A Cult of W itches to Majiayao Culture
Witch-Cult Hypothesis The witch-cult hypothesis is a discredited theory that the witch trials of the Early Modern period were an attempt to suppress a pre-Christian, pagan religion that had survived the Christianisation of Europe. According to its proponents, this cult revolved around the worship of a Horned God of fertility whom the Christian persecutors referred to as the Devil, and participated in nocturnal rites at the witches’ Sabbath in which they venerated this deity.
The theory was pioneered by German scholars Karl Ernst Jarcke and Franz Josef Mone in the early nineteenth century, before being adopted by the French historian Jules Michelet, American feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage, and American folklorist Charles Leland later in that century. However, the hypothesis received its most prominent exposition when adopted by the British Egyptologist Margaret Murray, who presented her version of it in The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), before further expounding it in books like The God of the Witches (1931) and in her contribution to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Although the “Murrayite theory” proved popular in the mid-twentieth century, it was never accepted by specialists in the history of the witch trials.
Chinese Folk Religion The Chinese folk religion or Chinese traditional religion, sometimes called Shenism, is the collection of grassroots ethnic religious traditions of the Han Chinese, or the indigenous religion of China. Chinese folk religion primarily consists in the worship of the shen which can be nature deities, city deities or tutelary deities of other human agglomerations, national deities, cultural heroes and demigods, ancestors and progenitors, and deities of the kinship. Holy narratives regarding some of these gods are codified into the body of Chinese mythology. Another name of this complex of religions is Chinese Universism, especially referring to its intrinsic metaphysical perspective. The Chinese folk religion has a variety of sources, localized worship forms, founder backgrounds, ritual and philosophical traditions. Among the ritual traditions, notable examples include Chinese shamanism (or “Wuism”) and Nuo ritualism. Chinese folk religion is sometimes categorized inadequately as “Taoism”, since over the centuries institutional Taoism has acted as a “liturgical framework” of local religions. Zhengyi Taoism is especially intertwined with local cults, with Zhengyi daoshi often performing rituals for local temples and communities. Various orders of ritual ministers operate in folk religion but outside codified Taoism. Confucianism advocates worship of gods and ancestors through proper rites, which have an ethical importance. Taoism in its various currents, either comprehended or not within the Chinese folk religion, has some of its origins from Wuism. Chinese religion mirrors the social landscape, and takes on different shades for different people.
Xochiquetzal In Aztec mythology, Xochiquetzal, also called Ichpochtli Classical Nahuatl: Ichpōchtli, meaning “maiden”, was a goddess associated with concepts of fertility, beauty, and female sexual power, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practised by women such as weaving and embroidery. In pre-Hispanic Maya culture, a similar figure is Goddess I. The name Xōchiquetzal is a compound of xōchitl (“flower”) and quetzalli (“precious feather; quetzal tail feather”). In Classical Nahuatl morphology, the first element in a compound modifies the second, and thus the goddess’ name can literally be taken to mean “flower precious feather”, or “flower quetzal feather”. Her alternative name, Ichpōchtli, corresponds to a personalized usage of ichpōchtli (“maiden, young woman”). Unlike several other figures in the complex of Aztec female earth deities connected with agricultural and sexual fecundity, Xochiquetzal is always depicted as an alluring and youthful woman, richly attired and symbolically associated with vegetation and in particular flowers. By connotation, Xochiquetzal is also representative of human desire, pleasure, and excess, appearing also as patroness of prostitutes and artisans involved in the manufacture of luxury items. She was followed by a retinue consisting of birds and butterflies. Worshippers wore animal and flower masks at a festival, held in her honor every eight years.
Kangaroo The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning ‘large foot’). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo and western grey kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to Australia, and one genus, the tree-kangaroo, is also found in Papua New Guinea. The Australian government estimates that 34.3 million kangaroos lived in Australia in 2011, up from 25.1 million one year earlier. Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development. Larger kangaroos have adapted much better than smaller macropods to land clearing for pastoral agriculture and habitat changes brought to the Australian landscape by humans. Many of the smaller species are rare and endangered, whilst the larger kangaroos are relatively plentiful. The kangaroo is an unofficial symbol of Australia and appears as an emblem on the Australian coat of arms and on some of its currency and is used by some of Australia’s well known organizations, including Qantas and the Royal Australian Air Force. The kangaroo is important to both Australian culture and the national image, and consequently there are numerous popular culture references.
Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet. Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. The griffin was also thought of as king of all creatures. Griffins are known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions. Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist, proposes that the griffin was an ancient misconception derived from the fossilized remains of the Protoceratops found in gold mines in the Altai Mountains of Scythia, in present day southeastern Kazakhstan, or in Mongolia. In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine. While griffins are most common in the art and lore of Ancient Greece, there is evidence of representations of griffins in Ancient Persian and Ancient Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BC. In Egypt, a griffin can be seen in a cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis, known as the “Two Dog Palette”, which is dated to ca. 3300-3100 BC. In Persia, griffins appeared on cylinder seals from Susa as early as 3000 BC. Griffin depictions appear in the Levant, Syria, and Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age, dated at about 1950-1550 BC. Early depictions of griffins in Ancient Greek art are found in the 15th century BC frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, as restored by Sir Arthur Evans. It continued being a favored decorative theme in Archaic and Classical Greek art.
Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland was a state in north-west Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843, which joined with the Kingdom of England to form a unified Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England. It was invaded by the English, particularly under
Edward III, but under Robert I it fought a successful war of independence and remained a distinct state in the late Middle Ages. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. In 1707, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union. From the final capture of the Royal Burgh of Berwick by the Kingdom of England in 1482 (following the annexation of the Northern Isles from the Kingdom of Norway in 1472) the territory of the Kingdom of Scotland corresponded to that of modern-day Scotland, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest.
Rus’ People The Rus ‘are an ancient people who gave their name to the lands of Russia and Belarus. Their origin and identity are much in dispute. Some Russian scholars, along with some Westerners, consider the Rus to be a southeastern Slavic tribe that founded a tribal league, the Kievan state. Ibn Khordadbeh, a Persian geographer of the 9th century, also believed the Rus people were Slavic. Traditional Western scholars believe them to be a group of Varangians, supposed to be Norsemen. According to the Primary Chronicle of Rus’, compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus’ had relocated “from over sea”, first to northeastern Europe, creating an early polity that finally came under the leadership of Rurik. Later, Rurik’s relative Oleg captured Kiev, founding Kievan Rus’. The descendants of Rurik were the ruling dynasty of Rus’ (after 862), and of principalities created in the area formerly occupied by Kievan Rus’, GaliciaVolhynia (after 1199), Chernigov, Vladimir-Suzdal, Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the founders of the Tsardom of Russia. Having settled Aldeigja (Ladoga) in the 750s, Scandinavian colonists played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus’ people and in the formation of the Rus’ Khaganate. The Varangians (Varyags, in Old East Slavic) are first mentioned by the Primary Chronicle as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859.
Majiayao Culture The Majiayao culture is a name given by archaeologists to a group of Neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3100 to 2700 BC. The archaeological site was first found by Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1924. It was located near a village called Majiacun and named Majiayao culture. The earliest discoveries of bronze objects in China occur at Majiayao sites. “A Majiayao Type bronze knife, 12.5 cm in length, a tin-copper piece cast in a joint mold, dated to 2900– 2740 BCE ... is the earliest known object made in cast bronze.” This indicates that China entered Bronze Age during Majiayao culture. The Majiayao culture represents the first time that Upper Yellow River region was widely occupied by agricultural communities and it famous for its painting pottery which regarded as peak of pottery manufacturing at that time.