1. Primal Religions
The religious beliefs and practices of human beings in hunger/gatherer societies Myth & Mythology – the sacred stories and rituals of a particular people or culture

2. Paleolithic Age
200,000 – 10,000 years ago

3. Why are people Religious?
Three views:
Functionalism – Religion makes society stronger and gives it survival value
Marxism – Religion is the attempt by some to hold power over others
Experientialism – Religion is based in an experience of Transcendence –beyond our power and understanding and Sacredness

4. Animism
The forces of the natural world transcend us nourish us, threaten us, we depend on them, we can’t control much about them.
My body is controlled by my soul/spirit, so everything in the world must also be controlled by my soul/spirit (anthropomorphism)

5. What Primal Religion is about
Death
The origin and solidarity of the tribe (community)
The Ancestors
The spirits of nature (animism)
Birth
Puberty
Marriage
Becoming a parent

6. Burial

7. The Shaman and the Caves

8. Neolithic Age
10,000 – 5,000 years ago

9. The Story teller

10. The First Cities

11. The Epic of Gilgamesh

12. Priests

13. The Axial Age 800BCE – 200BCE
1) Ethics becomes central to region 2) Religion becomes much more personal, you don’t leave in all with the priests and tempe