Page 253 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1554 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith,
no explanation is possible. • St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

seek meaning through rites and ceremonies, myths and
Religion— symbols, ideas and behaviors, that they associate with the

word religion.
Overview One of the most common and, to those who uncover
the altars and bones, most unsettling set of practices has
oderns have given the name “religion” to the many to do with human sacrifice. Castes of people, usually
Mefforts through which people respond to what priests, were assigned the task of pleasing deities, for
they experience or believe in as supernatural or suprahu- example the gods of fertility or weather or war, by offer-
man forces or beings. Exceptions in the form of purely ing their fellows or their captives on altars. Especially
humanistic religions are few. Most people in most cul- when such killing occurred in northern climates, as in
tures throughout most of history have given evidence that Scandinavia, some corpses were so well preserved that
tending to religious matters is basic in their existence, and scholars can deduce much about the way of life of the sac-
the energy they give to these has produced artifacts— rificed and the sacrificers.While human sacrifice has vir-
temples and the like—and events, phenomena with tually disappeared in modern times, it was long a factor
which historians have consistently reckoned. in societies. In Aztec cultures in South America just before
While religion may be what many modern people have Europeans arrived and conquered them, thousands of
come to call it, a private affair, it always has had a pub- people were ceremoniously sacrificed. In many ancient
lic presence.While individuals may be religious, most of religions animals were substituted for people by those
them form communities and these may collide with each who wanted to win the favor of their deities. Bloodless
other, attempt to exert power, and often turn out to be sacrificial offerings, for example, gifts of money, remain
useful to civil authorities just as the religious communi- favored ways of being religious into our own times.
ties find civil authorities useful. Religions support empires Not only beginnings and ends, birth and death, fertil-
and console their victims.They inspire war and motivate ity and burial rites occupied the religious. From observ-
warriors, but they can also be agencies of peace and the ing how great stones were placed, as in Stonehenge
working of justice.The religious may be privileged as sup- in England or throughout Maya and Aztec cultures in
porters of the state or hounded as victims when they dis-
sent. For all these reasons, they are characteristically
central in accountings of world history.

Prehistory and Preliterate
Cultures
Prehistoric and preliterate people could not and did not
leave sacred texts of the sort that inform most study of
religion throughout history.Yet archaeology reveals num-
berless grave sites whose contents show that the living
engaged in ceremonies and left articles suggesting their
care for the dead and their concern for their afterlife exis-
tence. Some of this evidence in Europe and parts of Asia
dates back over 70,000 years. Lacking texts, scholars
have to deduce the meanings of the relics, but these Ritual is an important part of all religions.
demonstrate that religion is a constant and profound In this drawing two men in late nineteenth-
dimension of human life, so much so that many neuro- century China offer each other a traditional
scientists hypothesize that humans are “hard-wired” to New Year’s greeting.