American, African, and Old European Mythologies PDF Download

Author: Yves Bonnefoy
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226064573
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Here are 80 articles on mythologies from around the world, including Native Americans, African, Celtic, Norse, and Slavic, and about such topics as fire, the cosmos, and creation. Also includes an overview of the Indo-Europeans and an essay on the religions and myths of Armenia. Illustrations.

Author: Yves Bonnefoy
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226064567
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
These 130 articles Aisan mythologies and cover such topics as Buddhist and Hindu symbolic systems, myth in pre-Islamic Iran, Chinese cosmology and demons, and the Japanese conceptions of the afterlife and the "vital spirit". Also includes myths from Turkey, Korea, Tibet, and Mongolia. Illustrations.

Author: Martyn Whittock
Publisher: Robinson
ISBN: 1780338937
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
A very readable guide which fills the gap between academic analysis and less critical retellings of the myths and legends. Marytn Whittock provides an accessible overview while also assessing the current state of research regarding the origins and significance of the myths. Since all records of the myths first occur in the early medieval period, the focus is on the survival of pre-Christian mythology and the interactions of the early Christian writers with these myths. A wide-ranging and enthralling introduction to Celtic mythology, from the Irish gods before gods, the Fomorians, to the children of Llyr, the sea deity; from the hunter-warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill, whose exploits are chronicled in the Fenian Cycle, to Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster; and from the Welsh heroes of the Mabinogion to Arthur, King of Britain, though the mythical, Welsh version who predates the medieval legends.

Author: Alfred Kagan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442242612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This third edition of the Reference Guide to Africa explains the most important resources for the study of the continent of Africa. It contains a general sources section and a larger disciplinary oriented section. All sources are annotated. A new edition is sorely needed since the last edition was published nine years ago. The previous editions have been successfully used in research libraries worldwide since 1999, and it has been used to teach several African studies research courses. The book provides an orientation for researching almost any topic in the arts, humanities and social sciences concerning the continent of Africa, and all of its countries and ethnic groups. The first part explains and lists portals, databases, bibliographies, indexes, guides, encyclopedias, country sources, biography, primary sources, government publications, and statistics. The second part presents 16 subject-oriented chapters, mostly in the arts, humanities and social sciences, from agriculture and food security to women studies. It covers sources that broadly cover the continent, or in some cases only North Africa (and the Middle East). It generally excludes sources limited to one country or region of Africa, except for North Africa because of the nature of the literature. One-third of the sources in this edition are new, and nearly half of them are available in electronic format. There are author/title and subject indexes. This unique work is intended for students, teachers, librarians, and researchers. It likely will be used most by reference librarians and teachers for students in high school through graduate studies. It will also be used independently by undergraduate and graduate students. It can be used to answer simple reference questions, provide the resources for an undergraduate paper, or for comprehensive work by advanced students and researchers.

Author: A.J. Drew
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1601639287
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
“If there is one quote from this book which deserves to be emblazoned on the opening pages of your Book of Shadows; above the door of your house (or temple); and in every mind it is this: ‘Wicca is not a place to go, it is a journey to take.’”—Spiral Nature For thousands of years, we have been told that God was a man. Then someone reminded us of when God was a woman. Now we have a reference for the sensible folk who have always felt that it takes two. If you have ever thought there was more to religion than ancient rituals performed for reasons unknown, this book will show you exactly what you have been looking for. If you have already come to the realization that Wicca is the religion for you, this book will help fill those many blanks that have been left by other books. Author A.J. Drew makes no attempt to dictate religious dogma or routine. He is quick to point out that the title does not start with the word the. He illustrates the many issues a person’s religion should address and shows how he has been able to find answers to those issues through the practice of a modern religion that was based on some of the oldest principles of the ancient world. A Wiccan Bible takes you through the journey of life in three stages: • Maiden and Master: Creation, Wiccaning, and Self-dedication. • Mother and Father: Initiation, Handfasting/Handparting, and the Wheel of the Year. • Crone and Sage: Community, the world, and death. Mythology and science converge as the author details a life’s journey into a religion with both old world ritual and new world science, fusing both into a creation myth which satisfies not only mind, but soul as well. A Wiccan Bible not only shows a religious path filled with joy, but one that offers the ability to accept and manage sorrow. It is filled with ritual and with the reasons why ritual is fulfilling, rewarding, and a necessary part of everyday life. As A.J. addresses each issue, he demonstrates not only how he found the solutions in Wicca, and the many ways in which science and magick have helped him to do so. A Wiccan Bible also contains select recipes that the author has collected, including mixtures for incense, oils, and baths.

Author: Bruce McClelland
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472026232
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The first book to explore the origins of the vampire slayer “A fascinating comparison of the original vampire myths to their later literary transformations.” —Adam Morton, author of On Evil “From the Balkan Mountains to Beverly Hills, Bruce has mapped the vampire’s migration. There’s no better guide for the trek.” —Jan L. Perkowski, Professor, Slavic Department, University of Virginia, and author of Vampires of the Slavs and The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism “The vampire slayer is our protector, our hero, our Buffy. But how much do we really know about him—or her? Very little, it turns out, and Bruce McClelland shows us why: because the vampire slayer is an unsettling figure, almost as disturbing as the evil she is set to destroy. Prepare to be frightened . . . and enlightened.” —Corey Robin, author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea “What is unique about this book is that it is the first of its kind to focus on the vampire hunter, rather than the vampire. As such, it makes a significant contribution to the field. This book will appeal to scholars and researchers of folklore, as well as anyone interested in the literature and popular culture of the vampire.” —Elizabeth Miller, author of Dracula and A Dracula Handbook “Shades of Van Helsing! Vampirologist extraordinaire Bruce McClelland has managed that rarest of feats: developing a radically new and thoroughly enlightening perspective on a topic of eternal fascination. Ranging from the icons of popular culture to previously overlooked details of Balkan and Slavic history and folk practice, he has rethought the borders of life and death, good and evil, saint and sinner, vampires and their slayers. Excellent scholarship, and a story that never flags.” —Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago, and author of Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship,Authority: Construction and Corrosion, and Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology and Practice

Author: Lee Irwin
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498554083
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 475

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Book Description
Reincarnation in America: An Esoteric History surveys the complex history of reincarnation theories across multiple fields of discourse in a pre-American context, ranging from early Greek traditions to Medieval Christian theories, Renaissance esotericism, and European Kabbalah, all of which had adherents that brought those theories to America. Rebirth theories are shown in all these groups to be highly complex and often disjunctive with mainstream religions even though members of conventional religions frequently affirm the possibility of rebirth. As a history of an idea, reincarnation theory is a current, vital belief pattern that cuts across a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and scientific domains in a long, complex history not reducible to any specific religious or theoretical explanation. This book is cross-disciplinary and multicultural, linking religious studies perspectives with science based research; it draws upon many distinct disciplines and avoids reduction of reincarnation to any specific theory. The underlying thesis is to demonstrate the complexity of reincarnation theories; what is unique is the historical overview and the gradual shift away from religious theories of rebirth to new theories that are therapeutic and trans-traditional.

Author: Panagiota Sarischouli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111435210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 693

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Book Description
The earliest written references to the Osirian myth-complex appeared already in the Pyramid Text spells (c. 2400–2300 BCE). The most complete exposition of this ancient Egyptian myth is, however, found in the Greek treatise On Isis and Osiris, in which the 2nd-century CE Platonist Plutarch utilises Egyptian mythology to advocate his philosophical ideas concerning the divine and the nature of the cosmos. This book aims at “decoding” Plutarch’s narrative of the Osirian myth, linking his claims to the existing Egyptian and Greek parallels. It thus analyses a multitude of mythic and religious traditions from a transcultural perspective, exploring the relation of the Pharaonic features of the Osirian divinities to the features they had acquired in Ptolemaic and Roman times, interpreting the Egyptian myth within the overall framework of parallel mythologies from other cultures, and examining whether the brief mythic stories (historiolae) recited in Late Egyptian ritual texts can be deployed to enrich the context of certain obscure episodes in Plutarch’s account of the myth. The book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Plutarch and later Middle Platonism, but also to Egyptologists. Due to its thematic variety and scope, this publication will also appeal to a wider array of readers (specialists and non-specialists alike) interested in religious syncretism, interreligious connections, and the challenge of multiculturalism from Hellenistic times until Late Antiquity.

Author: Theresa Bane
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786471115
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
Fairies have been revered and feared, sometimes simultaneously, throughout recorded history. This encyclopedia of concise entries, from the A-senee-ki-waku of northeastern North America to the Zips of Central America and Mexico, includes more than 2,500 individual beings and species of fairy and nature spirits from a wide range of mythologies and religions from all over the globe.

Author: Page duBois
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674369130
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Many people worship not just one but many gods. Yet a relentless prejudice against polytheism denies legitimacy to some of the world’s oldest and richest religious traditions. In her examination of polytheistic cultures both ancient and contemporary—those of Greece and Rome, the Bible and the Quran, as well as modern India—Page duBois refutes the idea that the worship of multiple gods naturally evolves over time into the “higher” belief in a single deity. In A Million and One Gods, she shows that polytheism has endured intact for millennia even in the West, despite the many hidden ways that monotheistic thought continues to shape Western outlooks. In English usage, the word “polytheism” comes from the seventeenth-century writings of Samuel Purchas. It was pejorative from the beginning—a word to distinguish the belief system of backward peoples from the more theologically advanced religion of Protestant Christians. Today, when monotheistic fundamentalisms too often drive people to commit violent acts, polytheism remains a scandalous presence in societies still oriented according to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim beliefs. Even in the multicultural milieus of twenty-first-century America and Great Britain, polytheism finds itself marginalized. Yet it persists, perhaps because polytheism corresponds to unconscious needs and deeply held values of tolerance, diversity, and equality that are central to civilized societies.