Liber XVI · Indigenous & Ancient Religions
Liber XVI · Indigenous & Ancient Religions
Introduction
The religions of the ancient world and of indigenous peoples across the globe.
Before and beside the world religions stand the religions of ancient civilisations and of indigenous peoples. This section covers the gods and rites of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Rome, the Norse and Celtic peoples, and Mesoamerica, and the living traditions of Native North America, Africa, Australia, Siberia and the Pacific. It looks at myth and cosmology, ancestors and spirits, sacrifice, shamanism and the sacred landscape, and treats these religions on their own terms rather than as primitive stages on the way to anything else.
8 min readAnimism: From Tylor's Theory to the New Animism in ReligionAnimism explained: Tylor's 1871 theory of souls and spirits, its critics, Hallowell's other-than-human persons and the new animism of modern scholarship.7 min readIndigenous and Ancient Religions: An Introduction to the FieldAn introduction to indigenous and ancient religions: how scholars study the gods, myths and rites of ancient peoples and living indigenous traditions.