Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+646+. It is not clear how early the practice began of giving these
beings proper names. In the lowest known tribes we meet descriptive
titles such as "old one," "grandfather," "grandmother"; and so among
some civilized peoples, as the Semites, whose local deities are often
known simply as _baals_ ('possessors,' 'lords'), sometimes as lords of
particular places, as, for example, the Arabic Dhu ash-Shara (Dusares),
'lord of the Shara.' A god identified with a particular object may be
called by its name; so 'Heaven' is said to have become the proper name
of a Huron deity (cf. Zeus, Tien, Shangti).[1083] Names of Pawnee gods
are Bright Star (Evening Star), Great Star (Morning Star), Motionless
One (North Star), and many other such; the Navahos have The Woman Who
Changes (apparently the changing year), White Shell Woman, Child of
Water;[1084] the Kolarian Sunthals, Great Mountain;[1085] the Brazilian
Arawaks, River-born.[1086] A proper name becomes necessary as soon as
definite social relations with a god are established. Divine names in
civilized religions, of remote origin, are often inexplicable.
+647+. Among the simple clan gods divinized men should be included. In
many parts of the world, as is remarked above, chiefs and other great
personages are regarded as divine; this attribution of divinity is a
part of that general early conception according to which there was an
element of power in all things, naturally embodied in a special way in
important men. This sort of divinization is particularly prominent in
Melanesia and parts of Polynesia; it exists also in Japan and in West
Africa. As a rule it is only the recently dead that are thus regarded as
divine objects of worship, and the cult would thus be substantially a
part of the worship of ancestors; but such divinized men frequently
bore a peculiarly intimate relation to the clan or community and became
specific protectors.[1087] So far as their origin is concerned, this
class of divine patrons differs essentially from the old clan god, whose
genesis probably belongs to a remote antiquity and is based on the
general consciousness of some powerful influence in nature.[1088]
+648+. Clan gods are found abundantly among the ancient civilized
peoples, Egyptian, Babylonian, Canaanite, Arabian, Greek, Roman, and
probably existed among other peoples as to whom we have no exact
information. In Old Egypt every hamlet had its protecting deity; these
continued to be the objects of popular worship down to a very late time,
the form of the deity being usually that of a living animal.[1089]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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