Millennialist movement
Encyclopedia
Millenialist movements have frequently been found through history among people who rally around often-apocalyptic religious prophecies that predict a return to power, the defeat of enemies, and/or the accumulation of wealth. These movements have been especially common among people living under colonialism
or other forces that disrupt previous social arrangements. The phrase "millenialist movement" has been used by scholars in anthropology and history to describe the common features of these religious phenomena when viewed as social movements, and has most often been used to describe the social movements that have taken place in colonized societies. The broad religious ideas these movements have in common are described in the article millenarianism
.
Judeo-Christian tradition has a long history of millenialist ideas, some of which are described in another article. Christianity itself can be seen as originating in a millenialist movement among Jewish people living under Roman rule, although its characteristics as a social movement quickly changed as it spread through the Roman Empire
.
Some millenialist movements include:
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
or other forces that disrupt previous social arrangements. The phrase "millenialist movement" has been used by scholars in anthropology and history to describe the common features of these religious phenomena when viewed as social movements, and has most often been used to describe the social movements that have taken place in colonized societies. The broad religious ideas these movements have in common are described in the article millenarianism
Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
.
Judeo-Christian tradition has a long history of millenialist ideas, some of which are described in another article. Christianity itself can be seen as originating in a millenialist movement among Jewish people living under Roman rule, although its characteristics as a social movement quickly changed as it spread through the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.
Some millenialist movements include:
- The Ghost DanceGhost DanceThe Ghost Dance was a new religious movement which was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. The traditional ritual used in the Ghost Dance, the circle dance, has been used by many Native Americans since prehistoric times...
movement among Native Americans. - The Xhosa cattle-killing movement of South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, led by the prophet NongqawuseNongqawuseNongqawuse was the Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies led to a millennialist movement that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing crisis of 1856–1857, in what is now the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa....
. - The Righteous Harmony Society was a Chinese movement reacting against Western colonialism.
- The Maji Maji RebellionMaji Maji RebellionThe Maji Maji Rebellion, sometimes called the Maji Maji War, was a violent African resistance to colonial rule in the German colony of Tanganyika, an uprising by several African indigenous communities in German East Africa against the German rule in response to a German policy designed to force...
was influenced by an African spirit medium who gave his followers war medicine that he said would turn German bullets into water. - The Melanesian Jon Frum cargo cultCargo cultA cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices...
believed in a return of their ancestors brought by Western technology. - BurkhanismBurkhanismBurkhanism or Ak Jang is a new religious movement that flourished among the indigenous people of Russia's Gorno Altai region between 1904 and the 1930s. Czarist Russia was suspicious of the movement's potential to stir up native unrest and perhaps involve outside powers...
was an AltayAltay peopleThe Altay or Altai are an ethnic group of Turkic people living in the Siberian Altai Republic and Altai Krai and surrounding areas of Tuva and Mongolia. For alternative ethnonyms see also Teleut, Tele, Telengit, Mountain Kalmuck, White Kalmuck, Black Tatar, Oirat/Oirot.The Uriankhai people were...
an movement led by a visionary that reacted against RussificationRussificationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
.