Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2)

In the late nineteenth century, the scholarly consensus held that "savage" peoples possessed only crude superstition, not true religion. Andrew Lang dared to disagree. This second volume of his landmark comparative study argues that indigenous cultures around the world, from Australian Aboriginal groups to African Bushmen, practiced genuine religions with sophisticated concepts of the divine, moral codes, and ritual traditions. Lang examines how early explorers and missionaries often misread or dismissed these belief systems, and he builds a comparative framework analyzing myths of creation, divine figures, and cosmic origins across cultures including Greek, Indo-Aryan, and non-Aryan traditions. The book grapples with the complexities of understanding spiritual beliefs obscured by cultural distance and linguistic barrier, while defending the thesis that the capacity for religious thought is not a European invention but a human universal. Though dated in its terminology and some conclusions, Myth, Ritual and Religion remains a fascinating window into the intellectual battles that shaped anthropology, and a reminder that the study of human belief has always been political.