1. Department of Geography and Anthropology
Many Faiths, One Beginning: Universality in Norse, Maya, Greek and Celtic Faiths
Adam Cusick
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Introduction
Religion is often viewed as being a very complex issue to examine. Its meaning tends to vary from person to person and culture to culture. There are, however, often similarities that can be gleamed by comparing religions on various topics. Buried underneath centuries of influences and variations in the tenets of different religions, there is a glimmer of what can be considered the base beliefs of humans. This information itself is an incredibly interesting find to be had, regardless of the difficulty of pulling back such a massive amount of time in order to discover it.
Numerous religious faiths have pervaded the world for much of known human history, but these belief systems often have significant variation in their core tenets, especially with those that have no contact. Religions which are in close proximity to one another tend to have some degree of syncretism, such as having comparable deities, due to having some transmission of their cultures. One group of similar base beliefs is the Indo-Europeans, with its members having been studied for parallels before. To contend with these previous studies, this project will look at the beliefs of the Norse, Greek, and Celtic cultures, all of which are in the Indo-European group, in conjunction with the Maya culture, who is an outlier in Central America. Various facets, including the cosmology and pantheon of each of the religions, will be looked at to find any form of universality between the beliefs of these four groups, with a moderate degree of similarity being expected.
Abstract
Results
Based on the information gathered about the four cultures, there appear to be about as many similarities as there are differences, even among the Indo-European religions. Many basic themes and ideas, such as the power of the natural world and the expression of many cultural characteristics, persisted throughout each of their belief systems. The importance of gods also was illustrated in each of the cultures, with humans being a direct creation of the gods, often through a sacred material such as maize and blood for the Maya. In addition, the presence of deities of both lighting and fire exist across all four groups. The gods for these two forces of natural power are also often important in their pantheons, such as Thor for the Norse and Zeus for the Greeks.
As for differences, a major contrast among the four is in their creation myths, which each had differing significant elements largely due to environmental influences. The Norse believed the universe was created from the meeting of fire and ice, and the Maya that the world was filled through the power of dialogue and mathematics. The Greek myths told that the gods ruled from Mount Olympus, the tallest mountain known, while the gods of the Celtic faith were born from the sea and forests. A second difference among the religions is the temperaments of their gods. While the Greeks had gods with human-like personalities and traits, the Maya deities were quite bloodthirsty, and both the Norse and Celtic gods often acted as paragons for their culture's values.
Methodology
Most of the information for this project has been gathered from literature review. This is because much of what is being analyzed is told through the myths and stories of the four cultures or previous research which has examined these legends. The majority of these sources were secondary sources, coupled with a small number of primary sources.
Figure 3
Figure 1
Figure 2
Conclusion
While there seem to be a significant number of differences between the four religions, the similarities that have been uncovered to help to point out what could be some of the basic ideas of early humans. Primarily in regards to the significance of various aspects of the world, such as agriculture, fire and lightning as seen through the lens of the gods, as well as the natural world, there are some potentially important commonalities. Between the religions, there is a clear reverence of nature of both the blessings and dangers that it can provide. The joining of the earth and sky is another common theme that is likely to be a basic belief, as it seems to exist in some form or fashion within the religions that were studied as well as some of those who were not. While there is no real definitive answer, which would have been extremely surprising to discovered from this study, there are some potential themes and beliefs that could have roots in the formative years of humans.
Figure 4
Figure 1: “Thor’s Battle with the Giants” by Mårten Eskil Winge (1872).
Figure 2: Image of Zeus with his symbols, lighting bolts and an eagle.
Figure 3: Image of the hieroglyphic symbols for the Maya god, Itzamná, a god of rulership and writing.
Figure 4: Image of the Celtic god of nature, Cernunnos, on a metal relief.
Figures
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Terry Powis
References will be provided on request.