Idolatry

== Traditional religions ==

===Africa===
{{See also|Traditional African religions}}{{multiple image
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| image2            = Kneeling female worshipper with child, Yoruba people, Honolulu Museum of Art, 6011.1.JPG
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| footer            = An Orisha deity (left) and an artwork depicting a kneeling female worshipper with child, by [[Yoruba people]]
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Africa has numerous ethnic groups, and their diverse religious idea have been grouped as African Traditional Religions, sometimes abbreviated to ATR. These religions typically believe in a Supreme Being which goes by different regional names, as well as spirit world often linked to ancestors, and mystical magical powers through divination.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Gehman|title=African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1B4XPF1P4a4C |year=2005|publisher=East African Publishers|isbn=978-9966-25-354-5|pages=xi–xii}}</ref> Idols and their worship have been associated with all three components in the African Traditional Religions.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Gehman|title=African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1B4XPF1P4a4C |year=2005|publisher=East African Publishers|isbn=978-9966-25-354-5|pages=189–190 }}</ref>

According to J.O. Awolalu, proselytizing Christians and Muslims have mislabelled idol to mean false god, when in the reality of most traditions of Africa, the object may be a piece of wood or iron or stone, yet it is "symbolic, an emblem and implies the spiritual idea which is worshipped".<ref name=awolalu1>J. O. Awolalu (1976), What is African Traditional Religion?, Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 10, No. 2, pages 8, 1–10</ref> The material objects may decay or get destroyed, the emblem may crumble or substituted, but the spiritual idea that it represents to the heart and mind of an African traditionalist remains unchanged.<ref name=awolalu1/> Sylvester Johnson – a professor of African American and Religious Studies, concurs with Awolalu, and states that the colonial era missionaries who arrived in Africa, neither understood the regional languages nor the African theology, and interpreted the images and ritualism as "epitome of idolatry", projecting the iconoclastic controversies in Europe they grew up with, onto Africa.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sylvester A. Johnson|title=African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VuhBCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-36814-5|pages=49–51}}</ref>

First with the arrival of Islam in Africa, then during the Christian colonial efforts, the religiously justified wars, the colonial portrayal of idolatry as proof of savagery, the destruction of idols and the seizure of idolaters as slaves marked a long period of religious intolerance, which supported religious violence and demeaning caricature of the African Traditional Religionists.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Rubiés | first=Joan Pau | title=Theology, Ethnography, and the Historicization of Idolatry | journal=Journal of the History of Ideas | volume=67 | issue=4 | year=2006 | pages=571–596 | doi=10.1353/jhi.2006.0038 | s2cid=170863835 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Ranger | first=Terence O. | title=Religious Movements and Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa | journal=African Studies Review | volume=29 | issue=2 | year=1986 | pages=1–70 | doi=10.2307/523964 | jstor=523964 | s2cid=143459900 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=René A. Bravmann|title=Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDY4AAAAIAAJ |year=1980|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-29791-2|pages=15–21, 36–37}}</ref> The violence against idolaters and idolatry of Traditional Religion practicers of Africa started in the medieval era and continued into the modern era.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Willis | first=John Ralph | title=Jihād fī Sabīl Allāh—its Doctrinal Basis in Islam and some Aspects of its Evolution in Nineteenth-Century West Africa | journal=The Journal of African History | volume=8 | issue=3 | year=1967 | page=395 | doi=10.1017/s0021853700007933 | s2cid=154388861 }}</ref><ref name="Firestone1999p20">{{cite book|author=Reuven Firestone|title=Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A6kVVeIkzDkC |year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-535219-1|pages=20–21, 85–89}}</ref><ref name="Gopin2002">{{cite book|author=Marc Gopin|title=Holy War, Holy Peace |url=https://archive.org/details/holywarholypeace00gopi|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-803348-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/holywarholypeace00gopi/page/243 243] footnote 5}}</ref> The charge of idolatry by proselytizers, state Michael Wayne Cole and Rebecca Zorach, served to demonize and dehumanize local African populations, and justify their enslavement and abuse locally or far off plantations, settlements or for forced domestic labor.<ref name="ColeZorach2009p17">{{cite book|author1=Michael Wayne Cole|author2=Rebecca Zorach|title=The Idol in the Age of Art: Objects, Devotions and the Early Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUKBQfzKlIYC&pg=PA17|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-5290-8|page=17}}, Quote: "By negating African religious practices, the pejorative characterizations of these works as objects of idolatry served in vital ways to both demonize and dehumanize local populations, thereby providing a moral buttress for European religious and human trade practices on the continent".</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Patrick Taylor|author2=Frederick I. Case|title=The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XOyYCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1002 |year=2013|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-09433-0|pages=1002–1003}}</ref>

===Americas===
[[File:Inti Raymi2.jpg|thumb|[[Inti Raymi]], a winter solstice festival of the [[Inca people]], reveres ''[[Inti]]'' – the sun deity. Offerings include round bread and maize beer.<ref name=parkerstanton501>{{cite book|author1=Janet Parker |author2=Julie Stanton |title=Mythology: Myths, Legends and Fantasies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7dR2w1Wv2sC |year=2007|publisher=Struik Publishers|isbn=978-1-77007-453-8 |page=501 }}</ref>]]
Statues, images and temples have been a part of the Traditional Religions of the indigenous people of the Americas.<ref name=morill79/><ref name="Seaman2013p140">{{cite book|author=Rebecca M. Seaman|title=Conflict in the Early Americas: An Encyclopedia of the Spanish Empire's Aztec, Incan, and Mayan Conquests|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXKjAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-777-2|pages=140–141, 251}}</ref><ref name=cole77>{{cite book|author1=Michael Wayne Cole|author2=Rebecca Zorach|title=The Idol in the Age of Art: Objects, Devotions and the Early Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUKBQfzKlIYC&pg=PA77|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-5290-8|pages=77–81}}</ref> The Incan, Mayan and Aztec civilizations developed sophisticated religious practices that incorporated idols and religious arts.<ref name=cole77/> The [[Inca Empire|Inca culture]], for example, has believed in ''[[Viracocha]]'' (also called ''Pachacutec'') as the [[creator deity]] and nature deities such as ''[[Inti]]'' ([[Solar deity|sun deity]]), and ''Mama Cocha'' the goddess of the sea, lakes, rivers and waters.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alan L. Kolata|title=Ancient Inca|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RpELeDbp7BQC |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86900-3 |page=164 }}</ref><ref name=littleton726>{{cite book|author=C Scott Littleton |title=Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology|url=https://archive.org/details/godsgoddessesmyt02litt |url-access=registration |year=2005|publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-7565-1 |pages=726–729 }}</ref><ref name="Roza2008p27">{{cite book|author=Greg Roza |title=Incan Mythology and Other Myths of the Andes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGuHuTzEXM4C |year=2008|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-4042-0739-4 |pages=27–30 }}</ref>

[[File:Telamones Tula.jpg|thumb|The Aztec Tula [[Atlantean figures|Atlantean statues]] (above) have been called as symbols of idolatry, but may have just been stone images of warriors.<ref>{{cite book|author=Benjamin Keen|title=The Aztec Image in Western Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G63OWSXfZBkC |year=1990|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-1572-4|pages=239–240}}</ref>]]
In [[Maya civilization|Mayan culture]], ''[[Kukulkan]]'' has been the supreme [[creator deity]], also revered as the god of [[reincarnation]], water, fertility and wind.<ref name=littleton797/> The Mayan people built [[Mesoamerican pyramids|step pyramid temples]] to honor ''Kukulkan'', aligning them to the [[Sun]]'s position on the spring [[equinox]].<ref name=littleton843>{{cite book|author=C Scott Littleton |title=Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology|url=https://archive.org/details/godsgoddessesmyt02litt |url-access=registration |year=2005|publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-7565-1 |pages=843–844 }}</ref> Other deities found at Mayan archaeological sites include ''[[Chac-Xib-Chac|Xib Chac]]'' – the benevolent male rain deity, and ''[[Ixchel]]'' – the benevolent female earth, weaving and pregnancy goddess.<ref name=littleton843/> A deity with aspects similar to ''Kulkulkan'' in the Aztec culture has been called ''[[Quetzalcoatl]]''.<ref name=littleton797>{{cite book|author=C Scott Littleton |title=Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology|url=https://archive.org/details/godsgoddessesmyt02litt |url-access=registration |year=2005|publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-7565-1 |pages=797–798 }}</ref>

Missionaries came to the Americas with the start of Spanish colonial era, and the Catholic Church did not tolerate any form of native idolatry, preferring that the icons and images of Jesus and Mary replace the native idols.<ref name="Eire1989p5"/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Patrick Taylor|author2=Frederick I. Case|title=The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XOyYCgAAQBAJ |date=30 April 2013|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-09433-0|pages=560–562}}</ref><ref name=morill79>{{cite book|author1=B. Morrill|author2=J. Ziegler|author3=S. Rodgers|title=Practicing Catholic: Ritual, Body, and Contestation in Catholic Faith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWvJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |year=2006|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4039-8296-4|pages=79–80}}</ref> Aztec, for example, had a written history which included those about their Traditional Religion, but the Spanish colonialists destroyed this written history in their zeal to end what they considered as idolatry, and to convert the Aztecs to Catholicism. The Aztec Indians, however, preserved their religion and religious practices by burying their idols under the crosses, and then continuing their idol worship rituals and practices, aided by the syncretic composite of atrial crosses and their idols as before.<ref>{{cite book|author=Manuel Aguilar-Moreno|title=Handbook to Life in the Aztec World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZseasJq3WzEC|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533083-0|pages=24, 203–204}}</ref>

During and after the imposition of Catholic Christianity during [[Spanish Empire|Spanish colonialism]], the Incan people retained their original beliefs in deities through [[syncretism]], where they overlay the Christian God and teachings over their original beliefs and practices.<ref>{{cite book|author1=J. Gordon Melton |author2=Martin Baumann |title=Religions of the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2yiyLLOj88C |year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-59884-204-3 |pages=2243–2244 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Klaus Koschorke |author2=Frieder Ludwig|author3=Mariano Delgado|title=A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450-1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbq6fkyp698C |year=2007|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2889-7 |pages=323–325 }}</ref><ref name="kuznar2011p45">{{cite book|author=Lawrence A. Kuznar |title=Ethnoarchaeology of Andean South America: Contributions to Archaeological Method and Theory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88R8AAAAMAAJ |year=2001|publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-1-879621-29-9 |pages=45–47 }}</ref> The male deity ''Inti'' became accepted as the Christian God, but the Andean rituals centered around idolatry of Incan deities have been retained and continued thereafter into the modern era by the Incan people.<ref name="kuznar2011p45"/><ref name="Brian M. Fagan 1996 345">{{cite book|author=Brian M. Fagan |title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ystMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA345 |year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507618-9 |page=345}}</ref>

===Polynesia===
The [[Polynesians|Polynesian people]] have had a range of polytheistic theologies found across the [[Pacific Ocean]]. The Polynesian people produced idols from wood, and congregated around these idols for worship.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Williamson|title=Religion and Social Organization in Central Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RJaAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-62569-3|pages=5–6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Williamson|title=Religion and Social Organization in Central Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RJaAQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-62569-3|pages=6–14, 37–38, 113, 323}}</ref>

The Christian missionaries, particularly from the [[London Missionary Society]] such as John Williams, and others such as the Methodist Missionary Society, characterized these as idolatry, in the sense of islanders worshipping false gods. They sent back reports which primarily focussed on "overthrow of pagan idolatry" as evidence of their Christian sects triumph, with fewer mentions of actual converts and baptism.<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven Hooper| title=Pacific Encounters: Art & Divinity in Polynesia, 1760–1860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2S55LTEAogC |year=2006|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3084-7|pages=27, 65–71}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=J Mezies|title=Abolition of Idolatry in Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYEFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA370|edition=The Journal of civilization|volume=XXIV|year=1841|publisher=Society for the Advancement of Civilization|pages=370–373}}</ref>