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The purpose of this unit is to look at various world religions at different times in history. Ideally a culture's religion should be studied along with its art, education, architecture,systems of trade and government, that is naturally included in a particular historical study. Therefore students are asked to see how a particular religion connects with geography and is one of a region's cultural universals. We study religion's connection with the state and its influence and impact within an historical and social context. The artifacts for this unit are particularly engaging. We begin with the Venus of Willendorf, a symbol of goddess worship in the earliest human societies. We then look at an Aku-aba doll and Shiva Nataraj representing the polytheistic religions of one African nation, ancient Mesopotamia, and Hinduism in India. We see the impact of monotheism as introduced by Judaism and carried forward through Christianity and Islam. Sections on Buddhism and Sikhism complete this unit. The two literature selections for this unit are The Ramayana and The Mystery of the Coins. This latter selection traces the history of the Jewish people for the past two thousand years through an eastern European synagogue's coin collection. |
