Description
Book SynopsisIn Religion, Culture, and Politics in Pre-Islamic Iran, Bruce Lincoln offers a vast overview on different aspects of the Indo-Iranian, Zoroastrian and Pre-Islamic mythologies, religions and cultural issues. The book is organized in four sections according to the body of evidence they engage most directly: Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, and Iranian materials in comparison with other data, including studies of myths, especially those with cosmogonic implications, ritual practices, cosmological constructions of space and time, points of intersection between religion, ethics, law, and politics, ideological aspects of scientific and medical theorizing, social organization and gender relations, and other diverse topics.
Table of ContentsPreface List of Figures List of Tables part 1: Indo-Iranian, Avestan, and General Iranian 1 Human Unity and Diversity in Zoroastrian Mythology 2 The One and the Many in Iranian Creation Myths 3 The Cosmo-Logic of Persian Demonology 4 Toward a more Materialist Ethics: Vermin and Poison in Zoroastrian Thought 5 Before Religion? The Zoroastrian Concept of Daēnā and Two Myths about It part 2: Old Persian and Achaemenid 6 Apocalyptic Temporality and Politics in the Ancient World 7 Religion, Empire, and the Spectre of Orientalism: A Recent Controversy in Achaemenid Studies 8 Persian Archers and Paradise Gardens: Projecting Power in the Achaemenid Empire part 3: Pahlavi 9 Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text 10 Embryological Speculation and Gender Politics in a Pahlavi Text 11 Pahlavi kirrēnīdan and Traces of Iranian Creation Mythology 12 Cēšmag, the Lie, and the Logic of Zoroastrian Demonology 13 Anomaly, Science, and Religion: Treatment of the Planets in Medieval Zoroastrianism 14 Of Dirt, Diet, and Religious Others: A Theme in Zoroastrian Thought part 4: Iranian Materials in Comparative Perspective 15 The Indo-European Myth of Creation 16 Treatment of Hair and Fingernails among the Indo Europeans 17 The Center of the World and the Origins of Life 18 Hegelian Meditations on “Indo-European” Myths 19 From Purity to Law: Avestan yaoždā and Latin iūs 20 From Ritual Practice to Esoteric Knowledge: The Problem of the Magi Bibliography Index of Words Index of Sources Index of Subjects
