Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV

+1014+. Religion is social because man is a social animal. This does not exclude individual religion--in fact religion must have begun with individuals, as is the case with all...

[1417] So with the theory of universal borrowing from one center advocated by Stucken (_Astralmythen_), Winckler (_Himmels- und Weltensbild der Babylonier als Grundlage der Welt...

+635+. The climax of the organization of external religion appears in the conception of gods proper; this conception is always associated with more or less well-developed instit...

+421+. Totemism and taboo are both of them intimately connected with the history of early religion, but in different ways. Totemism is not essentially religious if religion be h...

+1154+. It is remarked above[2103] that the sphere of religion is wholly distinct from that of science (including philosophy and art) and from that of constructive ethics (the d...

+225+. The lowest tribes known to us regard the whole world of nature and the human dead as things to be feared and usually as things to be propitiated. In most cases they conce...

+101+. The earliest known forms of social life are characterized by the performance of public ceremonies, which are almost always religious. Religion in some form enters into al...

+882+. The regulation of relations with the superhuman world has been attempted by means of friendly social intercourse with supernatural Powers, and by studying their methods o...

+943+. The preceding survey of early religious customs and institutions discloses a recognizable unity in diversity. Everywhere we find the same classes of sacred objects and th...

+17+. The doctrine of the soul is so interwoven with the history of religious beliefs that a brief statement of its early forms will be appropriate before we enter on the consid...

+819+. Myths represent the savage and half-civilized science of origins, the imaginary construction of the world. From the earliest times men have shown curiosity respecting the...

+1+. It appears probable that primitive men endowed with their own qualities every seemingly active object in the world. Experience forced them to take note of the relations of...

Savage treatment of superhuman Powers discriminating, 225-228; Charms and fetish objects, 229, 230; Life-force (mana), 231-233; not an object of worship, but enters into allianc...

EXTERNAL WORSHIP. Establishment of relations with Powers, 1017, 1018; by processes, 1019-1021; by gifts, 1022, 1023; by messengers, 1024, 1025; Blood is placatory as a gift of f...

TOTEMISM. Social protective clan customs, 422; Control of marriage by exogamic organization, 423-428; Theories of the origin of exogamy (scarcity of women, primitive promiscuity...

ECONOMIC CEREMONIES. Propitiation of hunted animals, 122-125; Taboos, 126; Rules about eating, 127-128; Magical means of procuring food, 129-131; Use of blood, 132; to fertilize...

DEPARTMENTAL GODS. In half-civilised communities, 658-662; In Maya, Mexican, and Peruvian religions, 663-665; Among Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, 666-670; Supposed Semitic inst...

POLYTHEISM. Differences between the polytheistic schemes of various peoples: Egyptian, Semitic, Indo-European, Mexican, Peruvian, 945-950; Extent of anthropomorphization of gods...

The object of this volume is to describe the principal customs and ideas that underlie all public religion; the details are selected from a large mass of material, which is incr...

NATURE OF THE SOUL. Universal belief in an interior something, 18; its basis, 19; from observation of breath, 21; of shadow, 22; of blood, 23; Its form a sublimated double of th...

THE SCIENTIFIC ELEMENT. When science clashes with religion, 1155: Phases in the relation between the two: when there is no knowledge of natural law--a crude conception of unity-...

MAGIC. Science of magic, 883-885; Its methods, 886, 887; Relation between magic and religion, 888-890; Magic a social product, 891; Magicians, 893-894; Families, 895; Women, 895...

Mingling of myth and legend, 859, 860; Original nature of a god given in popular observances, 861; Interpretation of myths, 862; Ancient, 863; Recent, 864-879; Influence of myth...

Science and religion coeval, 1; Man's sense of dependence on mysterious Powers, 2; Early man's feeling toward them of a mixed nature, 3; mainly selfish, 4; Prominence of fear, 6...