1. Australian Aborigine Spirituality: Go to the "Stories of the Dreaming" web page (http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/index.htm). Read the pages on storytelling, dreaming, custodianship, and sacred texts. Then go to the Stories page and listen to or watch one of the stories. - What role does storytelling play in Australian Aborigine society?
- What is "dreaming"?
- Who maintains and transmits the stories today?
- In what ways is access to certain stories restricted? Today, who "owns" these stories in a legal sense?
- What stories or oral traditions did you grow up with? What kinds of information or morals did these stories convey?
2. Medicine Men: Go to and read the interview with Ecuadorian medicine men by Elisabet Sahtouris at http://www.ratical.org/LifeWeb/Articles/shuar.html. - How does one become a medicine man?
- Do all medicine men focus their efforts on healing people? Are all good?
- What role does natem play?
- Are the tasks that medicine men perform incompatible with the role of Western medicine? Do they attempt to perform the same functions?
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