/lit/ - Literature

>>23228234
The traditions don't have their own names because 'religion' is a modern concept. In the past it was a total worldview fully integrated with every other aspect of life. It was 1:1 with culture. If you traveled 2000 years into the past and asked a Teuton what his religion was he'd look at you baffled and just say "I'm a Teuton". The latin term that later became religion just meant 'duty', and norse forn sidr means custom.

"Pagan" has become a catchall term for traditional ethnic religions like this. Islam isn't called pagan because it's abrahamic, but I've definitely seen native american or chinese practices called pagan. They're sometimes not though because language assumes an in-group and out-group, so its heavily contextual.

Personally I don't care for the term 'paganism', not just because it derives from a pejorative but because it's a catchall and its a negative definition. It doesn't actually describe what these traditions are about.

>>23130077
take it or leave it