Bruce Lincoln | |
---|---|
Born | 1948 |
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | University of Chicago Haverford College |
Scientific career | |
Fields | History of Religions, Indo-Iranian religion, Ritual, Mythology |
Institutions | University of Chicago University of Chicago Divinity School |
Doctoral advisor | Mircea Eliade |
Bruce Lincoln (born 1948) is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he also holds positions in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, Committee on the History of Culture, and in the departments of Anthropology and Classics (Associate Member). Before his arrival at the University of Chicago, Lincoln taught at the University of Minnesota (1976–1994), where he co-founded the Program in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society.
For many years his primary scholarly concern was the study of Indo-European religion, where his work came to criticize the ideological presuppositions of research on purported Indo-European origins. [1] Since the late 1990s, his work has dealt extensively with methodological problems, and issues concerning religion, power and politics. [2]
Lincoln graduated from Haverford College in 1970 with a B.A. in Religion, and then took his Ph.D. in the History of Religions from The University of Chicago in 1976, where he wrote his dissertation, "Priests, Warriors, and Cattle: A Comparative Study of East African and Indo-Iranian Religious Systems" under Mircea Eliade. During this time, he also studied under J.A.B. van Buitenen, Carsten Colpe, and Charles Long. [3]
David Frawley is an American author, astrologer, teacher (acharya) and a proponent of Hindutva.
Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in preliterate societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.
Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil was a French philologist, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and mythology. He was a professor at Istanbul University, École pratique des hautes études and the Collège de France, and a member of the Académie Française. Dumézil is well known for his formulation of the trifunctional hypothesis on Proto-Indo-European mythology and society. His research has had a major influence on the fields of comparative mythology and Indo-European studies.
The trifunctional hypothesis of prehistoric Proto-Indo-European society postulates a tripartite ideology reflected in the existence of three classes or castes—priests, warriors, and commoners —corresponding to the three functions of the sacral, the martial and the economic, respectively. The trifunctional thesis is primarily associated with the French mythographer Georges Dumézil, who proposed it in 1929 in the book Flamen-Brahman, and later in Mitra-Varuna.
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories.
Otto Eduard Gotfried Ernst Höfler was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. A student of Rudolf Much, Höfler was Professor and Chair of German Language and Old German Literature at the University of Vienna. Höfler was also a Nazi from 1922 and a member of the SS Ahnenerbe before the Second World War. Höfler was a close friend of Georges Dumézil and Stig Wikander, with whom he worked closely on developing studies on Indo-European society. He tutored a significant number of future prominent scholars at Vienna, and was the author of works on early Germanic culture. Julia Zernack refers to him as the "perhaps most famous and probably most controversial representative" of the "Vienna School" of Germanic studies founded by Much.
The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any sectarian affiliations.
Jean Haudry was a French linguist and Indo-Europeanist. Haudry was generally regarded as a distinguished linguist by other scholars, although he was also criticized for his political proximity with the far-right. Haudry's L'Indo-Européen, published in 1979, remains the reference introduction to the Proto-Indo-European language written in French.
Vernon Kay Robbins is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is currently Winship Distinguished Research Professor of New Testament and Comparative Sacred Texts at Emory University, as well as visiting professor of New Testament at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He is a major figure in Markan scholarship and is the creator and a prominent proponent of socio-rhetorical criticism in New Testament studies.
Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Poesche was a German American anthropologist and author, specializing in historical anthropology.
The Gordon J. Laing Award is conferred annually, by the University of Chicago's Board of University Publications, on the faculty author, editor, or translator whose book has brought the greatest distinction to the list of the University of Chicago Press. The first award was given in 1963 and the most recent award was given on May 8, 2023, to Elisabeth S. Clemens, the William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College at the University of Chicago.
The Indo-European cosmogony refers to the creation myth of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Nouvelle École is an annual political and philosophy magazine which was established in Paris, France, in 1968 by an ethno-nationalist think tank, GRECE. The magazine is one of the significant media outlets of the Nouvelle Droite political approach in France. The director of Nouvelle École, Alain de Benoist, said that the start of the magazine "indicates in some way the birth of the New Right".
*Manu and *Yemo were a duo in Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the creation myth, Manu kills Yemo as a foundational part of the origin of the universe. Yemo is sometimes also interpreted as a primordial hermaphrodite.
*Trito is a significant figure in Proto-Indo-European mythology, representing the first warrior and acting as a culture hero. He is connected to other prominent characters, such as Manu and Yemo, and is recognized as the protagonist of the myth of the warrior function, establishing the model for all later men of arms. In the legend, Trito is offered cattle as a divine gift by celestial gods, which is later stolen by a three-headed serpent named *H₂n̥gʷʰis ('serpent'). Despite initial defeat, Trito, fortified by an intoxicating drink and aided by the Sky-Father, or alternatively the Storm-God or *H₂nḗr, 'Man', together they go to a cave or a mountain, and the hero overcomes the monster and returns the recovered cattle to a priest for it to be properly sacrificed. He is now the first warrior, maintaining through his heroic deeds the cycle of mutual giving between gods and mortals. Scholars have interpreted the story of Trito either as a cosmic conflict between the heavenly hero and the earthly serpent or as an Indo-European victory over non-Indo-European people, with the monster symbolizing the aboriginal thief or usurper. Trito's character served as a model for later cattle raiding epic myths and was seen as providing moral justification for cattle raiding. The legend of Trito is generally accepted among scholars and is recognized as an essential part of Proto-Indo-European mythology, although not to the level of Manu and Yemo.
Mitra-Varuna is a proposed deity or dyad of deities suggested to have existed in Proto-Indo-European religion and mythology. First proposed by Georges Dumézil, he considered it to have been composed of two distinct elements – Mitra and Varuna – this divine pair represented different aspects of sovereignty, with Mitra embodying reason, order, and benevolence, and Varuna symbolizing violence, darkness, and inspiration.
*H₂epom Nepōts is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European deity who dwells in waters, and whose powers must be ritually gained or controlled by a hero who is the only one able to approach it. The motif may come from swamp gas rising from swamps and igniting. It may come from the high levels of natural gas in Ukraine, the possible Proto-Indo-European homeland.
*Péh₂usōn ("Protector") was a proposed Proto-Indo-European pastoral god guarding roads and herds.
*Ḱérberos is the reconstructed name of the canine creature guarding the entrance to the Otherworld in Proto-Indo-European mythology. In a recurrent motif, the Otherworld contains a gate, generally guarded by a dog who could also serve as a guide and ensured that the ones who entered could not get out.
*H₂n̥gʷʰis is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European term meaning 'serpent', as well as a possible name for a mythological entity, polycephalous sea serpent or dragon which was slain by a hero named Trito with a help of god Perkʷunos.
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