This paper addresses a question that has puzzled scholars for more than a century: "Why is a belief in dragons found over much of the earth?" It argues that dragons evolved from rainbows through the concept of the rainbow serpent, a concept that itself extends far back into the Pleistocene. In this perspective many seemingly arbitrary traits which are widely associated with dragons are seen to have a physical explanation.
Anthropos is the international journal of anthropology and linguistics, founded in 1906 by Wilhelm Schmidt. The title of the journal stands for the Greek word for “human being” and expresses its main purpose – namely the study of human societies in their cultural dimension. The cultivation of anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, and religious studies was therefore an essential component of Wilhelm Schmidt’s intellectual horizon. This tradition is continued today by members of the Anthropos Institute – the organizational carrier of the journal.
Nomos Publishing is among the leading scientific publishers in the German-speaking world in the fields of law, social sciences and the humanities. Since 2002, Nomos has been a part of the Beck-Group, but has remained independent from the Group’s other publishers with regard to its program development. Since 2015 Edition Sigma belongs to Nomos Publishing. In 2017 Tectum Publishing became part of the Nomos family and in 2018 Ergon Publishing and Academia Publishing followed. Nomos issues more than 60 professional journals that reflect our entire publishing program and range from journals for practitioners to highly specialized scientific periodicals. Many of these journals are leaders in their fields, such as Zeitschrift für Urheber- und Medienrecht(Journal for Copyright and Media Law), Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht (Journal for Environmental Law), Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft (Media & Communication Science), Blätter der Wohlfahrtspflege (Public Welfare Gazette) or Soziale Welt (Social World). Particularly noteworthy are also the numerous interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary journals, such as Leviathan, Kritische Justiz (Critical Justice) and Rechtswissenschaft (Jurisprudence).
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