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Roman Household Spirits: Manes, Panes and Lares
To the ancient Romans, everything was imbued with a divine spirit (numen, plural: numina) which gave it life. Even supposedly inanimate objects like rocks and trees possessed a numen, a belief which no doubt grew out of the early religious...
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The Sky Beings: Thunder and His Helpers
The Sky Beings: Thunder and His Helpers is a legend of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy of the Six Nations of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. The story features the supernatural entities known as the Thunders...
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Early Media Coverage of the Sand Creek Massacre and Continuing Controversy
The earliest reports on the Sand Creek Massacre (29 November 1864) characterized it as a great battle in which the Third Colorado Cavalry under Colonel John Chivington defeated a large force of armed Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors. By the...
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Zwingli's On Rejecting Lent and Protecting Christian Liberty
Although Huldrych Zwingli (l. 1483-1531) began his Reformation efforts in Zürich in 1519, his first break with the Church came in 1522 when he defended a group of citizens who had broken the Lenten fast by eating sausages. The event, known...
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The Woman and the Monster
The Woman and the Monster is a legend of the Arapaho nation about a woman who, seeming to drown in a river, is transported to the realm of an elemental water spirit who teaches her the proper way for her people to honor him and, in so doing...
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The Masaesyli and Massylii of Numidia
The North African Berber kingdom of Numidia (202-40 BCE) was originally inhabited by a tribe (or federation of tribes) known as the Masaesyli, to the west, and a coalition of smaller tribes, known as the Massylii, to the east. The meaning...
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Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Persia
A vision of the afterlife is articulated by every culture, ancient or modern, in an effort to answer the question of what happens after death. Ancient Persia had the same interest in this as any culture of the past or in the present day and...
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Fatima Al-Fihri and Al-Qarawiyyin University
Fatima Al-Fihri (c. 800-880) was a Muslim woman, scholar and philanthropist who is credited with founding the world’s oldest, continuously running university during the 9th century: the University of Al-Qarawiyyin, located in Fez in Morocco...
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The Brave Who Went on the Warpath Alone and Won the Name of the Lone Warrior
The Brave Who Went on the Warpath Alone and Won the Name of the Lone Warrior is a Sioux tale in the tradition of the hero's journey in which a young person overcomes seemingly impossible challenges and is recognized as a great champion and...
Article
Dogs and Their Collars in Ancient Mesoamerica
Dogs were an integral aspect of the lives of the people of Mesoamerica regardless of their location or culture and, throughout the region, were recognized as liminal beings belonging not only to the natural world and that of humans but to...