Peasant populations (i.e., sedentary agricultural groups forming part of larger, more complex societies) have probably existed since 6000 BCE in southwestern Asia, since 3100 BCE in Egypt, and since 1500 BCE in southeastern Mexico. Unlike agricultural...

Folk religion consists of beliefs, superstitions and rituals transmitted from generation to generation of a specific culture. It could be contrasted with the "organized religion" or "historical religion" in which founders, creed, theology and...

Charles Trueheart's "A Patchwork of Beliefs Enlivens Europe's Spiritual Life" {front page, Dec. 24}is a motley collection of what the writer calls "spiritual phenomena" gaining strength on the fringes of established religions in Europe. As someone who lived in Europe for 37 years, I...

Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. By William G. Dever. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006, xvi + 344 pp., $25.00. This book, which completes Dever's trilogy on Israelite history, society, and religion, seeks to reconstruct the practice of...