Jeff Russell

Very thorough summary of the book, if I may say so!

One thing that dawned on me way after the fact is that The Ancient City could be thought of as a work of early social science; a sort of anthropological study or perhaps archaeosociology. By that, it is the latent materialist reductionism we see all throughout the book is perhaps a bit more understandable, considering the type of intellectual habits that were en vogue during the time period the book was written.

Your "undead theory" of ancestral worship is fascinating and I think something that warrants further contemplation; perhaps I'll muse on this topic sometime around Samhain ;) I do agree that the term, "the ancestors" we see tossed around a lot in neopagan and eclectic occultist circles is rather vague and murky. I suspect the origin of this term is largely a product of people in those circles dabbling in ATR practices. From the reading I've done on this topic (by practitioners), it seems that "the ancestors" in those traditions is an umbrella term for what's actually a grab-bag of different spirit entities; some of them not-so-nice. The unflattering reality for present-day westerners is that we've been cut off from the practice of ancestor worship for more than a millenium, thus we really don't have anything remotely experiential to go on, besides simple things like keeping photos of deceased relatives up on the mantle piece and occasionally offering them words of respect and fond memory. As you mention, we end up borrowing practices out of context from alien cultures; I'm convinced that this might not be so helpful in the long run. I also agree with you that the "family cult" of yore cannot be insta-memed back into existence; these are things that take many, many centuries to evolve organically. I frankly have no idea how ancestral worship might manifest in whatever future cultures emerge from our own. Also, that the ancient family cultus (and tribal/national traditions) was a lot more varied and nuances than Coulanges might suggest, of course makes tons of sense for anyone who has studied natural religious practices and spirituality in depth using the knowledge we now have.

So many other fascinating things you bring up in your summary, but sadly there's not enough hours in the day for me to comment on even half of them.