Reverence of Nature: Nortliem Eurasia

• Main Author: Motz, Lotte
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1997
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195089677.003.0004; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52595612/isbn-9780195089677-book-part-4.pdf

Abstract To gain insight into the spiritual universe in which the goddesses of this study found their earliest manifestations, we must tum to cultures that retained not only archaic ways of subsistence but also archaic modes of thought and religion. Such cultures exist, or existed until recently, in the arctic and subboreal belts where urbanization or even farming had not entered or prevailed. The European and Asiatic portions of this region, named North Eurasia, have been well explored and the mode of life of their inhabitants well documented; it was found that a homogeneous cultural unit had been formed. In this chapter the beliefs of the North Eurasian peoples will briefly be presented in exploring the environment of very early forms of divinity and in examining to what extent the figures of more complex societies can be traced to the archaic gods.