Religion, Culture, and Politics in Pre-Islamic Iran

Bruce Lincoln, PhD. (1967), is a Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions in the Divinity School, Univeristy of Chicago. He emphasizes critical approaches to the study of religion. He is particularly interested in issues of discourse, practice, power, conflict, and the violent reconstruction of social borders. His research tends to focus on the religions of pre-Christian Europe and pre-Islamic Iran, but he has a notoriously short attention span and has also written on a bewildering variety of topics, including Guatemalan curanderismo, Lakota sun dances, Melanesian funerary rituals, Swazi kingship, the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre, Marco Polo, professional wrestling, Persian imperialism, the theology of George W. Bush, and comparative demonology. His most recent publications include Between History and Myth: Stories of Harald Fairhair and the Founding of the State (2014); Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification, 2nd Ed. (2014); and Politique du paradis: Religion et empire en Perse achéménide (2015).

• PrefaceList of FiguresList of Tablespart 1: Indo-Iranian, Avestan, and General Iranian1 Human Unity and Diversity in Zoroastrian Mythology2 The One and the Many in Iranian Creation Myths3 The Cosmo-Logic of Persian Demonology4 Toward a more Materialist Ethics: Vermin and Poison in Zoroastrian Thought5 Before Religion? The Zoroastrian Concept of Daēnā and Two Myths about Itpart 2: Old Persian and Achaemenid6 Apocalyptic Temporality and Politics in the Ancient World7 Religion, Empire, and the Spectre of Orientalism: A Recent Controversy in Achaemenid Studies8 Persian Archers and Paradise Gardens: Projecting Power in the Achaemenid Empirepart 3: Pahlavi9 Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text10 Embryological Speculation and Gender Politics in a Pahlavi Text11 Pahlavi kirrēnīdan and Traces of Iranian Creation Mythology12 Cēšmag, the Lie, and the Logic of Zoroastrian Demonology13 Anomaly, Science, and Religion: Treatment of the Planets in Medieval Zoroastrianism14 Of Dirt, Diet, and Religious Others: A Theme in Zoroastrian Thoughtpart 4: Iranian Materials in Comparative Perspective15 The Indo-European Myth of Creation16 Treatment of Hair and Fingernails among the Indo Europeans17 The Center of the World and the Origins of Life18 Hegelian Meditations on “Indo-European” Myths19 From Purity to Law: Avestan yaoždā and Latin iūs20 From Ritual Practice to Esoteric Knowledge: The Problem of the MagiBibliographyIndex of WordsIndex of SourcesIndex of Subjects