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

The volume surveys principal ideas, institutions, and rites that underlie public religion, comparing examples across cultures to trace development from early animistic notions through beliefs about the soul and its fate, rites of purification, initiation, marriage, birth, and burial, and seasonal and economic ceremonies. It analyzes cultic forms and sacred objects—animals, plants, stones, waters, fire, celestial bodies—and examines worship of living and dead, ritual symbolism, and social functions of religion, offering an organized, comparative handbook with references and indexes for further study.