indigenous religion

In primitive religions a stone or heap of stones or a mound of earth probably sufficed for this purpose. With the development of the institution of sacrifice in sanctuaries and temples, more elaborate altars were built of stone or brick on which the victim was killed…

…in the amazement felt by primitives on accidentally finding and ingesting plants with hallucinogenic properties while foraging for food; this view is not held by most scholars of religion.

Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) peoples from about 30,000–10,000 bce as well as contemporary peoples such as the Aboriginals in Australia and New Guinea, have celebrated various rites in which feasts have assumed positions of significance. Seasonal variations—important in the maintenance of the food supply—were associated with the…

…masks invariably were prescribed by tradition, as were their uses. This type of mask was often associated with secret societies, especially in Africa, where the greatest range of types and functions can be found. They were also widely used among Oceanic peoples of the South Pacific and among American Indians.

Nonliterate societies cannot have monastic institutions, because the monastic responds to an established written body of religious doctrine, which has undergone criticism and then generated countercriticism in a dialectic process that presupposes a literate, codified manipulation of the doctrine. The monastic founders and their successors…

Prayer is one of the most ancient expressions of religion. The practices and rites of contemporary tribal peoples might offer a glimpse into remnants of earlier forms of religious behaviour. An adherent of a tribal religion is aware of his dependency…

In preliterate society the functions are accomplished by ritual experts who are trained in the special knowledge and techniques of magico-religious disciplines in which sacred power is believed to be inherent. They also are trained in disciplines that enable them to gain a supernormal psychic knowledge…

Most of the world’s ancient peoples practiced cleanliness and personal hygiene, often for religious reasons, including, apparently, a wish to be pure in the eyes of their gods. The Bible, for example, has many adjurations and prohibitions about clean and unclean living. Religion, law, and custom were inextricably interwoven.…

…concerns: Hinduism, Judaism, and certain tribal groups such as the Lovedu of South Africa or the Yurok of northern California in the United States seem highly pollution-conscious, whereas among other peoples pollution concerns are relatively isolated and occasional. Even within the so-called pollution-conscious cultures, attitudes toward the cultural regulations may…

…in nonliterate and in tribal religions; such practices in shamanism have been widely observed in Arctic and Siberian regions. The use of a substitute skin in religious ritual is also explicit in the cultic actions of some advanced cultures, such as in the rite of the Aztec maize goddess Chicomecóatl.…

The use of the terms primitive religion and primitive cultures comes from this approach in seeking an answer to the meaning of ritual, myth, and religion. Various cultures and rituals were singled out, sacrifice of either men or animals becoming one of the main topics for speculation, though the exact…

The well-being of primitive society, in fact, demands the recognition of a hierarchy of values in which the lower is always dependent on the higher and in which the highest is regarded as the transcendental source of values outside and above mankind and the natural order. To partake…

These were of supernatural origin. They might be the result of a spell cast upon the victim by some enemy, visitation by a malevolent demon, or the work of an offended god who had either projected some object—a dart, a stone, a worm—into the body of the victim…

In primitive religions the tribe represents the pivot around which all worldly relations turn. The primeval (or mythical) time to which the tribe traces its own origins is also the time of salvation and fulfillment. Therefore, primitive religions primarily concern themselves with the ancestral cult. Involved…

Among the indigenous peoples of many countries, the concept of nature as a totality is unknown; only individual natural phenomena—e.g., stars, rain, and animals—are comprehended as natural objects or forces that influence them and are thus in some way worthy of being venerated or placated. Nature as…

…opposition to such institutionalized religions, tribal religion, for example, is not usually separately institutionalized but in effect is the religious side of communal life and is not treated as distinct from other things that go on in the community.