The Religions of the American Indians (Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions) [Paperback]

Ake Hultkrantz (Author), Monica Setterwall (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520042395 | ISBN-13: 978-0520042391 | Publication Date: April 29, 1981

This book presents a comprehensive survey of the complex indigenous religions of the Americas, both North and South, as they were in the past and as they still exist in some societies.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Swedish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (April 29, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520042395
• ISBN-13: 978-0520042391
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and thorough, July 30, 2007

By 

Todd Curtis Decker (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Religions of the American Indians (Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions) (Paperback)

The history of the world is in large part a history of its religions. Hultkrantz's book is an excellent resource on the religions and history of the American indigenous peoples.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one covers the religions of the tribal cultures. Hulkrantz also does a great job in explaining all of the anthropological terms used in the descriptions. Also very interesting is the analysis of broad themes found throughout North and South America that links the beliefs of all the tribes from their origins.

Part Two covers what Hultkrantz calls "Nuclear America" or the region extending from Mexico to Peru including the religions of the high cultures or advanced civilizations of the Inca, Maya, and Aztec.

Readers of this book will finish with a very broad understanding of American Indian history, culture, and religion. A re-reading will give an in-depth knowledge of these cultures.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview, October 27, 2004

By 

A. McDonald "A. McDonald" (TN United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Religions of the American Indians (Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions) (Paperback)

The book has achieved its goal of overviewing the religious belief systems of Native American tribes of north and south america. Excellent resource book for religious comparative studies and Native American tribal studies. Easily readable. Recommended!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately Mostly for Academics, April 13, 2008

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Religions of the American Indians (Hermeneutics, studies in the history of religions) (Hardcover)

This well-researched and balanced survey of mostly North American Indian religions, attempts to introduce the reader to the most basic of notions and knowledge of these religions, in summary typological and phenomenological form, and to provide him with general conceptual categories for grouping them according to their similarities. It is the first such compendium that has been done in over a century.

Part I of the book deals with primitive Indian religions that relied on, and continue to rely on, verbal histories to record their religious, rites, myths and ceremonies. While many of the rituals and myths still remain in the verbal form, many have now been transcribed into written form and have been carefully collated. Like those of the more advanced tribes, these religions too link beliefs and rituals to social organization, social structure, to the environment, and to the social morphology of their respective societies, that is to an ideological system and conception of society that is basically holistic in its approach. In this way, and unlike normal non-Indian religions, this view of religion is not necessarily "God-centered," nor is it to be thought of as being divorced from society or from the larger ecological environment. In short, there is no "pie-in-the-sky," in most Indian religions, as the heavens and the earth are viewed as one continuous "this worldly" whole. Neither or these religions about personal rewards and punishments as much as they are about an interchange between their respective groups and the gifts the earth provides for their sustenance.

Part II treats the "so-called" high religions of the more advanced tribes. And here the author is referring mostly to the Mayans, the Incas and the Aztecs. Unlike the more primitive Indian religions, these religions relied on the written from, and like their non-Indians counterparts are scripturally-based. Unfortunately, the author's research deviates from that used in the study of the more primitive religions, as here he begins to draw on archeology and ethnology.

This deviation in methodology raises questions about the comparability of the two parts of the analysis, since it is clear from the overall analysis that both groups drew from each other. That is to say, the distinction drawn between them was not only arbitrary but arbitrary in a way that arguably could have done violence to the analyses themselves. Despite this, the book provides answers to many long standing questions: For instance, how religions sprang up at about the same time in history in vastly different areas? How interchanges across vast distances may have occurred? And, about the main benefits of religion in the context of both the more primitive and the more advanced Indian civilizations?

Altogether, this is an academic book, and not for the causal reader, primarily interested in understanding Indian religions, as was the case with my interests.

Three Stars.