Hub · Traditions
Traditions
Named sources, named nations, named centuries. No pan-tribal framing.
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. This hub treats them as distinct. Each page names the primary sources, the editions used, and the scholars working in the tradition today.
The comparative frame below links each tradition entry. Where a tradition involves a living community (Anishinaabe, Lakota, Hopi, Maori, and others), the page names the specific community, cites community-authored sources when they exist, and links out to community institutions.
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