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[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]][[Image:Yogini_cult_and_temples_a_tantric_tradition_ide937.jpg|right|frame|<center>[[Yogini Cult and Temples]]</center>]]

[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]][[Image:Yogini_cult_and_temples_a_tantric_tradition_ide937.jpg|right|frame|<center>[[Yogini Cult and Temples]]</center>]]

In traditional usage, the '''cult''' of a [[religion]], quite apart from its sacred writings ("[[scripture]]s"), its [[theology]] or [[mythology]], or the [[personal]] [[faith]] of its believers, is the totality of ''external'' religious practice and observance. Cult is literally the "care" (Latin ''cultus'') owed to the god and the shrine. In the specific context of Greek hero cult, Carla Antonaccio has written, "The term ''cult'' identifies a pattern of [[ritual]] behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates. ''Ritual'' behavior would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, sacrifice, votive offerings, competitions, processions and construction of monuments.  Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for cult to be enacted, to be practiced"<ref>Antonaccio, "Contesting the Past: Hero Cult, Tomb Cult, and Epic in Early Greece", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' '''98'''.3 (July 1994: 389-410) p. 398.

In traditional usage, the '''cult''' of a [[religion]], quite apart from its sacred writings ("[[scripture]]s"), its [[theology]] or [[mythology]], or the [[personal]] [[faith]] of its believers, is the totality of ''external'' religious practice and observance. Cult is literally the "care" (Latin ''cultus'') owed to the god and the shrine. In the specific context of Greek hero cult, Carla Antonaccio has written, "The term ''cult'' identifies a pattern of [[ritual]] behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates. ''Ritual'' behavior would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, sacrifice, votive offerings, competitions, processions and construction of monuments.  Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for cult to be enacted, to be practiced"<ref>Antonaccio, "Contesting the Past: Hero Cult, Tomb Cult, and Epic in Early Greece", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' '''98'''.3 (July 1994: 389-410) p. 398.

Cult is embodied in [[ritual]] and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches. By extension, "cult" has come to connote the total [[culture|cultural]] aspects of 'a' religion, as they are distinguished from others through differentiation.

Cult is embodied in [[ritual]] and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches. By extension, "cult" has come to connote the total [[culture|cultural]] aspects of 'a' religion, as they are distinguished from others through differentiation.

==Etymology==

==Etymology==