By Anne Moura
This is an interesting pop anthropology text. Moura doesn’t support some of her assertions as well as I would like, but there is an extensive bibliography, so if I have the time/energy I can do some of the research myself. I’m actually pretty tempted to do just that, as this is a fascinating subject. I'm even reading the book over again, more slowly, to digest what she has to say.
Basically, her thesis is that the religion of the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley had a much wider influence than most people are willing to admit, and that it is still practiced in a sense by modern day followers of neo-pagan religions. She does an excellent job of showing the evolution of that religion and its effects on modern-day religions like Judaism and Christianity, although I did catch one factual error and there may be others.
This book is clearly aimed at pagans and includes a number of spells and meditations for the student. That’s fine, but it also includes a bit more flag-waving for pagans than I would like in a book on anthropology. I was hoping for a more objective, academic look at the subject, but I guess it’s hard to write objectively about religion, especially one’s own (Moura is also the author of several books on Green Witchcraft, a neo-pagan religion practiced by her family).