CRIMES RELATED TO SANTERIA, VOODOO AND HINDUISM

Crimes related to Santeria, Voodoo and Hinduism

Crimes related to Santeria, Voodoo and Hinduism

Introduction

Polytheism is the conviction in worshipping of many Gods. Typically, these Gods are differentiated by specific purposes, and often take on human characteristics. This was particularly factual in ancient Greece and Rome. In other polytheistic cultures such as ancient Egypt, gods take on the pattern and characteristics of objects discovered in nature, encompassing trees, sacred herbs, cattle, animals and animal--human hybrids.

The conviction in multiple gods is probably the result of an earlier conviction in vaguely characterised spirits, demons and other supernatural forces.(Best,1998) These conviction systems are similar to animism, ancestor worship and totemism. However, in polytheism, these supernatural forces are personified and organized into a cosmic family. This "family" becomes the nucleus of a particular culture's conviction system. The family of gods was used to explain natural phenomena and to establish a culture's function in the universe. Typically, the number of gods would expand as the culture's conviction system evolved, eventually resulting in a hierarchical system of deities. Over time, the lesser gods would weaken in stature or disappear altogether.

Discussion

Polytheistic worship does not suggest equal devotion or importance to each deity. The belief of dynastic Egypt encompassed hundreds of deities, but worship (as in Greek Olympianism) tended to be city-centered; thus, Anubis, the jackal-headed god who directed the dead along the dangerous path to the underworld, had his cult at Abydos, and Ba, the ram-god, was worshiped at Bubastis. Polytheism probably is a development from an earlier polydemonism, characterized by a variety of disassociated and vaguely characterised spirits, demons, and other supernatural powers. It is also related to animism, ancestor worship and totemism.(Copley, 2005)

Crimes related to Hinduism

Religious Hinduism is a very wide class which embraces both monotheistic and polytheistic tendencies, and variations on or blends of both structures. So widespread worship is largely polytheistic, while Hindu philosophers and theologians argued for a transcendent metaphysical structure with a single divine essence.(Best,1998) This divine essence was usually mentioned to as Brahman or Atman, but the understanding of the nature of this absolute divine essence is the line which defines many Hindu philosophical traditions such as Vedanta.

Hinduism is the major belief of India and is a world belief, having been spread after India's borders by Indian Hindus who have settled elsewhere.(Paper, 2005) There are about 800 million adherents of Hinduism around the world. Hinduism permeates all aspects of life in India and contains ritual, experiential, narrative, philosophical, ethical, legal, social, material, and artistic dimensions. Hinduism is a convoluted belief, and there is much variation in conviction and practice across the villages of India. Compared to other world religions, the scholarly study of Hindu criminal law has been restricted, largely because throughout and next British direct, criminal justice in India was strongly leveraged by Thomas Macaulay's secular Indian Penal Code, imposed by the British in 1860.

Crime and Punishment in Postclassical Hindu Law

The gradual evolution of the classical Hindu framework had focused on the key notion ...