World Religions TH 608

1. Chapter One
Basic Religions and
World Religions

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Sources of Information Concerning
Basic Religions
• Non-written records:
– Cave paintings
– Burial sites
– Religious statuary
– Archeological remains
• Two primary sources:
– Contemporary basic religions
– Archeology

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Sources of Information Concerning
Basic Religions
• Contemporary Basic Religion
– An anthropologist visits a basic culture and
studies its religions practices and beliefs
– That study allows for inferences about ancient
cultures’ beliefs and practices
• What did Bishop Codrington’s study of the
Melanesian people teach him?

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Prehistoric Beginnings of Basic
Religions
Neanderthal Religion
•Neanderthal is the earliest hominid with
evidence of a religion
•The Neanderthal buried their dead
– The remains of animals and stone tools were
found in the grave sites
•Were those remains evidence of religious
belief about the afterlife?

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Prehistoric Beginnings of Basic
Religions
Cro-Magnon Religion
•This precursor to homo sapiens also buried
tools and weapons with the dead
•The most famous evidence of Cro-Magnon
man are European cave paintings
– Possibly the paintings were made by priests
to ensure a successful hunt
• That practice has been noted in contemporary
basic religions

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Prehistoric Beginnings of Basic
Religions
Neolithic Religion
•The development of agriculture greatly
influenced early religion
– People were no longer nomadic and could live
in larger groups
•How did the development of agriculture
affect early people’s perceptions of nature?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Animism
– The world is alive with spirits or souls who
influence nature and human life
– Everything (mountains, rocks, animals) has a
spirit or anima
– All of nature is worshipped
• We still experience animism today
– Is a Christmas tree an expression of
animism?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Magic
– Magicians in basic societies sought to control
nature for the benefit of their people or the
detriment of their enemies
– One theory is that the line between religion
and magic is drawn by the intent of the
practitioner
• Is that theory sound? Why or why not?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Magic
– Sympathetic of imaginative magic
• Most common form
• One attempts to coerce nature into some act by
performing an act oneself on a smaller scale
– Fetish
• Any object used to control nature in a magical
fashion
• What modern day fetishes can you think of?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Divination
– The prediction of the future
– This was usually the work of specially trained
priests or priestesses, and was often done by
studying the entrails of animals
• Shaman
– Originally meant one who was possessed by
spirits and spoke their messages to the group

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Taboo
– To be avoided by the unordained
– Religions objects were generally not to be
touched by ordinary people who were not
priests
• For example, in basic societies, one does not
touch the chief or enter sacred places without fear
• Does our modern society have any
taboos?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Totems
– Totemism is based on the feeling of kinship
that human beings have with other creatures
or objects in nature
– It involves the identification of a tribe or clan
with an animal (and sometimes a plant or
celestial body)
• Totemism is still used in modern society in
national emblems and sports teams

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Sacrifice
– Sacrifice is one of the most common practices
in basic religions
– Sacrifices can be made to spirits, animals,
nature, or the ancestors
• Sacrifices to the ancestors is called ancestor
veneration
– Sacrifices generally involve an item of value

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Sacrifice
– Sacrifice can have various meanings
• It can be used to feed the spirits or ancestors with
sacrifices of food or drink
• It can simply be a gift to the spirit world of items
like tools or weapons
– Sacrifice implies a communal bond between
the human and spirit world. The bond is
strengthened with each sacrifice.

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Myth
– One of the most common characteristics for
all religions – basic and modern – is myth
• The modern usage of myth connotes a false belief
• The religious use of myth relates to stories about
the dealings of the gods with humans
– Religious myths are used to explain the how
and why in the world
• What are some common religious myths?

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Rituals
– Rituals are rites or ceremonies and can be
complex or simple
• Ex. Mealtime prayers are a form of ritual
– Rituals often reenact mythologies using
religious figures and costumes
– By acting out myths, the devotees of a religion
identify with the divine characters and their
actions

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Rites of Passage
– Rites of passage celebrate key transitional
moments in the life of an individual
• Birth
• Puberty
• Marriage
• Death
– Rites recall the myths of the culture and
symbolize separation from a former status

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Rites of Passage
– Birth
• Ceremonies surrounding birth identify the child as
a member of the community
– Ex. Circumcision, baptism
– The passage from childhood to adulthood is
given the most attention
• Many puberty rites involve going through an ordeal
to prove that they can now take care of themselves

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Ancestor Veneration
– The worship of deceased relatives
– Some scholars theorized that early people
dreamed of their dead relatives and then
came to believe that the dead were still a part
of the world
– In that way, ancestor veneration became the
first step in creating a religion

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Common Features of Basic
Religions
• Ancestor Veneration
– In some societies, the people feared the evil
that the dead might do and took steps to
prevent the dead from returning from their
graves
– But many societies believe that the dead can
also benefit the living
• By pleasing the dead, some cultures hope to seek
favors from them