Date of Fellowship Completion
5-1-2026
Major Department
History
First Project Advisor
Robert Hasenfratz
Second Project Advisor
Richard Sosis
Graduation Date
5-2027
Abstract
Numerous cultures throughout the world construct mythologies and cosmologies which include a triad, triple deity, or three world cosmology. Specifically, this refers either to belief in a singular deity with three forms, belief in a distinct group of three divine beings with a common characteristic, or belief in three cosmic realms, such as the human world, underworld, and divine world. This phenomenon occurs within Europe, South Asia and East Asia, as well as North America. While many may be familiar with the Greek Moirai and the Christian trinity, this pattern appears well beyond the ancient and medieval cultures who inhabited western Eurasia; the phenomenon of the trinity also consistently appears throughout Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, and indigenous North American spiritual traditions. The purpose of this study has been to examine why the phenomenon of the trinity has been so globally prevalent, to the extent that it has emerged in regions widely geographically separate from one another, where there may have been more independent invention than cultural diffusion. The study has been conducted with an extensive literature review, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research between fields of mythology, history, anthropology, cultural numerology, and psychology. Ultimately, this study has found the phenomenon of the trinity’s global prevalence to be multicausal, with several different schools of thought to provide explanation: Jungian collective unconscious, Proto-Indo European cultural diffusion, temporal organization, environmental observation, and cognitive theory. This study has found that each of these individual schools of thought are correct to some extent, but certain schools of thought are more sufficient in explaining trinities in certain regions rather than others. This article will evaluate each of these models, to determine which factors for the trinity’s prevalence function best in each region and attempt to determine which school of thought is most comprehensive.
Accessibility Requirements
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