In nearly 1500 entries, many of them strickingly and often surprisingly illustrated, J.C. Cooper has documented the history and evolution of symbols from pre-history to our own day. Lively, informative and often ironic, she discusses and explains an enormous variety of symbols extending from the Artic to Dahomey, from the Iroquois to Oceania, and coming from systems as diverse as Tao, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Tantra, the ancient cult of Cybele and the great Goddess, the Pre-Columbian religions of the Western Hemisphere and the Voodoo cults of Brazil and West Africa.