general info about hunter religions

The period for the religiosity of Hunter-Gatherer religions is dated to pre 8,000 BCE. This religion is considered a primitive cosmic religion, whose primary belief was concerned with the soul and spirit of nature. The spiritual power was focused in the sky, the world of animals, and the individual being. They Often believed that a high god or goddess above made the world and sustained it. They believed that all animals had spirits, and to take those animals required that they be enchanted and respected. They believed highly in animism, which is the belief that everything in nature has a spirit and carries with it a certain degree of mana, an unseen sacred power. They viewed the sacred as all around them, everyday life and the sacred side by side at all times. They performed rituals for the successful hunting and gathering occasions. They used the seasons to track the hunted animals so they could follow the prey to warmer climates. This also brings the moon into play. The moon itself had a part to play in the seasons, and they worshipped the moon during the full moon phase, because they could hunt the prey at night while the animals where sleeping, making it easier to catch the animals. They also held the elements sacred as well, but fire most of all. They held fire so highly because it gave them light to hunt and gather by during the evening hours. They realized their roles in nature. The hunter was dependent on the prey, as well as the gatherer being dependent on the natural world to provide, so they provided themselves with deities for these reasons. The hunter knew that the hunted animal sustained the life of the tribe, so they believed that the spirit diety of the animals must be kept benign if the game is to be taken, and the tribe to flourish. The gatherer knew that the secret of nature must be unraveled in order to receive the gifts of the earth dieties bounty. They also believed that the realm of the living and the realm of the dead coexited and intertwined. They believed that the ghosts and spirits of the ancestors where potenet, and they where greatly feared by all. The Shaman could communicate with these spirits and keep them at bay. This is only the first step to the religions that we know and worship today, but it was a step that we could not have taken.