Hub · Traditions
Traditions
Eight traditions, eight sets of sources. None of them interchangeable.
Animal symbolism is not one tradition. The Anishinaabe doodem (clan system), the Old Norse fylgja (a follower-spirit in sagas), the Hindu vāhana (a deity's mount), the Japanese kitsune (a shrine messenger), the Egyptian theriomorphic pantheon, and the modern American pop-culture term 'spirit animal' are categorically different things.
Tradition deep-dives
Great Lakes, North America · Pre-contact to present
South and East Asia · 4th century BCE onward
Ireland, Britain, Gaul · c. 700 BCE onward (archaeology); 7th c. CE onward (manuscripts)
Southeastern North America (Appalachian Mountains and adjacent valleys) · Pre-contact through present; primary textual documentation 1887–1902
East and Southeast Asia · Han dynasty onward (2nd century BCE formalization; earlier Warring States antecedents)
Colorado Plateau and surrounding region (present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado) · Pre-contact through present; primary textual documentation 1887–1950
Ancient Egypt · Old Kingdom (c. 2700 BCE) through Ptolemaic period (30 BCE)
Mediterranean world · 8th century BCE (Homer) through 5th century CE
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Valley region (present-day upstate New York, southern Ontario, Quebec) · Pre-contact through present; primary textual documentation 1851–1910
South Asia · Vedic period (c. 1500 BCE) through the present
Japan · 8th century CE (Kojiki, Nihon Shoki) through present
Great Plains (present-day Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana) · Pre-contact through present; primary textual documentation 1896–1918
Scandinavia · Viking Age, 8th–13th century sagas
United States (commercial publication) · September 1993 onward