Pettazzoni As Exemplary Historian Of Religion

The original context of this excerpt was a review essay of several of Raffaele Pettazzoni’s works and also books by Martin P. Nilsson and Gabriel Germain. It proposes both Pettazzoni and Nilsson as an exemplary, if imperfect, figures in the History of Religions and serves sharply to outline Eliade’s understanding of a commendable methodology in the field. Especially worthy of note is the claim about “the general intention of his work [the Historian of Religions]: to obtain the largest possible audience for the productions of this oral sacred literature of the primitives.” Apparently Eliade did not conceive his History of Religions as a recondite specialist discipline meant to increase the understanding of religion, but as a popularizing cultural endeavor meant to promote the awareness of and familiarity with existing specialist understanding. This is further borne out by his claims, in the Foreword to Shamanism , which immediately follows this selection, that “[w]e believe that such a study can be of interest not only to the specialist but also to the cultivated man, and it is to the latter that this book is primarily addressed,” and “our aim is not a series of monographs on the various shamanisms, but a general study addressed to nonspecialist readers.” Originally published in Diogenes 9 (1955): 96–105. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1973 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.