The Threshold Covenant; or, The Beginning of Religious Rites

The author examines the origins and development of rites centered on doorways and household altars, arguing that early rituals expressed belief in binding relations between humans and the divine. He documents threshold ceremonies such as blood welcomes at the door, marriage threshold customs, being carried across or stepping over thresholds, foundation offerings, and symbolic marks like the red hand. The study then traces how these domestic practices expanded into temple thresholds across diverse regions and island cultures, and how threshold sanctity shaped local and national boundary rites. The work concludes with an inductive argument that blood offerings underlie covenant-making and sacred boundary formation.