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Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.
Dr. Peet is well known as a writer on American antiquities. He has gathered together from a great variety of sources much interesting and impressive material in regard to the religions of the aboriginal inhabitants of our country. It will be a surprise to the average reader as he peruses these interesting pages to see how elaborate was the religious belief and worship of the untutored races that preceded the era of civilization in America. There is much material in the book upon which to base theories as to the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent. There is poetic and romantic suggestion in abundance. The student of ethnology or of natural history or of theology and even the merely curious reader will find the book one of great interest. We can but admire the learning of the author, and his diligence in research. Contents: Introduction. Chapter I. Races And Religions In America. Chapter II. Totemism And Mythology. Chapter III. The Serpent Symbol In America. Chapter IV. The Serpent Symbol In America. (Continued. ) Chapter V. Animal Worship And Sun Worship Compared. Chapter VI. American Astrology Or Sky Worship. Chapter VII. The Pyramid In America. Chapter VIII. The Cross In America. Chapter IX. Phallic Worship And Fire Worship In America. Chapter X. The Water Cult And The Deluge Myth. Chapter XI. Transformation Myths. Chapter XII. The Worship Of The Rain God. Chapter XIII. Ethnographic Religions And Ancestor Worship. Chapter XIII — Continued. Anthropomorphic And Mountain Divinities. Chapter XIV. Commemorative Columns And Ancestor Worship. Chapter XV. Personal Divinities And Culture Heroes. Chapter XVI. Culture Heroes And Deified Kings. Chapter XVII. Personal Divinities And Nature Powers In America.
“Our main object will be to describe one of the most incomparably beautiful myths that has ever flowered from the mind of man, or from the unconscious processes which shape it and which are in some sense more than man.… This is, furthermore, to be a description and not a history of Christian Mythology.… After description, we shall attempt an interpretation of the myth along the general lines of the philosophia perennis, in order to bring out the truly catholic or universal character of the symbols, and to share the delight of discovering a fountain of wisdom in a realm where so many have long ceased to expect anything but a desert of platitudes.” —from the Prologue
Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.
"The main thrust of this book is to deliver a major critique of materialist and rationalist explanations of social and cultural forms, but the in the process Sahlins has given us a much stronger statement of the centrality of symbols in human affairs than have many of our 'practicing' symbolic anthropologists. He demonstrates that symbols enter all phases of social life: those which we tend to regard as strictly pragmatic, or based on concerns with material need or advantage, as well as those which we tend to view as purely symbolic, such as ideology, ritual, myth, moral codes, and the like. . . ."—Robert McKinley, Reviews in Anthropology