Death, War, and Sacrifice

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One of the world's leading specialists in Indo-European religion and society, Bruce Lincoln expresses his doubts about the existence of a prototypical Indo-European religion in these essays, written over fifteen years. The collection, with six previously unpublished essays, is divided into three parts. Part I explores haunting images of the Otherworld across cultures, presenting data that, while later rejected by Lincoln, remains valuable for the topics discussed. In Part II, Lincoln shifts focus from dying to killing, examining data from a single culture area. Notably, he connects sacrifice to physiology, revealing how ancient discourses linked the cosmos, human body, and society in an ideologically charged manner. Part III presents Lincoln's most controversial arguments against a hypothetical Indo-European protoculture, critiquing Georges Dumézil's work as influenced by political concerns associated with French fascism. This collection serves as an invaluable resource for students of myth, ritual, ancient societies, anthropology, and the history of religions. Bruce Lincoln is a professor of humanities and religious studies at the University of Minnesota.