View the film about the Kogi. Briefly describe their religion and how it is interrelated in everything they do. What is a mama? Describe the mamas and their religion using anthropological concepts related to religion. What is their prediction for the world? What kind of evidence are they using to support their prediction?
The Kogi are a descendant tribe from the Tairona culture, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. They live in a mountain range that literally has its own ecosystem. To them it is a smaller version of the whole world where every climate is possible. They are an isolated tribe that feel it is their job to keep the heart of Aluna beating to help out the Young Brother. They are very dissatisfied about the way that Young Brother is exploiting, devastating, and plunder Aluna, or Great Mother.
To the Kogi, there were 9 worlds made from water. The last one which is inhabited by humanity, or Aluna’s children. Their Kankurua, or hut, is designed like the nine worlds. They are made up of rings that circle to the top, with the top one being the apex of Aluna. (http://www.crystalinks.com/kogi.html) The Mama’s, or spiritual leaders, share the tribes history and religion through word of mouth. For the first nine years of a Mama’s life, they are kept in a cave in total darkness to learn the secrets of Aluna. (http://www.labyrinthina.com/kogi.htm).
The mother of the Mama will come in to feed the child, but they are usually left in absolute isolation, so when the emerge into the light, they may see the beauty that Aluna has shown them. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMcofvcMAU) The Kogi are an indigenous tribe that walk around barefoot to keep in contact with Aluna.
The Research paper on Religion – Kottak
WHAT IS RELIGION? T he anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace defined religion as “belief and ritual concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces” (1966, p. 5). The supernatural is the extraordinary realm outside (but believed to impinge on) the observable world. It is nonempirical and inexplicable in ordinary terms. It must be accepted “on faith.” Supernatural beings— gods and goddesses, ...
They aren’t hunter/gathers, they are an agricultural tribe that plants beans, corn, cotton, and gourds. The only food supply they gather is fish. The Kogi are worried about the world and have a dire prediction for the fate of the planet, because Young Brother is cutting Mother up. They are looting her for her resources which is killing her. The evidence to supporting this is that the tundra, which once used to be green is now brown.
http://www.crystalinks.com/kogi.html
http://www.labyrinthina.com/kogi.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMcofvcMAU
