Of Many Souls of Man: Comparative Studies on the Concepts of a Soul(s) in Different Cultures

Throughout the history many different concepts concerning afterlife have been developed. Especially the spiritual forms that are leaving the body after the death of a person. The term “soul” is not very precise in that context and this paper is trying to explain definitions of a “soul” based on the variety of examples from history of human beliefs. It is obvious that simple and single definition cannot be formulated for all different kinds of religions but the classification of at least some elements would be very helpful for studying the matter further. The source material taken into consideration include Siberian shamanism, ancient Egyptian religion, Mesopotamian and Anatolian concepts, as well as the Chinese and the Maya beliefs.