Part 1: Prehistoric Cultures
Old Stone Age
Middle Stone Age
Neolithic Age
Things to remember
Religions that came out of this age

A little history before we look at specific religions.

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Cultures

Old Stone Age:

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_

They are the first ones we as of now can see religion in the culture. The evidence is in their

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. They were carefully buried in a crouching position, suggesting that food offerings and flint implements such as hand axes, awls, and chipped scrapers were placed in the grave during a ceremonial interment. The objects were believed to be used in the afterlife.

A body found in the Shanidar cave in Iraq was covered with at least eight species of flowers. They have also found that the Neanderthals treated the

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bear with special reverence. They have found cave bear skulls without the brain removed, which was a great delicacy, set aside in a special place, and certain bones of the bear put in special places.

The

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_-Magnons

They were like the Neanderthals but they were more

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like the modern humans of today. They buried the dead under a protective stone slab, with ornaments such as shell bracelets and hair circlets, and with stone tools, weapons, and food. They practiced the custom of painting or pouring

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_ coloring matter on the body at burial.

Cave painting was a large part of their life. They also did modeling. They could draw, paint murals, mold clay figures, carve in the round, or engrave on bone or antlers, with realism unsurpassed by the art of anyone.They hunted the bison, the horse, the wild boar, reindeer, cave bears, and mammoths.

They drew a

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between human and animal, but they also drew drawings of trying to control events. They had specialists among them who were magicians (or even priests) seem beyond doubt. We did not know if the shamans were actual artists but they did lead a ceremony that used the magic in the drawing or modeling.

Their drawings also had a lot to do with

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. Human female figures between four and six inches tall are found in Upper Paleolithic art.

Burial Customs - They painted them red because it was to symbolize the redness of the lifeblood. They both

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the dead but also awed the dead. There are indications that some Upper Paleolithic peoples made offerings to powers of nature as well as to their dead. They too seem to have a special place for the cave bear or bear-god.

The

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or Middle Stone Age

The

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age that saw the vanishing of the ice sheet to a gradual shift from nomadic to village life.

W.H McNeill suggested the new directions taken by religion at this time: “A critical turn must have come when collectors of wild-growing grain came to understand that allowing a portion of the seed to fall to the ground at harvest time assured an increased crop in the following year. Perhaps this idea was connected with concepts of the spirit of the grain, propitiation of that spirit, and the reward that befitted a pious harvester who left part of the precious seed behind.”

They were in

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of nature for sure. There was

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and

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worship as well as

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and

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worship.

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Age

Had several revolutionary developments: 1)

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, with the active tiling of the soil, domestication of animals and their gathering into flocks and herds 2)

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in pottery, plaiting, weaving and sewing 3)

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of of settled communities, which created population growth, which created permanent housing 4) the

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of the wheeled cart and first surgery.

In religion - They futurer devolved the mythic Mother Goddess or Great Goddess like the earlier religions that focused on creation and regeneration but now they

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agriculture to her. Female divine power went beyond the animal models of birthing and nurture to the watering, tending, and protecting of the whole world of vegetation. They believed in mistresses of waters as well as Vegetation Goddess of the pregnant earth.

Megalithic Monuments include

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single stones on end,

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two upright stones bridged by a lintel,

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stones in rows, and

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stones in circles like

At least five stages of construction from late Neolithic to about 1400 have been identified. The main axis of alignment marks the midsummer sunrise. This and other alignments for significant risings and settings of the sun and moon confirm an astronomical function. Burial pits with cremated bones and burnt offerings suggest a religious function as well, perhaps a propitiation of sky deities.

Things to remember as we continue:

Human beings regard anything sacred or holy with a distinctive attitude uniting respect and caution.
What things are sacred or holy for us?

There has always been in the presence of the sacred a certain amount of anxiety. Will the holy power be stirred into action? Will this action be favorable?
Have you ever been anxious about something when you asked God?

Many rituals are expected in character. They are performed to bring health, offspring, productivity of the soil, fertility of cattle, and other benefits desired by the community as well as the individual.
What rituals do we do that are expected to bring something good out of it?

The making of myths is universal among human cultures. Myths help explain the supernatural.
What myths (at least non-christians would say) do we have?

Magic has been around for a very long time. Magic may be loosely defined as an endeavor through utterance of set words, or the performance of set acts, or both, to control or bend powers of the world to one’s will. Magic is a part of religion even if we do not like it.
Methods of control -
Fetishism - the presumed power in inanimate things
Shamanism - Spirits are conjured into or out of human beings by one who is similarly spirit possessed.
Popular Magic - is not different in its nature from other types of magic but is not confined to magicians or priests, being diffused through the group.
Where have we seen “magic” in the Bible?

Prayer has been around for centuries. This is exerting something to gain a favorable outcome like: solemn actions, gestures, words, or dance patterns. It is said that when someone casts a spell they are actually praying.
Do we pray this way?

Divination is connected with shamanism. Repor with the spirits and insight into what is obscure and hidden in the present and future.
What would you say gives us insight?

The belief in MANA which is not universal but is belief in occult force or indwelling supernatural power.
Do we have this?

Animism is the belief that all things have souls or a spirit living in them. Also that human beings have a soul or souls that leave the body temporarily during dreams and with finality at death.
Do we believe in this?

The worship of powers has been around forever. It is said that man has worshiped everything he could think of below the earth, everything between earth and heaven, and everything in the heaven above.
Do you agree with this statement?

There is a recognition of “High God or Gods”. Maybe not worshiped by people but known by people.
Can you think of any one who does not believe in a higher power?

Taboos have been around for a while. This is the hands-off warning applied to things, persons, and actions that are sacred or dangerous or socially forbidden.
What can you think of that was/is taboo in the Bible? What is taboo for us today?

Ceremonies of purification and cleansing.
Do you know of any of this in the Bible or maybe done today?

Sacrifice has been around since the beginning. It usually entailed the giving up or destruction of something, animate or inanimate, human, animal, or vegetable, in order to cause it to pass from human possession to that of the spirit powers or gods.
What do we know about sacrifice?

There has always been attitudes toward the dead. A person who has been a daily companion and leaves at death a great void in our lives. No matter who we are and when we lived
How do you explain the afterlife?

Totemism is a group of practices that is hard to define but it is more or less intimate relationships between certain human groups or particular individuals and classes or species of animal, plant, or inanimate object in nature.
Do we have anything like this?

Religious groups that come out of this age:

Dieri of Southeast Australia

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Man
This is the outstanding individual in the group who was credited with the power to communicate

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with supernatural beings called kutchi, and with Maura-muras the highly regarded spirits of the legendary heroes (a superhuman race).
His job was to

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dreams, counteract evil

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, and drive out

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spirits.
He was thought to be able to steal the body fat out of a person to create a powerful magical infusion. This

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many deaths.
Death was not seen as a natural cause so when someone died he was sought out to find the person or persons

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_ for the death.
“Pointing of the bone” is like a curse placed on you from this individual.

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This is when a whole tribe would come

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_ during a drought and perform a ceremony.
It would involve the medicine man and possible two in which

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would be given as a sacrifice.
If no clouds appeared as soon as expected, the explanation was given that Mura-mura was

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with them; and no rain for weeks or months. They also believed that some other tribe had

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their power.
Totemic

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ritual
This was a more important ceremony that was designed to

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Mura-mura.
It was to increase the food supply or carpet snakes and lizards in the Sandhills (these were the totems of the men)
Death Rituals
When the Dieri is dying they split up into

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groups: 1) father, uncles, their children, and spouse(s) 2) mother, mother’s sisters, mother’s brothers, younger brothers and sisters, elder sister. Each had their own responsibility but all stayed away from Dieri so as to not catch the evil soul(s).
The High God or Old Man
He was

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and uncreated having existed from the beginning of all things, and supreme and without equal.
Puberty Rites
The headman was the one to decide when the rites were to happen
They would die and be reborn as a man or woman.
Males - took many months, two lower front teeth were knocked out, they were circumcised, was given a new name, the last thing was he was taken out to a place blindfolded and older men would cut their veins and cover him in blood that is how the young boy-man would get courage to deal with life. Their spirit and wisdom would infuse with him, making him a man. The boy would then be gashed on the neck and back so when they healed the scars would remind him of this day.

Another group called the Bavenda of South Africa

Animism and Fetishes
Every object

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a kinetic power for good and evil.

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and Diviners
These are the most

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people in the community.
They can

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disease.
They can use drugs, emetics, and poisons as found in

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to cure.
Treats everything from malaria, pneumonia, insanity and toothache with success.
Witchcraft

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and

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or Vhaloi.
Vhaloi may be either sex but are usually women.
There are two types: 1) consciously and deliberately practice the art 2) Only practice when the situation calls for it like when a hyena, crocodile, owl or snake’s evil spirit possesses a person.
The Cult of the

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The soul is a

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of breath and shadow, the two elements that depart from every living creature at death.
The soul must find a place to

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so it stays around the grave for a while but not for long.
It may reveal itself to its descendants in

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and make its needs known. Or it may just find another body.
They believe in reincarnation

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with chiefs as they come back as lions, leopards, and snakes.
The most desirable state for a soul is to be held in

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of the living and be cherished and cared for by them.
A

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Spirit
There are many spirits: mountains (brings death to travelers), streams & pools (armed with death dealing bows and arrows), rivers & lakes (ancestral), but there is one Supreme being named Raluvhimba.
He is monotheistic, created the world, and lives in the heavens.
He is not to be worshiped by individuals or families, only communities.

We can see that prehistoric religions have

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_ a mark on religion even including ours but what other religions have left a mark.

What stands out to you from these two religions we just talked about?

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Are they similar in any way to our beliefs?

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Are they different in any way to our beliefs?

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