Prayer Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Origins and early history== {{further|Animism|Apotropaic magic|Curse|Curse tablet|Do ut des|Incantation|Indo-European religion|Oath|Origin of religion|Polytheism||Prehistoric religion|Religions of the ancient Near East|Sacrifice|Shamanism|Shinto}} [[File:Praying Germanic man 1890.jpg|thumb|A kneeling position with raised hands expressed "supplication" in classical antiquity. The word for "prayer" and for "supplication" is identical in ancient languages (''oratio'', προσευχή, תְּפִלָּה etc.), with no terminological distinction between supplications addressed to human as opposed to divine powers. Statuette known as "Praying German" or "supplicating barbarian". It is not known if this figure was originally set in a context of religious prayer or of military surrender.<ref>Image from [https://archive.org/details/artscraftsofourt00brow "The arts and crafts of our Teutonic forefathers"] by G.B. Brown (1910), where it is glossed as "Bronze figure of a German, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris". "the existence of other bronze barbarians in similar attitudes of prayer and subjection suggests that the composition was a popular one" (Melissa Barden Dowling, Clemency and cruelty in the Roman world, 2006, p. 151)</ref>]] Anthropologically, the concept of prayer is closely related to that of [[Submission|surrender]] and [[supplication]]. The traditional posture of prayer in medieval Europe is kneeling or supine with clasped hands, in antiquity more typically with raised hands. The early Christian prayer posture was standing, looking up to heaven, with outspread arms and bare head. This is the pre-Christian, pagan prayer posture (except for the bare head, which was prescribed for males in I Corinthians 11:4, in Roman paganism, the head had to be covered in prayer). Certain Cretan and Cypriote figures of the Late Bronze Age, with arms raised, have been interpreted as worshippers. Their posture is similar to the "flight" posture, a crouching posture with raised hands related to the universal [[list of gestures|"hands up" gesture]] of surrender. The kneeling posture with clasped hands appears to have been introduced only with the beginning high medieval period, presumably adopted from a gesture of feudal homage.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Russell | first1 = Claire | last2 = Russell | first2 = W.M.S. | year = 1989 | title = Cultural Evolution of Behaviour | journal = Netherlands Journal of Zoology | volume = 40 | issue = 4| pages = 745–62 | doi = 10.1163/156854290X00190 }}</ref> Although prayer in its literal sense is not used in [[animism]], communication with the spirit world is vital to the animist way of life. This is usually accomplished through a [[shaman]] who, through a [[trance]], gains access to the spirit world and then shows the spirits' thoughts to the people. Other ways to receive messages from the spirits include using [[astrology]] or contemplating [[Fortune telling|fortune tellers]] and healers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omf.org/omf/cambodia/about_cambodia/animism_profile|publisher=OMF|title=Animism Profile in Cambodia|access-date=2008-04-09|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912124231/http://www.omf.org/omf/cambodia/about_cambodia/animism_profile|archive-date=2007-09-12}}</ref> Some of the oldest extant literature, such as the [[Kesh temple hymn]] (c. 26th century BC), is liturgy addressed to deities and thus technically "prayer". The Egyptian [[Pyramid Texts]] of about the same period similarly contain [[Spell (ritual)|spell]]s or [[incantation]]s addressed to the gods. In the loosest sense, in the form of [[magical thinking]] combined with [[animism]], prayer has been argued as representing a [[human cultural universal]], which would have been present since the emergence of [[behavioral modernity]], by [[anthropology|anthropologists]] such as Sir [[Edward Burnett Tylor]] and Sir [[James George Frazer]].<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Zaleski, Carol |author2=Zaleski, Philip |title=Prayer: A History|publisher=Mariner Books|location=Boston|year=2006|pages=24–25|isbn=978-0-618-77360-2}}</ref> Reliable records are available for the [[polytheism|polytheistic]] religions of the [[Iron Age]], most notably [[Ancient Greek religion]], which strongly influenced [[religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]]. These religious traditions were direct developments of the earlier [[Prehistoric religion#Bronze Age Europe|Bronze Age religions]]. Ceremonial prayer was highly formulaic and [[ritual]]ized.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rayor|first=Diane|title=The Homeric Hymns|publisher=University of California Press|url=http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9232/9232.intro.php|access-date=2009-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017095410/http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9232/9232.intro.php|archive-date=2008-10-17|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Religio Romana|publisher=Nova Roma|url=http://www.novaroma.org/religio_romana/posture.html|access-date=2009-01-14}}</ref> In ancient polytheism, [[ancestor worship]] is indistinguishable from theistic worship (see also [[euhemerism]]). Vestiges of ancestor worship persist, to a greater or lesser extent, in modern religious traditions throughout the world, most notably in Japanese [[Shinto]], [[Vietnamese folk religion]], and [[Chinese ancestor worship|Chinese folk religion]]. The practices involved in [[Shinto]] prayer are heavily influenced by Buddhism; [[Japanese Buddhism]] has also been strongly influenced by Shinto in turn. Shinto prayers quite frequently consist of wishes or favors asked of the ''[[kami]]'', rather than lengthy praises or devotions. The practice of [[votive offering]] is universal and is attested at least since the Bronze Age. In Shinto, this takes the form of a small wooden tablet, called an ''[[ema (Shintō)|ema]]''. Prayers in [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] were used in the Roman world by [[augur]]s and other [[oracle]]s long after Etruscan became a dead language. The [[Carmen Arvale]] and the [[Carmen Saliare]] are two specimens of partially preserved prayers that seem to have been unintelligible to their scribes and whose language is full of [[archaism]]s and difficult passages.<ref>[[Frederic de Forest Allen]], ''Remnants of Early Latin'' (Boston: Ginn & Heath 1880 and Ginn & Co 1907).</ref> Roman prayers and [[sacrifice]]s were envisioned as [[religious law|legal]] bargains between deity and worshipper. The Roman principle was expressed as ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#do ut des|do ut des]]'': "I give, so that you may give." [[Cato the Elder]]'s treatise on [[agriculture]] contains many examples of preserved traditional prayers; in one, a farmer addresses the unknown deity of a possibly sacred grove, and sacrifices a pig in order to placate the god or goddess of the place and beseech his or her permission to cut down some trees from the grove.<ref>e.g.: [[Cato the Elder|Cato]]'s Mars Prayer, found in ''[[De Agri Cultura]]'' (141), English translation at: {{citation |url= http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/iedocctr/ie-texts/Mars-prayer.html |contribution= Cato's Mars Prayer |title= Indo-European Texts: Old Latin |editor1= Jonathan Slocum |editor2= Carol Justus |date= 13 May 2014 |publisher= [[Linguistics Research Center at UT Austin]] |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060903231425/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/iedocctr/ie-texts/Mars-prayer.html |archive-date= 3 September 2006 }}</ref> [[File:Ring48.jpg|upright|thumb|The [[valkyrie]] [[Sigrdrífa]] says a [[Norse paganism|pagan Norse]] prayer in ''[[Sigrdrífumál]]''; illustration by [[Arthur Rackham]]]] [[Celtic polytheism|Celtic]], [[Germanic paganism|Germanic]] and [[Slavic paganism|Slavic]] religions are recorded much later, and much more fragmentarily, than the religions of classical antiquity. They nevertheless show substantial parallels to the better-attested religions of the Iron Age. In the case of Germanic religion, the practice of prayer is reliably attested, but no actual liturgy is recorded from the early (Roman era) period. An Old Norse prayer is on record in the form of a dramatization in [[skaldic poetry]]. This prayer is recorded in stanzas{{nbsp}}2 and{{nbsp}}3 of the poem ''[[Sigrdrífumál]]'', compiled in the 13th century ''[[Poetic Edda]]'' from earlier traditional sources, where the [[valkyrie]] [[Sigrdrífa]] prays to the gods and the [[Jörð|earth]] after being woken by the hero [[Sigurd]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe25.htm|title=The Poetic Edda: Sigrdrifumol}}</ref> A prayer to [[Odin]] is mentioned in chapter{{nbsp}}2 of the ''[[Völsunga saga]]'' where King [[Rerir]] prays for a child. In stanza{{nbsp}}9 of the poem ''[[Oddrúnargrátr]]'', a prayer is made to "kind [[Vættir|wights]], Frigg and [[Freyja]], and many gods,<ref>" although since the poem is often considered one of the youngest poems in the Poetic Edda, the passage has been the matter of some debate." [[Stephan Grundy|Grundy, Stephan]] (1998). "Freyja and Frigg" as collected in Billington, Sandra. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IoW9yhkrFJoC The Concept of the Goddess]'', p. 60. [[Routledge]] {{ISBN|0-415-19789-9}}</ref> In chapter 21 of ''[[Jómsvíkinga saga]]'', wishing to turn the tide of the [[Battle of Hjörungavágr]], [[Haakon Sigurdsson]] eventually finds his prayers answered by the goddesses [[Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa]].<ref name=HOLLANDER100>Hollander, Lee (trans.) (1955). ''The saga of the Jómsvíkings'', p. 100. [[University of Texas Press]] {{ISBN|0-292-77623-3}}</ref> [[Folk religion]] in the medieval period produced [[syncretism]]s between pre-Christian and Christian traditions. An example is the 11th-century [[Anglo-Saxon]] charm ''[[Æcerbot]]'' for the fertility of crops and land, or the medical ''[[Wið færstice]]''.<ref>[[R. K. Gordon|Gordon, R. K.]] (1962). ''Anglo-Saxon Poetry''. Everyman's Library #794. M. Dent & Sons{{page needed|date=January 2020}}</ref> The 8th-century [[Wessobrunn Prayer]] has been proposed as a Christianized pagan prayer and compared to the pagan ''[[Völuspá]]''<ref name=LAMBDIN227>Lambdin, Laura C and Robert T. (2000). ''Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature'', p. 227. Greenwood Publishing Group {{ISBN|0-313-30054-2}}</ref> and the [[Merseburg Incantations]], the latter recorded in the 9th or 10th century but of much older traditional origins.<ref name=WELLS51>Wells, C.J." (1985). ''German, a Linguistic History to 1945: A Linguistic History to 1945'', p. 51. [[Oxford University Press]] {{ISBN|0-19-815795-9}}</ref> In [[Australian Aboriginal mythology]], prayers to the "Great Wit" are performed by the "clever men" and "clever women", or ''kadji''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} These [[Australian Aborigines|Aboriginal]] shamans use [[maban]] or mabain, the material that is believed to give them their powers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Elkin|first=Adolphus P.|title=Aboriginal Men of High Degree: Initiation and Sorcery in the World's Oldest Tradition|publisher=Inner Traditions – Bear & Company|year=1973|isbn=978-0-89281-421-3}}</ref> The [[Puebloan peoples|Pueblo]] Indians are known to have used [[prayer stick]]s, that is, sticks with feathers attached as supplicatory offerings. The [[Hopi]] Indians used prayer sticks as well, but they attached to it a small bag of sacred meal.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Prayer stick|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page