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CHAPTER 1: Religion in Prehistoric and Primal Cultures
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:
• Compare religious traditions in ancient cultures to similar rituals in modern spiritual belief
systems.
Chapter Summary
“Religious” is an attribution requiring evidence of regularized practices apparently aimed
at making sense of the world and attempts to control nonhuman forces. Primal religions are those
found in the original state. They are isolated, not branching from other religions and not
exported. Difficulty in studying primal religion follows from the fact that no written record exists
and much of what is assumed to be true is based on extrapolations from archeological findings
such as the graves of the Neanderthals and the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnons of the Old
Stone Age.
Chapter Outline
I. Religion in Prehistoric Cultures
A. The Old Stone Age: Neanderthals
B. The Old Stone Age: Cro-Magnons
II. Characteristics of Religion in Primal Cultures
A. Characteristics
1. Awe before the sacred
2. Expression of anxiety in ritual
8. Belief in mana
9. Animism
10. Veneration and Worship of Powers
11. Recognition of a Supreme Being
12. Taboo
B. Methods of Control
1. Fetishism
2. Shamanism
III. Case Study: The Dieri of Southeast Asia
A. The Medicine Man
B. Rainmaking
IV. Case Study: The BaVenda of South Africa
A. Animism and Fetishes
V. Case Study: The Cherokees of the Southeastern Woodlands
A. The Shape of the World
D. Kinship with Animals
E. Dimensions of the 3 World
F. The Sun and the Moon
G. Priests, Witches, Medicine, and Conjury
H. Rites of Passage
1. Birth
Discussion Questions
1. What is responsible for the apparently universal and early appearing trait of human beings to
see “something greater than themselves?”
2. In the three case studies in the chapter, a close examination of ancient religious rituals is