• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

STUDENT'S LIBRARY Sergei Tokarev History of RELIGION PROGRESS PUBLISHERS MOSCOW Translated from the Russian by Paula Garb Editorial Board of the Series: F.M. Volkov (Managing Editor), Ye.F. Gubsky (Deputy Managing Editor), V.G. Afanasyev, Taufik Ibrahim, Zafar Imam, I.S. Kon, I.M. Krivoguz, A.V. Petrovsky, Yu.N. Popov, Munis Reza, N.V. Romanovsky, V.A. Tumanov, A.G. Zdravomyslov, V.D. Zotov. BHEJIHOTEKA CTYflEHTA C. T oK apeB HCTOPMH PEJIWrHM Ha ammiucKOM H3biKe © IIOJIHTH3AaT, 1986 © Progress Publishers 1989 Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 0400000000-438 g 9 014(01)-89 ISBN 5-01-001097-6 Contents TRIBAL CULTS Chapter One ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ................................ 9 1. Paleolithic S ite s ........................................................................ 9 2. Neolithic S ites.............................................................................. 13 3. Religion in the Early Bronze and Iron Age .... 16 Chapter Two RELIGION OF THE AUSTRALIANS AND TASMANIANS............................ 18 1. The A u stralian s........................................................................ 18 2. The T asm anians........................................................................ 33 Chapter Three RELIGION IN OCEANIA ........................................................................ 35 1. The Papuans and M elanesians.................................................. 36 2. The P olynesians........................................................................ 42 Chapter Four RELIGION AMONG THE NONLITERATE PEOPLES OF SOUTH, SOUTHEAST AND EAST A SIA ............................................................. 49 1. Tribal R e lig io n ........................................................................ 49 2. The Ancient Beliefs of More Advanced Peoples .... 54 Chapter Five RELIGION IN THE AMERICAS ............................................ 56 1. Religion Among Nonliterate and Remote Peoples . 56 2. Religion Among the Vast Majority of Indians 61 Chapter Six . - r RELIGION IN A F R I C A ............................................................................ 7 2 1. Religion Among the Nonliterate African Peoples . 73 2. Religion Among Most Africans............................................ 75 3 Chapter Seven RELIGION IN NORTH A SIA ........................................................................... 87 Chapter Eight RELIGION IN THE CAUCASUS............................................................................ 9 6 Chapter Nine RELIGION IN THE VOLGA REGION AND THE WESTERN URALS 101 Chapter Ten RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT SLAVS................................................................1 05 Chapter Eleven RELIGION AMONG ANCIENT GERMAN TRIBES......................................... 113 Chapter Twelve RELIGION AMONG THE ANCIENT CELTS ..................................................... 122 NATIONAL RELIGIONS Chapter Thirteen RELIGION IN CENTRAL A M E R IC A .............................................................. 131 Chapter Fourteen RELIGION IN EAST A S I A .....................................................................139 1. Religion in C h i n a ............................................ 139 2. Religion in J a p a n ........................................................................ 151 3. Religion in K o r e a ...................................................................157 Chapter Fifteen RELIGION IN IN D IA ........................................................................... 161 Chapter Sixteen RELIGION IN ANCIENT E G Y P T ..................................................................... 181 Chapter Seventeen RELIGION IN THE NEAR E A S T ............................................................. 199 1. Religion in Mesopotamia . .................................................. 199 2. Religion in Asia Minor, Syria and Phoenicia . 208 Chapter Eighteen RELIGION IN IRAN (M A Z D A ISM )..............................................................213 Chapter Nineteen JU D A IS M .................................................................................................................... 2 2 3 4 Chapter Twenty ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION .................................................. 249 Chapter Twenty-One ANCIENT ROMAN RELIGION .............................................................280 WORLD RELIGIONS Chapter Twenty-Two B U D D H IS M ................................................................................................ ...... 301 Chapter Twenty-Three CHRISTIANITY ................................................................................... 322 Chapter Twenty-Four i s l a m ............................................................................................................................3 6 7 C o n c lu sio n .............................................................................................. 3 3 3 Bibliography ................................. .......................................................396 Subject I n d e x .........................................................................................4 0 9 TRIBAL CULTS Chapter One ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS I. Paleolithic Sites The only information we have about the earliest stages of religion comes from archeological material, which is quite scarce. We have no knowledge of religious beliefs among our most ancient ancestors (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus, who lived several hundreds of thousands of years ago). They had none, and could not have be­ cause the most ancient representatives of humankind led such a primitive social existence; their consciousness was oriented towards practical matters and was incapable of creating religious abstractions. It was the period of pre­ religion. This continues to be a controversial subject. Some Western scholars maintain that religion was inherent in man from his outset. Modern Christian theologians, com­ pelled to recognise that man evolved from the ape, assert that only man’s body originated from the animal world; his soul was created by God and supposedly his first re­ ligious ideas—belief in one God—developed at the same time. All claims that religion is inherent in man can be re­ futed. Some Soviet scholars maintain that the period of pre-religion lasted a long time, until the end of the Early Paleolithic Period, also covering the Mousterian Period (c. 100-40000 years ago) when Neanderthal Man hunt­ ed cave bears and other animals. Disputes have persisted for many years over Neanderthal burial sites and other monuments of the Mousterian time. Archeologists have discovered several dozen burials of Neanderthal skeletons or skulls. The best known of these sites were found at the Mousterien Grotto, at a cave near La Chapelle-aux-Saints and several skeletons at 9 La Ferrassie (France), at the Kiik Koba Grotto (Cri­ mea) , in caves in Palestine, and at the Teshik Tash Grot­ to (Uzbekistan). When the most important finds were made (1908 and later), many scholars regarded them as evidence that Ne­ anderthals believed in an afterlife. Some archeologists felt that people could not have believed in a soul then, but in the supernatural qualities of the corpse itself (the con­ cept of a “living corpse”) which prompted fear. Some Soviet scholars have held similar opinions. But other sup­ positions have also been put forth. For instance, the spec­ ulation that Neanderthal burials simply show that people cared for their dead as they did for the ill. The very no­ tion of the difference between the living and the dead, of something (the soul) leaving a person at death, devel­ oped gradually and much later. This idea is probably cor­ rect. It is most likely that Neanderthal burials were evi­ dence of a semi-instinctive concern for other members of the horde and a liking for them that continued after death, as well as a semi-instinctive desire to dispose of a decay­ ing body. Neanderthal burials still cannot be considered indis­ putable evidence that our primitive ancestors were reli­ gious. However burials of the dead could be one source from which such conceptions later developed. Another type of find^-the remains of animal bones that seemed to be deliberately buried—are more convinc­ ing evidence of religious beliefs in the Mousterian Pe­ riod. For instance, a large number of bear bones have been found in caves in the Alps; some of them were placed in a definite order. Bear bones were discovered to­ gether with a Neanderthal burial in Regourdou in Dor­ dogne (Southern France). Archeologists feel that these remains either indicate a bear cult, hunting magic, or to- temism (belief in a supernatural connection between peo­ ple and animals). Others think that these were simply food supplies stored by Neanderthal hunters; but this is unlikely. Some recent investigators point out that the bear bones may have accumulated over the millennia without any help from man: the bears themselves, coming across the bones of their dead while they were making their beds for hibernating, etc., shoved ihe bones aside to 10 far corners of the cave, forming piles and rows. Starting in the Upper Paleolithic Period (c. 40-18000 years ago), monuments indicating religious concep­ tions and rites became more numerous and convincing. It was a time when Homo sapiens had already appeared, when more diverse and improved stone and bone tools were being devised, and hunting was better developed and more productive. Archeologists divide the Upper Paleo­ lithic into different periods—Aurignacian,

Load more

  413

Copy Link