their Indian traditions.
Mainly, the difference between Native Americans and European Americans in terms of their religious approach is the way Native Americans performs rituals to exercise their worship towards Wakan Tanka. The rituals, as described, involve sacrifices that could make a person unconscious, while European Americans’ approach towards religion is the usual ways of worshiping God. However, the similarity is the presence of faith that both parties exercise towards their own Gods. The different approaches between the two groups affect their social behaviors. Native Americans, as a result, will be able to preserve their culture and ways of living if their religious approach will continue through generations, wherein the young ones will be molded and learn how to live like their ancestors. While for European Americans would have the same effect towards their society as to how they approach religion. Since Christianity does not really involve performing extensive rituals, their social behavior will be more focused on social living as what a normal Christian does.
I would say that European Americans is more true to its religious principles as it doesn’t involve self-sacrifice when exercising worship and faith to God.
Religion is a major control in the world today. It seems that nation in all cultures have a set of values and way of lives that go beyond equally the self and the normal world. We apply these beliefs to help enlighten reasons for human life and to guide individual relationships and behavior. Developing cultural values that sustain these people-to-people and people-to-nature principles has usually been the function of religion in most societies. Religious attitude have a strong control on the culture of a society. Indeed, for many communities around the world, religious beliefs are fundamental to their culture and provide the moral codes, which they live. Even where people in the modern world consider that the traditional principles of their parents and societies are not so significant to their everyday lives, core religious beliefs concerning human importance and how to communicate to other people and the Earth are still essential parts of their lives. This is my personal understanding towards religion and how it affects cultures and human’s way of life in general.
Religion has a direct influence on a person’s perspectives on everything that surrounds him. He acts depending on his cultural beliefs, by which has been molded by their religion’s teachings. Religion can also be a reason why each person of different societies acts and treats each other differently as they have their own cultural values that were taught based from their own religions. This is why religion plays a very big role in molding societies’ values and culture as most of the people around the world have their religions that serve as part of their everyday lives.
