FREE SERENGETI: THE ANIMAL RIGHTS IN THE AFRICAN INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS

Abstract

As animal rights are fed by phenomena that come from anthropological contexts, theoretical assessment about them are to be taken under control with religious dogmatic teachings along with the moral economic condemnation determined by punishment and binding in legal regulations. In this respect, The indigenous belief systems of Africa, as a whole, embrace all the living and inanimate beings, as wide spectrum from human beings to animals and plants and even to mountains and rivers; by this way this belief system becomes an integrated and holistic system protecting their ontological rights. As a matter of fact, the consciousness of the African people does not only focusing on the human kind but also includes the animals and the plants all around the African environment. In this article, we will consider the main characteristics of African Indigenous belief systems that they give a wide place to animal rights, their features of ecological lives and biological diversity as well as their rituals, myth and folklores that form these ritual cults, and finally contemporary critiques dealing about these religious practices.

Keywords

• Africa
• animal rights
• ethics
• the history of religions
• ecology

ÖZGÜR SERENGETİ: AFRİKA YEREL DİNLERİNDE HAYVAN HAKLARI

Abstract

Hayvan hakları, antropolojik açıdan kültürel öğelerle beslenirken, dinî öğretilerle teolojik açıdan kontrol altına alınmakta, ahlaki açıdan kınayıcı son olarak hukuki düzenlemelerle cezalandırıcı ve bağlayıcı bir şekilde tasnif edilip tam olarak belirlenmektedir. Bu bağlamda Afrika yerel inançları, bir bütün olarak insan, hayvan, bitki, dağ, ırmak gibi canlı veya cansız tüm varlığı kuşatmakta ve onların ontolojik hakkını koruyan bütüncül ve entegre edici bir sisteme dönüşmektedir. Zaten Afrikalının bilinci, canlı derken sadece insanı merkeze almamakta aksine Afrika çevresindeki insan, hayvan ve bitkiyi de içermektedir. Bu çalışmada Afrika yerel inanç sisteminde hayvan haklarının ekolojik hayat ve biyolojik çeşitlilik açısından karakteristik özelliklerini, ritüelleri, külte dönüşen bu ritüellerin arkasındaki mit ve halk inanışlarını ve son olarak da dinî uygulamalara yönelik çağdaş eleştiriler ele alınacaktır.

Keywords

• Afrika
• hayvan hakları
• dinler tarihi
• ahlak
• ekoloji

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