The birth of primitive religions

The simplest forms religious beliefs already existed 40 thousand years ago. It was to this time that the modern type (homo sapiens) appeared, which differed significantly from its supposed predecessors in physical structure, physiological and psychological characteristics. But his most important difference was that he was a reasonable person, capable of abstract thinking.

The practice of burial of primitive people testifies to the existence of religious beliefs in this remote period of human history. Archaeologists have established that they were buried in specially prepared places. At the same time, certain rituals were performed to prepare the dead for the afterlife. Their bodies were covered with a layer of ocher, weapons, household items, jewelry, etc. were placed next to them. Obviously, at that time religious and magical ideas were already taking shape that the deceased continued to live, that along with the real world there is another world where the dead live.

Religious beliefs of primitive man reflected in the works rock and cave art, which were discovered in the XIX-XX centuries. in southern France and northern Italy. Most of the ancient rock paintings are hunting scenes, images of people and animals. An analysis of the drawings allowed scientists to conclude that primitive man believed in a special kind of connection between people and animals, as well as in the ability to influence the behavior of animals using certain magical techniques.

Finally, it was established that the veneration of various objects, which should bring good luck and avert danger, was widespread among primitive people.

nature worship

Religious beliefs and cults of primitive people developed gradually. The primary form of religion was the worship of nature.. The concept of "nature" was unknown to primitive peoples, the object of their worship was an impersonal natural force, denoted by the concept of "mana".

totemism

Totemism should be considered an early form of religious beliefs.

totemism- belief in a fantastic, supernatural relationship between a tribe or clan and a totem (plant, animal, objects).

Totemism is the belief in the existence of a kinship between a group of people (tribe, clan) and a certain type of animal or plant. Totemism was the first form of awareness of the unity of the human collective and its connection with the outside world. The life of the tribal collective was closely connected with certain types of animals that its members hunted.

Subsequently, within the framework of totemism, a whole system of prohibitions arose, which were called taboo. They were an important mechanism for regulating social relations. Thus, the age-sex taboo excluded sexual relations between close relatives. Food taboos strictly regulated the nature of the food that was to be given to the leader, warriors, women, old people and children. A number of other taboos were intended to guarantee the inviolability of the home or hearth, to regulate the rules of burial, to fix positions in the group, the rights and obligations of members of the primitive collective.

Magic

Magic is an early form of religion.

Magic- the belief that a person has supernatural power, which is manifested in magical rites.

Magic is a belief that arose among primitive people in the ability to influence any natural phenomena through certain symbolic actions (conspiracies, spells, etc.).

Originating in ancient times, magic was preserved and continued to develop over many millennia. If initially magical ideas and rituals were of a general nature, then their differentiation gradually occurred. Modern experts classify magic according to the methods and purposes of influence.

Types of magic

Types of magic by methods of influence:

• contact (direct contact of the carrier of magical power with the object to which the action is directed), initial (a magical act directed to an object that is inaccessible to the subject of magical activity);
• partial (indirect effect through cut hair, legs, food remnants, which in one way or another get to the owner of mating power);
• imitative (impact on some similarity of a certain subject).

Types of magic by social orientation and goals of impact:

• malicious (spoiling);
• military (a system of rituals aimed at ensuring victory over the enemy);
• love (aimed at invoking or destroying sexual desire: lapel, love spell);
• medical;
• fishing (aimed at achieving good luck in the process of hunting or fishing);
• meteorological (weather change in the right direction);

Magic is sometimes called primitive science or ancestral science because it contained elementary knowledge about the surrounding world and natural phenomena.

Fetishism

Among primitive people, the veneration of various objects that were supposed to bring good luck and ward off dangers was of particular importance. This form of religious belief is called "fetishism".

Fetishism The belief that a certain object has supernatural powers.

Any object that struck the imagination of a person could become a fetish: a stone of an unusual shape, a piece of wood, an animal skull, a metal or clay product. Properties that were not inherent in it were attributed to this object (the ability to heal, protect from danger, help in hunting, etc.).

Most often, the object that became a fetish was chosen by trial and error. If, after this choice, a person managed to achieve success in practical activities, he believed that a fetish helped him in this, and kept it for himself. If a person suffered any failure, then the fetish was thrown out, destroyed or replaced by another. This treatment of fetishes suggests that primitive people did not always respect the subject they chose with due respect.

Animism

Speaking of the early forms of religion, it is impossible not to mention obanimism.

Animism- Belief in the existence of the soul and spirits.

Being at a fairly low level of development, primitive people tried to find protection from various diseases, natural disasters, endowing nature and the surrounding objects on which existence depended, with supernatural powers and worshiping them, personifying them as the spirits of these objects.

It was believed that all natural phenomena, objects and people have a soul. Souls could be evil and benevolent. Sacrifice was practiced in favor of these spirits. Belief in spirits and in the existence of the soul is preserved in all modern religions.

Animistic beliefs are a very significant part of almost everyone. Belief in spirits, evil spirits, an immortal soul - all these are modifications of the animistic ideas of the primitive era. The same can be said about other early forms of religious belief. Some of them were assimilated by the religions that replaced them, others were pushed into the sphere of everyday superstitions and prejudices.

shamanism

shamanism- the belief that an individual (shaman) has supernatural powers.

Shamanism arises at a later stage of development, when people with a special social status appear. Shamans were the keepers of information of great importance for a given clan or tribe. The shaman performed a ritual called kamlanie (a ritual with dances, songs, during which the shaman communicated with the spirits). During the ritual, the shaman allegedly received instructions from the spirits about how to solve a problem or treat the sick.

Elements of shamanism are present in modern religions. So, for example, priests are credited with a special power that allows them to turn to God.

In the early stages of the development of society, primitive forms of religious beliefs did not exist in their pure form. They intertwined with each other in the most bizarre way. Therefore, it is hardly possible to raise the question of which of the forms arose earlier and which later.

The considered forms of religious beliefs can be found among all peoples at the primitive stage of development. As social life becomes more complex, the forms of worship become more diverse and require closer study.

The content of the article

PRIMARY RELIGIONS- early forms of religious ideas of primitive people. There is no such people in the world that would not possess religious ideas in one form or another. No matter how simple its way of life and thinking may be, any primitive community believes that outside the immediate physical world there are forces that influence the destinies of people and with which people must maintain contact for their well-being. Primitive religions varied greatly in character. In some of them, the beliefs were vague and the methods of establishing contact with the supernatural were simple; in others, philosophical ideas were systematized, and ritual actions were combined into extensive ritual systems.

BASICS

Primitive religions have little in common, except for a few fundamental features. They can be described by the following six main characteristics:

1. In primitive religions, everything revolved around the means by which people could control the outside world and use the help of supernatural forces to achieve their practical goals. All of them were little concerned about control over the inner world of man.
2. While the supernatural has always been understood as in some sense an all-encompassing, all-pervading power, its specific forms have usually been thought of as a multitude of spirits or gods; at the same time, we can talk about the presence of a weak tendency towards monotheism.
3. Philosophical formulations regarding the beginnings and goals of life took place, but they did not constitute the essence of religious thought.
4. Ethics had little to do with religion and rather relied on custom and social control.
5. Primitive peoples did not convert anyone to their faith, but not out of tolerance, but because each tribal religion was the property of only members of this tribe.
6. Ritual was the most common way to communicate with sacred forces and beings.

The focus on the ritual and ceremonial side is the most important feature of primitive religions, since the main thing for their adherents was not contemplation and reflection, but direct action. To carry out an action was already in itself to achieve an immediate result; it responded to an inner need to do something. The exalted feeling was dried up in the ritual action. Many of the religious practices of primitive man were closely linked to the belief in magic. It was believed that the performance of certain mystical rites, with or without prayer, leads to the desired result.

Perfume.

Belief in spirits was widespread, though not universal, among primitive peoples. Spirits were considered creatures living in pools, mountains, etc. and similar in behavior to humans. They were credited not only with supernatural strength, but also quite human weaknesses. Anyone who wanted to ask for help from these spirits established a connection with them by resorting to prayer, sacrifice or ritual in accordance with established custom. Quite often, as with the Indians of North America, for example, the resulting relationship was a kind of agreement between two interested parties. In some cases - as, for example, in India - ancestors (even recently deceased) were also considered spirits, about whom they thought that they were keenly interested in the well-being of their descendants. But even where the supernatural was conceived in concrete images of spirits and gods, there was a belief that some mystical power endows all things with a soul (both living and dead in our understanding). This view was called animatism. It was understood that trees and stones, wooden idols and bizarre amulets were filled with a magical essence. Primitive consciousness did not distinguish between the animate and the inanimate, between humans and animals, endowing the latter with all human attributes. In some religions, an abstract all-pervading immanent mystical power has been given a definite expression, for example in Melanesia, where it was called "mana". On the other hand, it formed the basis for the emergence of prohibitions or avoidance in relation to sacred things and actions that carry danger. This prohibition was called "taboo".

Soul and the underworld.

It was believed that everything that exists, including animals, plants and even inanimate objects, has the inner center of its being - the soul. Probably, there was no such people, which would have lacked the concept of the soul. Often it was an expression of an inner awareness of being alive; in a more simplified version, the soul was identified with the heart. The idea that a person has several souls was quite common. Thus, the Maricopa Indians in Arizona believed that a person has four souls: the soul itself, or the center of life, a ghost spirit, a heart and a pulse. It was they who endowed life and determined the character of a person, and after his death continued to exist.

All peoples, to one degree or another, believed in an afterlife. But in general, ideas about it were vague and developed only where it was believed that human behavior during life could bring reward or punishment in the future. As a rule, ideas about the afterlife were very vague. They were usually based on the imaginary experience of individuals who "experienced death", i.e. who were in a state of trance and after talking about what they saw in the land of the dead. It was sometimes believed that there were several other worlds, often without opposing heaven to hell. In Mexico and the southwestern United States, the Indians believed that there were several heavens: for warriors; for women who died from childbirth; for the elderly, etc. The Maricopa, who shared this belief in a slightly different form, thought that the land of the dead was in the desert to the west. There, they believed, a person is reborn and, having lived four more lives, turns into nothing - into dust flying over the desert. The embodiment of a person's cherished desire is what underlies the almost universal nature of primitive ideas about the afterlife: heavenly life opposes earthly life, replacing its everyday hardships with a state of eternal happiness.

The diversity of primitive religions results from various combinations and unequal emphasis on the same constituent elements. For example, the Indians of the prairies were little interested in the theological version of the origin of the world and the afterlife. They believed in numerous spirits, which did not always have a clear image. People looked for supernatural helpers to solve their problems, prayed for it somewhere in a deserted place, and sometimes they had a vision that help would come. Material evidence of such cases formed special "sacred knots". The solemn procedure of opening the "sacred knots" accompanied by prayer was the basis of almost all the most important rituals of the Prairie Indians.

Creation.

The Pueblo Indians have lengthy origin myths that tell how the first creatures (of a mixed nature: human, animal, and supernatural) arose from the underworld. Some of them decided to stay on Earth and people came from them; people, maintaining close contact with the spirits of their ancestors during their lifetime, join them after death. These supernatural ancestors were well identified and always personified during ceremonies as "guests" taking part in the ritual. It was believed that such ceremonies, which make up calendar cycles, would bring rain and other benefits to the arid land. Religious life was quite distinctly organized and proceeded under the guidance of mediators or priests; while all the men took part in ritual dances. Collective (rather than individual) prayer was the dominant element. In Polynesia, a philosophical view of the origin of all things developed, with an emphasis on genetic origin: heaven and earth were born from chaos, gods appeared from these natural elements, and from them all people. And each person, in accordance with the genealogical proximity to the gods, was endowed with a special status.

FORMS AND CONCEPTS

Animism.

Animism is a primitive belief in spirits, which were thought to be representatives of the supernatural world rather than gods or a universal mystical force. There are many forms of animistic beliefs. The Ifugao people of the Philippines had about twenty-five orders of spirits, including local spirits, deified heroes, and recently deceased ancestors. Spirits were generally well distinguished and had limited functions. On the other hand, the Okanaga Indians (Washington State) had few spirits of this kind, but they believed that any object could become a patron spirit or helper. Animism was not, as is sometimes believed, an integral part of all primitive religions and, consequently, a universal stage in the development of religious ideas. He, however, was a common form of ideas about the supernatural or sacred. See also ANIMISM

The cult of ancestors.

The belief that dead ancestors influence the lives of their descendants has never been known to be the exclusive content of any religion, but it has formed the core of many creeds in China, Africa, Malaysia, Polynesia, and several other regions. As a cult, veneration of ancestors was never universal or even widespread among primitive peoples. Usually the fear of the dead and the methods of appeasing them were not pronounced; more often the view prevailed that "those who left earlier" are constantly and benevolently interested in the affairs of the living. In China, great importance was attached to family solidarity; it was supported by devotion to the graves of ancestors and by seeking advice from these "senior members" of the family. In Malaysia, it was believed that the dead constantly stay near the village and watch with interest that the customs and rituals remain unchanged. In Polynesia, they believed that people are descended from the gods and the ancestors who came to replace them; hence the veneration of ancestors and the expectation of their help and patronage. Among the Pueblo Indians, the "departed" were considered on a par with supernatural beings who bring rain and bestow fertility. Two general consequences flow from all varieties of ancestor worship: the emphasis on maintaining family ties and the strict adherence to established norms of life. Historically, the causal relationship here can be reversed; then faith in ancestors should be understood mainly as an ideological expression of public commitment to conservatism.

Animatism.

Another widely held view of the spirit world was animatism. In the minds of many primitive peoples, everything that exists in nature - not only living things, but also what we used to consider inanimate - was endowed with a mystical essence. Thus, the boundary between the animate and the inanimate, between people and other animals, was erased. This view underlies such related beliefs and practices as fetishism and totemism.

Fetishism.

Mana.

Many primitive peoples believed that along with the gods and spirits there was an omnipresent, all-pervading mystical power. Its classical form is recorded among the Melanesians, who considered mana the source of all power and the basis of human achievement. This power could serve good and evil and was inherent in all sorts of ghosts, spirits and many things that a person could turn to his advantage. It was believed that a person owes his success not to his own efforts, but to the mana present in him, which could be acquired by paying a contribution to the secret society of the tribe. The presence of mana was judged by the manifestations of luck in a person.

Taboo.

The Polynesian word "taboo" refers to the prohibition against touching, taking or using certain objects or people because of the sacredness they are endowed with. Taboo implies something more than the caution, respect, or reverence with which all cultures treat a sacred object. The mystical essence of an object or person is considered contagious and dangerous; this essence is mana, an all-pervading magical force that can enter a person or an object, like electricity.

The phenomenon of taboo was most developed in Polynesia, although it is known not only there. In Polynesia, some people were tabooed from birth, such as chiefs and chief-priests, who descended from the gods and received magical powers from them. A person's position in the Polynesian social structure depended on what kind of taboo he possessed. Whatever the leader touched and whatever he ate, everything was considered taboo for others because of its harmfulness. In everyday life, this caused inconvenience to people of noble birth, since they had to take tedious precautions in order to avoid the harm associated with their power to others. Taboos were usually imposed on fields, trees, canoes, etc. - to keep them or protect them from thieves. Taboos were warned by conventional signs: a bunch of painted leaves or, as in Samoa, an image of a shark from a coconut palm leaf. Such prohibitions could only be ignored or revoked with impunity by those people who possessed even more mana. Violation of a taboo was considered a spiritual crime, entailing misfortune. Painful consequences from contact with a taboo object could be eliminated with the help of special rites performed by priests.

RITUAL ACTIONS

Rites of passage.

Rituals that mark a change in a person's life status are known to anthropologists as "rites of passage." They accompany events such as birth, naming, transition from childhood to adulthood, marriage, death and burial. In the most primitive primitive societies, these rites were not as important as in societies with a more complex ritual life; however, the rites associated with birth and death were probably universal. The nature of the rites of passage varied from celebration and public (therefore legal) recognition of the new status to seeking religious sanction. In different cultures, the rites of passage were different, while each cultural area had its own well-established patterns.

Birth.

Birth rituals usually took the form of precautionary measures to ensure the future well-being of the child. Even before he was born, the mother was prescribed exactly what she could eat or do; in many primitive societies, paternal actions were also limited. This was based on the belief that the parent and child are united not only by a physical, but also by a mystical connection. In some regions, the bond between father and child was so important that the father, as an extra precaution during childbirth, went to bed (a practice known as kuwada). It would be a mistake to believe that primitive people perceived childbirth as such as something mysterious or supernatural. They looked at it as simply as they looked at what they saw in animals. But with the help of actions aimed at obtaining the support of supernatural forces, people sought to ensure the survival of the newborn and his future success. During childbirth, such actions often turned out to be nothing more than ritualization of quite practical procedures, such as washing a baby.

Initiation.

The transition from childhood to adulthood was not universally celebrated, but where it was accepted, the ritual was more public than private. Often the rite of initiation was performed on boys or girls at the moment they entered puberty or a little later. Initiations may have included testing one's courage or preparing for marriage through genital surgery; but the most common was the initiation of the initiate into his life duties and into the secret knowledge which was not available to them while they were children. There were so-called "bush schools" where the new converts were under the care of the elders. Sometimes, as in East Africa, initiates were organized into brotherhoods or age groups.

Marriage.

The purpose of wedding ceremonies was much more public recognition of a new social status than its celebration. As a rule, in these rites there was no religious emphasis, characteristic of the rites that accompanied the birth and onset of youth.

Death and burial.

Death was perceived by primitive people in different ways: from treating it as natural and inevitable to the idea that it is always the result of the action of supernatural forces. The rituals performed over the corpse gave vent to grief, but at the same time served as precautions against evil emanating from the spirit of the deceased, or as a way to obtain the favor of a deceased family member. The forms of burial were different: from throwing a corpse into the river to a complex procedure of cremation, burial in a grave or mummification. Very often, the property of the deceased was destroyed or buried with the body, along with those items that were supposed to accompany the soul to the afterlife.

Idolatry.

Idols are the embodiment of the gods in the form of specific images, and idolatry is a reverent attitude towards them and cult actions associated with idols. Sometimes it is difficult to say whether the image is revered as something endowed with the spiritual essence of a god, or simply as a symbol of an invisible distant being. The peoples with the least developed culture did not make idols. Such images appeared at a higher stage of development and usually implied both an increase in the complexity of the ritual and a certain level of skill required for their manufacture. For example, the idols of the Hindu pantheon were created in the artistic manner and stylistic direction that prevailed at one time or another, and essentially served as decoration for religious objects. Of course, idols could only exist where the gods were individualized and clearly personified. In addition, the process of making the image of a god required that the features attributed to him be reflected in the image; consequently, the production of idols, in turn, reinforced ideas about the individual characteristics of the deity.

An altar for an idol was usually set up in its sanctuary; Here gifts and sacrifices were brought to him. Idolatry was not a form of religion per se, but a complex of attitudes and behaviors within a larger theological doctrine and ritual activities. The Semitic religions, which include Judaism and Islam, explicitly forbid the making of idols or images of God; Sharia, in addition, forbade any form of painted images of living beings (however, in modern everyday life this prohibition is relaxed - images are allowed if they are not used as an object of worship and do not depict something prohibited by Islam).

Sacrifice.

While literally the word sacrifice (eng. sacrifice, sacrifice) means "make holy", it implies such an offering to some supernatural being of valuable gifts, during which these gifts are destroyed (an example is the slaughter of a valuable animal on the altar). The reasons why sacrifices were made, and what kind of sacrifice was pleasing to the gods, each culture had its own characteristics. But what was common everywhere was establishing a connection with the gods and other supernatural forces in order to receive divine blessings, strength to overcome difficulties, secure good luck, ward off evil and misfortune, or to appease and please the gods. This motivation had different shades in one society or another, to the point that the sacrifice was often an unmotivated formal act.

In Malaysia, sacrifices of rice wine, chickens, and pigs were commonly practiced; the peoples of East and South Africa used to sacrifice bulls; from time to time in Polynesia and constantly among the Aztecs, human sacrifices took place (from among the captives or representatives of the lower strata of society). In this sense, an extreme form of sacrifice is recorded among the Natchez Indians, who killed their own children; The classic example of sacrifice in the Christian religion is the crucifixion of Jesus. However, the ritual killing of people was not always of a sacrificial nature. So, the Indians of the northeast coast of North America killed slaves to enhance the impression of building a large communal house.

Trial.

When human judgment seemed insufficient, people often turned to the judgment of the gods, resorting to a physical test. Like the oath, such a test was not common everywhere, but only among ancient civilizations and primitive peoples of the Old World. It was legally practiced in secular and ecclesiastical courts until the end of the Middle Ages. The following tests were common for Europe: dipping a hand into boiling water in order to get an object, holding a red-hot iron in hands or walking on it, accompanied by reading the appropriate prayers. A person who managed to endure such a test was recognized as innocent. Sometimes the accused was thrown into the water; if he floated on the water, it was believed that the pure water would reject him as impure and guilty. It was customary among the Tonga people in South Africa to pass judgment on a person who was poisoned by a drug given to him during a test.

Magic.

Many of the actions of primitive people were based on the belief that there is a mystical connection between certain acts performed by people and the goals they aspire to. It was believed that the power attributed to supernatural forces and gods, through which they have an impact on people and objects, can be used when it comes to achieving goals that exceed ordinary human capabilities. Unconditional belief in magic was widespread in antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Western world, it gradually faded away, supplanted by the Christian idea, especially with the beginning of the era of rationalism - with its interest in the study of the true nature of cause and effect.

Although all peoples shared the belief that mystical forces influence the world around them and that a person can achieve their help through prayers and rituals, magical actions are characteristic mainly of the Old World. Some of these techniques were especially common - for example, stealing and destroying clippings of the nails or hair of the intended victim - with the aim of harming him; preparation of a love potion; pronouncing magical formulas (for example, the Lord's prayer backwards). But such actions as sticking pins into the image of the victim in order to cause his illness or death were practiced mainly in the Old World, while the custom of aiming a bone in the direction of the enemy camp was characteristic of the Australian Aborigines. Many witchcraft rites of this kind, brought from Africa by black slaves, are still preserved in the waterism of the countries of the Caribbean region. Divination, in some of its forms, was also a magical act that did not go beyond the Old World. Each culture had its own set of magical actions - the use of any other techniques did not give confidence that the desired goal would be achieved. The effectiveness of magic was judged by positive results; if they were not, then it was believed that the reason for this was either reciprocal magical actions, or the insufficient strength of the performed magical rite; no one doubted magic itself. Sometimes magical acts, which we would now call the tricks of the illusionists, were performed only for the sake of demonstration; magicians and medicine men demonstrated their power over occult forces with the help of magical art before receptive and easily suggestible spectators.

Magic, or more generally the belief in a supernatural influence on human affairs, has greatly influenced the way of thinking of all primitive peoples. There was, however, a significant difference between the essentially automatic, mundane appeal of the Melanesians to magic on every occasion and, for example, the relatively indifferent attitude towards it by most American Indians. Nevertheless, to experience failures, to experience desires is characteristic of all peoples, which finds a way out in magical or rational actions - in accordance with the way of thinking established in this culture. The tendency to believe in magic and magical practices may manifest itself, for example, in the feeling that a slogan repeated many times will surely become a reality. “Prosperity is right around the corner” was a catchphrase during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many Americans believed that she would somehow miraculously change the course of things. Magic is a kind of wishful thinking; psychologically, it is based on a thirst for the fulfillment of desires, on an attempt to connect what in reality has no connection, on a natural need for some kind of action to relieve emotional stress.

Witchcraft.

Witchcraft was a common form of magic. The witch or sorcerer was usually considered evil and hostile to people beings, as a result of which they were wary; but sometimes a sorceress could be invited for some good deed, for example, to protect livestock or to prepare love potions. In Europe, this kind of practice was in the hands of professionals who were accused of intercourse with the devil and blasphemous imitations of church rituals, which was called black magic. In Europe, witchcraft was taken so seriously that even in church edicts of the 16th century. contains violent attacks on him. Witch persecution continued into the 17th century and was replicated somewhat later in the famous Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts.

In primitive societies, individual initiative and deviations from customs often aroused suspicion. At the slightest suggestion that an excess of magical power of a person could be used for personal purposes, charges were brought against him, which, as a rule, strengthened orthodoxy in society. The strength of the impact of belief in witchcraft lies in the ability of the victim to self-hypnosis, with the ensuing mental and physical disorders. The practice of witchcraft was prevalent mainly in Europe, Africa and Melanesia; it was relatively rare in North and South America and Polynesia.

Divination.

Fortune-telling also gravitates towards magic - an action aimed at predicting the future, finding hidden or lost objects, finding the culprit - by studying the properties of various objects or casting lots. Divination was based on the assumption that there is a mysterious connection between all natural objects and human affairs. There were many types of divination, but several of them were most widespread in the regions of the Old World.

Predictions based on the study of the liver of a sacrificed animal (hepatoscopy) appeared in Babylonia no later than 2000 BC. They spread in a western direction, and through the Etruscans and Romans penetrated into Western Europe, where, condemned by Christian teaching, they were preserved only in the folk tradition. Divination of this kind also spread to the east, where it began to include the study of other viscera, and survived in India and the Philippines in the form of actions practiced by family priests.

Predictions based on the flight of birds (auspices) and on the compilation of a horoscope according to the position of celestial bodies (astrology) also had ancient roots and were common in the same regions.

Another type of divination - from cracks in the shell of a turtle or from the shoulder bones of animals cracked in the fire (scapulimancy) - originated in China or in adjacent regions and spread throughout most of Asia, as well as in the northern latitudes of America. Looking at the trembling surface of water in a cup, divination by tea leaves, and palmistry are modern forms of this kind of magic.

Today, divination is still practiced according to the Bible opened at random, where in the first paragraph that comes across they try to see an omen.

A peculiar form of prediction appeared quite independently among the Navajo Indians and Apaches - divination by the trembling of the shaman's hand. Differing in form, all these actions: casting lots, searching for water and hidden deposits of minerals by moving a branched twig - were based on the same logically unjustified ideas about causes and effects. It is common knowledge, for example, that our game of dice is rooted in the ancient custom of casting lots in order to know the future.

Performers.

Primitive religious rites were performed in various ways by priests or people who were considered saints, tribal leaders, or even entire clans, “halfs” or phratries who were entrusted with these functions, and finally, people who felt special qualities in themselves that allowed them to turn to supernatural powers. One of the varieties of the latter was the shaman, who, according to everyone's belief, acquired esoteric power through direct communication with spirits in a dream or in his visions. Possessing personal power, he was different from the priest, who played the role of an intermediary, intercessor or interpreter. The word "shaman" is of Asian origin. It is used in a broad sense, covering such different types as the Siberian shaman, the medicine man among the American Indians, the sorcerer-healer in Africa.

In Siberia, they believed that the spirit actually took possession of the shaman, but the healer was more likely a person capable of summoning his spirit helper. In Africa, the sorcerer-healer usually had in his arsenal special magical means that were supposed to control non-material forces. The most characteristic activity of these people was the healing of the sick with the help of spirits. There were shamans who healed certain diseases, as well as clairvoyants and even those who controlled the weather. They became specialists through their inclinations, not through directed training. Shamans occupied a high social position in those tribes where there was no organized religious and ceremonial life led by priests. Shamanism usually recruited into its ranks people with an unbalanced psyche and a penchant for hysteria.

What did ancient people believe

As a result, ancient people logically associated any natural phenomenon or natural disaster with a person. The night sky, the stars, the rustle of leaves, the sound of the sea, the rustles - in all this our ancestors saw fantastic images fueled by creative imagination. Trying to protect themselves from the "evil spirits" living in every pebble, tree, plant, they created defenders for themselves. These guardian assistants were amulets and talismans.

So, the most ancient magic is based on the law of universal participation and affinity: in the world surrounding a person, everything is interconnected with everything, and the whole world, in turn, is connected with a person, just as a person himself is connected with his family. It is not without reason that the most ancient myths describe the origin of the world from parts of the human body or, as among the ancient Scandinavians, a giant.

On his website "Occult Seasonal Rituals", the English researcher William Gray wrote that talismans and amulets can only be compared with mountains, hills, lakes: they are as old, majestic and invincible as nature itself, which was worshiped, feared and praised in ancient peoples in their songs.

The oldest amulets were almost unfinished items that their owners endowed with magical powers. They can be divided into two groups:

1) amulets of animal and plant origin;

How to survive during a forest fire caused by a random lightning that struck a tree? How to become so strong that in your family there is no game and no wild animal could defeat you in single combat? How to learn to run so fast that neither the enemy nor the wild beast can catch up with you? All the questions that the ancient man solved for himself daily with the help of his own strength or primitive magic were naturally connected with survival in harsh conditions. And so how? The law of universal participation offers a simple solution: you need to borrow strength, dexterity, and speed from those creatures that surpass man in these qualities - from animals.

Since ancient times, various parts of the body of animals have served as beautiful amulets - pieces of fur, claws, teeth, bones. They gave the owner the qualities inherent in the former "owner". Bear fangs and claws spoke of the strength of a warrior and a hunter, because a bear killed in the hunt shared wild power and rage with his more successful opponent. The claws of swift-footed wild cats, which were used as amulets, gave people speed and dexterity of movement. Pieces of skins allowed hunters to become as invisible in the forest as animals. Such amulets had another very important property, according to their manufacturers and owners. The fact is that primitive people, who animate all living things around, believed that animals were their close relatives. Each tribe had its own totem - an animal, a bird or a plant - which protected its human relatives, protected from dangers, warned of troubles, and gave wise advice. And wearing a piece of some animal or totem plant on one's body made a person closer to the world of nature, showed kinship with its natural representatives, bestowed protection in the forests and steppes.

Another group of primitive amulets is not of animal origin at all. These are stones. Much more will be told about the stones, because since ancient times they have been used by people as amulets from troubles and misfortunes, as talismans that bring good luck and love, just as beautiful decorations. Of the stones that people used as amulets, perhaps, meteorites should be mentioned first of all. Solid bodies that fell from the sky were endowed with the strongest magical properties: the possession of such an object put a person on the same level with the powerful forces of nature, made it possible to command fire, water, earth vibrations. Such amulets, which are simply raw meteoric iron, were kept by people who were believed to have a connection with spirits: shamans, tribal magicians or leaders invested with power.

Some of these sacred objects have existed for centuries. Many famous amulets of later times (the Middle Ages, for example) were recognized by them in antiquity, at a time when any piece of stone that suddenly fell off a rock was endowed with mind, soul, memory and magical power. Later, it was processed - forged, inlaid with precious stones, set in precious metals and used as a powerful amulet.

Such an amulet is described, for example, in the famous “alchemical” novel by Gustav Meyrink “The Angel of the Western Window”, where it appears under the name “Spear of Hoel Dat”: the hero encounters this ancient artifact, since he is the last representative of the family of the ancient commander and leader . The spear (more precisely, the tip of the spear) is a dagger made of an alloy unknown on earth and impaled on the hilt by masters of later eras. Where does metal come from? This is a piece of meteorite iron, which has taken the form of a dagger in the hands of skilled blacksmiths. What did ancient people believe?

So, we can only build more or less reasonable assumptions about the presence of beliefs in the closest ancestors of modern man - the Neanderthals. More specifically, one can speak of ancient beliefs in relation to the Cro-Magnons - people of modern physical appearance.

In 1886, during the construction of a railway in the valley of the Weser River (France), several skeletons of ancient people were found in a cave near the village of Cro-Magnon, which, in their physical appearance, were very close to modern people. One of the skeletons found belonged to an elderly man ("the old man from Cro-Magnon"). What did this Cro-Magnon representative look like? According to the reconstructions, he was a tall man, about 180 cm tall, he had very strong muscles. The skull of the Cro-Magnon was long and roomy (the volume of the brain was about 1560 cm 3). The forehead was straight, the face was relatively low, wide, especially in the cheekbones, the nose was narrow and long, the lower jaw had a pronounced chin.

Reconstructions of other Cro-Magnons found also make it possible to imagine them as people whose faces no longer have anything animal, the jaws do not protrude forward, the chin is well developed and protrudes, and the facial features are thin. The figure is completely straightened, the setting of the torso is the same as that of a modern person, the long bones of the limbs have the same dimensions.

The people of this era were skilled hunters. Compared with the Neanderthals, they already possessed more advanced tools - spears, darts with sharp stone and bone tips. The Cro-Magnons also used bolas in the form of stones and cores carved from mammoth bone and fastened at the end of a long belt. They also used stone throwing discs for hunting. They had sharp daggers, which were made from the bones of dead animals.

Their hunting ingenuity went much further than that of the Neanderthals. The Cro-Magnons set various traps for animals. So, one of the simplest traps was a fence with one entrance, which could be easily closed if the animal could be driven into it. Another hunting trick was putting on animal skins. The hunters camouflaged in this way crawled almost close to the grazing animals. They moved against the wind and, approaching a short distance, jumped up from the ground and, before the astonished animals could sense the danger and take off, hit them with spears and darts. We learn about all these hunting tricks of the Cro-Magnons from their rock art. Cro-Magnons appear about 30-40 thousand years ago.

More thoroughly, we can judge the beliefs of the ancient people of this era. Many burials dating back to this time have been found. Cro-Magnon burial methods were very diverse. Sometimes the dead were buried where people lived, after which the Cro-Magnons left this place. In other cases, the corpses were burned at the stake. The dead were also buried in specially dug graves, and sometimes they covered their heads and feet with stones. In some places, stones were piled on the head, chest and legs of the deceased, as if they were afraid that he would get up.

Apparently, for the same reason, the dead were sometimes tied up and buried in a strongly crouched form. The dead were also left in the cave, and the exit to it was covered with large stones. Often, a corpse or head was sprinkled with red paint; during the excavation of graves, this is noticeable by the color of the earth and bones. With the dead, many different things were put in the grave: jewelry, stone tools, food.

Of the burials of this era, the burial of "mammoth hunters" in Předmost, near Přerov (Czechoslovakia), discovered in 1894 by K. E. Mashka, was widely known. In this burial, 20 skeletons were found, which were laid in crouched positions and turned their heads to the north: five skeletons of adult men, three of adult women, two of young women, seven of children and three of infants. The grave had an oval shape, 4 m long and 2.5 m wide. One side of the burial was lined with the shoulder blades of mammoths, the other - with their jaws. From above, the grave was covered with a layer of stones 30-50 cm thick to protect against the destruction of the burial by predators. Archaeologists suggest that some group of ancient people used this grave for a long period, from time to time putting new dead members of the clan team into it.

Other archaeological excavations allow us to more fully imagine the beliefs of the people of this era. Some images painted by ancient people on the walls of caves are interpreted by scientists as figures of sorcerers. Drawings were found with people disguised as animals, as well as images of half-humans, half-animals, which allows us to conclude that there are elements of hunting magic, belief in werewolves. Among the figurines belonging to this era, there are a lot of images of women. These figurines have received the name in archeology "Venus". The faces, arms and legs of these figurines are not particularly pronounced, but, as a rule, the chest, abdomen, and hips are highlighted, that is, the physical signs that characterize a woman. Scientists suggest that these female figures serve as a monument to some ancient cult associated with fertility. Many researchers do not doubt the religious nature of these beliefs.

So, according to archeology, only 30-40 thousand years ago, beliefs appeared among ancient people similar to beliefs common among some modern peoples.

Science has accumulated a huge amount of material that makes it possible to single out the beliefs most characteristic of primitive society.

Let us first characterize them in general terms, that is, we will describe the main forms of primitive beliefs.

If we bring together the numerous data that tell us archeology, anthropology, linguistics, folklore, ethnography and other sciences that study the early stages of the development of human society, then we can identify the following main forms of beliefs of ancient people.

Fetishistic beliefs, or fetishism, - worship of individual objects and natural phenomena. This form of beliefs was called fetishism, and the objects worshiped were called fetishes, from the Portuguese word "fetiko" - "made", "made", as the Portuguese navigators called the objects of veneration of a number of African peoples.

magical beliefs, or magic, - belief in the possibility, with the help of certain techniques, conspiracies, rituals, to influence the objects and phenomena of nature, the course of social life, and later the world of supernatural forces.

totemic beliefs, or totemism, - the belief that certain types of animals, plants, some material objects, as well as natural phenomena are the ancestors, ancestors, patrons of specific tribal groups. Such beliefs were called in science totemism, from the words "totem", "ottotem" - "his kind", taken from the language of one of the tribes of North American Indians.

Animist beliefs, or animism, - belief in the existence of the soul and spirits (from the Latin word "anima" - "soul"). According to animistic beliefs, the whole world surrounding a person is inhabited by spirits, and each person, animal or plant has its own soul, an incorporeal double.

shamanistic beliefs, or shamanism, - beliefs according to which it is believed that certain people, shamans (the name of a sorcerer-healer among many northern peoples) can, having brought themselves to a state of ecstasy, frenzy, directly communicate with spirits and use them to heal people from diseases, to ensure good hunting , catch, to make rain, etc.

Cult of nature- beliefs in which the main objects of worship are the spirits of various animals and plants, natural phenomena, celestial bodies: the sun, earth, moon.

Animatist beliefs, or animatism(from the Latin "animato" - "with a soul", "briskly"), - beliefs in a special impersonal supernatural force that is spilled throughout the world and which can be concentrated in individual people (for example, in leaders), animals, objects.

The cult of patrons- beliefs in which the main object of worship is the ancestors and their spirits, whose help can supposedly be enlisted by resorting to various rituals and ceremonies.

Cult of tribal leaders- Beliefs according to which leaders of communities, tribal leaders and leaders of tribal unions are endowed with supernatural properties. The main rites and ceremonies in this cult are aimed at strengthening the power of the leaders, which supposedly should have a beneficial effect on the entire tribe.

Agricultural and pastoral cults, emerging with the allocation of agriculture and cattle breeding into independent industries - beliefs, according to which spirits and supernatural beings - the patrons of cattle and agriculture, the givers of fertility - become the main object of worship.

As you can see, the beliefs of the era of the primitive communal system were quite diverse and manifested themselves in various combinations. But they all have one common feature, according to which we refer them to beliefs that are similar in nature to religion or are religious. In all these beliefs there is a moment of veneration of something supernatural, standing above the surrounding real world, dominating this world.

Ancient people worshiped material objects because they endowed them with supernatural properties. They revered animals because they felt they were supernaturally connected to those animals. Not being able to really influence the elemental forces of nature, the ancient man tried to influence them with the help of witchcraft. Primitive people later endowed human consciousness and the human psyche with supernatural properties, representing it in the form of a soul, independent of the body and controlling the body. The creation, with the help of fantasy, of a supernatural world set above the real, natural world, was the result of impotence, weakness of primitive man, suppressed by the elemental forces of nature.

In order to more clearly imagine the dependence of primitive people on nature, their impotence, it is best to turn to the life of modern peoples who are lagging behind in their development. Here is what F. Wrangel, a prominent Russian explorer of the Far North, wrote: “It is hard to imagine the extent to which hunger reaches among the local peoples, whose existence depends solely on chance. The deer that was accidentally caught or killed is divided equally between the members of the whole family and is eaten, in the full sense of the word, with bones and skin. fill a hungry stomach."

Further, the scientist writes that during all the days of this wild hunger strike, people live only with the thought of a successful deer hunt, and finally this happy moment comes. The scouts bring good news: a herd of deer has been found on the other side of the river. “Joyful expectation revived all faces, and everything predicted a plentiful fishery,” F. Wrangel continues his description. “But, to the horror of everyone, sad, fatal news suddenly rang out:“ The deer staggered! ”Indeed, we saw that the entire herd, probably frightened by the many hunters, he left the shore and hid in the mountains. Despair took the place of joyful hopes. The heart was breaking at the sight of the people suddenly deprived of all means to support their miserable existence. Terrible was the picture of general despondency and despair. Women and children groaned loudly, wringing their hands, others rushed to the ground and with screams blew up snow and earth, as if preparing a grave for themselves. The foremen and fathers of the family stood in silence, fixing their lifeless gaze on those elevations behind which their hope had disappeared " * .

* (F. Wrangel. Journey along the northern shores of Siberia and the Arctic Sea, part II. SPb., 1841, pp. 105-106.)

This is a vivid picture of hopeless despair, fear of the future, painted by F. Wrangel, but here we are talking about modern people. Primitive man, with his miserable tools of labor, was even weaker and more helpless in the face of nature.

Primitive man was an excellent hunter, he knew well the habits and habits of the animals he hunted. By a barely noticeable trace, he easily determined which animal had passed here, in what direction and how much time ago. Armed with a wooden club and a stone, he boldly entered into combat with predators, setting up cunning traps for them.

Nevertheless, the ancient man was convinced every hour that success in hunting depends not only on his cunning and courage. Days of success, and consequently, of relative prosperity were replaced by long hunger strikes. Suddenly, from those places in which he recently hunted so successfully, all the animals disappeared. Or, despite all his tricks, the animals bypassed his beautifully camouflaged traps, fish disappeared in the reservoirs for a long time. Gathering was also an unreliable pillar of life. At such a time of the year, when unbearable heat burned out all vegetation, in the petrified earth, a person did not find a single edible root and tuber.

And suddenly the days of the hunger strike also unexpectedly gave way to good luck on the hunt. Trees generously gave man ripe fruits, in the ground he found many edible roots.

Primitive man could not yet understand the reasons for such changes in his existence. It begins to seem to him that there are some unknown, supernatural forces that affect both nature and his life. So on the living tree of knowledge, as V. I. Lenin said, there is an empty flower - religious ideas.

Not counting on his own strength, not trusting his primitive tools of labor, ancient man more and more often placed his hopes on these mysterious forces, linking both his failures and his victories with them.

Of course, all of the above forms of beliefs: the worship of objects, and the veneration of animals and plants, and witchcraft, and faith in the soul and spirits - is a product of a long historical development. Science makes it possible to determine the earliest layers in the beliefs of primitive man.

As we have already said, at the earliest stages of development, there were many things that were true in man's ideas about nature. Primitive man was a good hunter and well versed in the habits of animals. He knew which fruits of which plants were good for him. Making tools, he learned the properties and qualities of various materials. However, the low level of social practice, the primitiveness of the tools of labor, the comparative poverty of experience determined that there was much that was wrong and distorted in the ideas of ancient man about the world around him.

Not being able to understand certain properties of objects or the essence of phenomena, not seeing the necessary real connections between them, ancient man often attributed false properties to them, established purely random, superficial connections between them in his mind. This was a delusion, but there was still no belief in the supernatural. We can say that such a distorted reflection of reality was a step towards religion, towards belief in the supernatural world, one of the origins of religion.

To clarify our thought, let us take the following example: primitive man, in his working and everyday life, was constantly faced with the fact of the transformation of some objects and phenomena into others. More than once he saw how plants grow from seeds, chicks appear from eggs, butterflies from larvae, fish from eggs. From seemingly inanimate things, living organisms arose. Repeatedly, ancient man encountered the facts of turning water into ice or steam, he noted in his mind the movement of clouds, snow avalanches, the fall of stones from mountains, the flow of rivers, etc. It turned out that the inanimate world, like man and animals, has the ability to movement. The line between a person and the objects of the surrounding world, thus, turned out to be fuzzy, vague.

Changing and transforming the objects of the surrounding world in accordance with his goals and needs, primitive man gradually began to endow them with other properties, "remake" them in his mind, in his imagination. He began to endow the phenomena and objects of nature with the properties of the living; it seemed to him, for example, that not only a person or an animal could walk, but also rain, snow, that a tree “sees” a hunter stalking through the forest, a rock lurking menacingly like a beast, etc.

One of the early misconceptions of man about the world around him was the personification of nature, attributing to the inanimate world the properties of the living, often the properties of the person himself.

Thousands of years separate us from this time. We quite accurately, on the basis of archeological data, know about the tools of labor of the ancient people of this era, about their way of life. But it is difficult for us to judge their consciousness with the same degree of accuracy. Ethnographic literature helps us to some extent to imagine the spiritual world of ancient people.

Widely known is the remarkable book by the great Soviet traveler and talented writer Vladimir Klavdievich Arseniev "In the wilds of the Ussuri region". Let us remind the reader about one of the heroes of this book - a brave hunter, a brave guide V. K. Arseniev Dersu Uzala. He was a real son of nature, a connoisseur of all the secrets of the Ussuri taiga, who perfectly understood every rustle of it. But in this case, we are not interested in these qualities of Dersu Uzala, but in his views on the world, on nature, the life of which he felt so subtly.

V. K. Arseniev writes that he was extremely struck by the naive but firm conviction of Dersu Uzala that all nature is something living. Once, at a halt, says V. K. Arsenyev, “Dersu and I, as usual, sat and talked. The kettle forgotten on the fire persistently reminded of itself with a hiss. Dersu set it aside a little, but the kettle continued to hum. Then the kettle began to sing in a thin voice.

How to shout it! Dersu said. - Thin people! He jumped up and poured hot water on the ground.

How are "people"? I asked him in bewilderment.

Water, he answered simply. - I can shout it, I can cry, I can play it too.

This primitive man spoke to me for a long time about his worldview. He saw living force in the water, saw its quiet flow and heard its roar during floods.

Look, - said Dersu, pointing to the fire, - his people are all the same" * .

* (VC. Arseniev. In the wilds of the Ussuri region. M., 1949, p. 47.)

According to the descriptions of V. K. Arsenyev, in Dersu Uzal's ideas, all the objects of the world around him were alive, or, as he called them in his own language, they were "people". Trees - "people", hills - "people", rocks - "people", the thunderstorm of the Ussuri taiga - a tiger (in the language of Dersu "amba") is also "people". But personifying nature, Dersu Uzala was not afraid of her. If necessary, he boldly entered into a duel with a tiger with his old single-barreled Berdan rifle and emerged victorious.

It is impossible, of course, to completely identify these views of Dersu Uzala with the views of the world of ancient man, but apparently there is much in common between them. As already mentioned, an incorrect explanation of reality is not yet religion. At the stage of the personification of nature, a person ascribes to ordinary objects and phenomena properties that are not inherent in them. But, endowing natural objects with properties that are unnatural for them, imagining inanimate objects as living, a person still does not worship them. Here, not only is there no worship of some supernatural forces hiding behind the world of real things, but there is also no idea of ​​the existence of supernatural forces.

F. Engels, who dealt a lot with the problem of the origin of religion, pointed out in his works such sources of religion as the most ignorant, dark, primitive ideas of ancient people about their own nature and about the external nature surrounding them (see soch., v. 21, p. 313), singled out the main stages in the formation of people's views on the path to religion, noted as one of these steps the personification of the forces of nature. The preparatory works for "Anti-Duhring" contain the following important thought of F. Engels: "The forces of nature appear to primitive man as something alien, mysterious, overwhelming. At a certain stage through which all civilized peoples pass, he masters them by personification" *.

* (K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. 20, p. 639.)

The personification of the forces of nature is undoubtedly one of the origins of religion. But here it should immediately be noted that not every personification is religious. Religious personification necessarily includes an idea of ​​the supernatural world, supernatural forces that control the world around. When the ancient Babylonian, personifying nature, subordinated it to the god - the patron of vegetation, Tammuz, this was already a religious personification. In the same way, when the ancient Greeks, personifying nature, attributed the entire plant cycle with its spring flowering and autumn wilting to the moods of the fertility goddess Demeter, who rejoiced at the return of her daughter Persephone from the gloomy kingdom of Hades and was sad when she left her, this was a religious personification.

In ancient people, at the early stages of the personification of the forces of nature, the idea of ​​the supernatural was most likely absent. Primitive man personified the world around him because his knowledge of nature was negligible. The standards with which he approached the assessment of the environment were limited, the comparisons are erroneous. Knowing himself best and observing those around him, he naturally transferred human properties not only to animals, but also to plants and even to inanimate objects. And then the forest became alive, the murmuring stream spoke, the animals began to cheat. Such a personification was an incorrect, distorted reflection of reality, but it was not yet religious. In the wrong, distorted reflection of the surrounding world, the possibility of the emergence of religion, or rather, some of its elements, was already lurking. However, it would take a long time before this possibility materialized.

When does this personification of nature acquire the features of religious ideas?

The matter began, apparently, with the fact that gradually the ancient man began to endow real objects not only with qualities that were not inherent in them, but also with supernatural properties. In every object or phenomenon of nature, he began to see fantastic forces on which, it seemed to him, his life, success or failure in hunting, etc. depended.

The first ideas about the supernatural were figurative, visual, almost tangible. The supernatural at this stage in the development of human beliefs was not presented as an independent incorporeal being (spirit, god), things themselves were endowed with supernatural properties. In nature itself, its real objects and phenomena, the ancient man saw something supernatural, which had enormous, incomprehensible power over him.

The idea of ​​the supernatural is the fruit of the imagination of a person who is aware of his powerlessness before the forces of nature. However, it cannot be said that this fantasy has nothing to do with the real world. It distorts the actual connections of real objects, but the material for fantastic images is drawn by a person from the surrounding world. However, in these fantastic images, real objects and natural phenomena are already losing their actual outlines. People say that "fear has big eyes." The imagination of ancient man was in the grip of fear, it worked under the influence of his impotence in the face of formidable, powerful nature, the laws of which he did not know, many of the most important properties of which he did not understand.

Ethnographic data also speak of fear of the formidable forces of nature as one of the sources of primitive beliefs. One of the researchers of Eskimo beliefs, Knut Rasmussen, recorded interesting sayings of one Eskimo: “And you cannot give reasons when we ask you: why is life the way it is? we start from life and enter into life; we explain nothing, we think nothing, but what I have shown you contains all our answers: we are afraid!

We are afraid of the weather, which we must fight against, tearing food from the land and from the sea. We fear want and hunger in cold snow huts. We are afraid of the diseases that we see around us every day. We are not afraid of death, but of suffering. We are afraid of dead people...

That is why our ancestors armed themselves with all the old worldly rules worked out by the experience and wisdom of generations.

We do not know, we do not guess why, but we follow these rules so that we can live in peace. And we are so ignorant, in spite of all our spellcasters, that we are afraid of everything we do not know. We are afraid of what we see around us, and we are afraid of what legends and legends speak of. Therefore, we keep to our customs and observe our taboos" * (prohibitions - V. Ch.).

* (K. Rasmussen. Great toboggan run. M., 1958, pp. 82-83.)

Chained in the grip of fear, the consciousness of ancient man began to endow real objects with supernatural properties, which for some reason caused fear. Researchers believe that poisonous plants, for example, were endowed with such supernatural properties. The similarity of the found stones, roots or branches with animals also forced the imagination of the ancient man to work. Noticing the similarity of a stone with an animal that was the main object of hunting, a person could take this strange, unusual stone with him on a hunt. The chance coincidence of a successful hunt and this discovery could lead the primitive man to the conclusion that this strange animal-like stone is the main reason for his luck. Luck on the hunt was associated with a stone found by chance, which no longer becomes a simple, but a wonderful object, a fetish, an object of worship.

Let us recall again the Neanderthal burials and the warehouses of the bones of cave bears. As already mentioned, some scientists believe that Neanderthal burials testify to the emergence of people's faith in the soul and the afterlife. However, the emergence of ideas about the other world, the immortal soul, separated from the body, requires a developed imagination, the ability to think abstractly, abstractly. Such beliefs, as we shall see later, arise in the later stages of the development of human society. The beliefs of the Neanderthals were much simpler. In this case, we are dealing, most likely, with the fact of endowing the corpse with some supernatural properties. We observe similar beliefs among some backward peoples. For example, among the Australians, burial customs were generated by a superstitious attitude towards the corpse, the belief that the dead person himself could bring harm. Similar, apparently, was the attitude towards the bones of cave bears, they were considered fetishes that had supernatural properties to be reborn in new bears, and "provided" a successful hunt in the future.

The veneration of material objects is often found among modern peoples. For example, the power of sorcerers among the indigenous inhabitants of Australia is directly associated with the presence of shiny, sparkling stones in the sorcerer: the more of them, the stronger the sorcerer. Among many African peoples, hunters did not start hunting until they found a suitable object (fetish), which, in their opinion, could only make the hunt successful. Not a single big trip was also complete without cooking or searching for a fetish. Often, the search for such items was given much more attention than the preparation of supplies for the road.

The main features of fetishism, its specificity, focus on the satisfaction of sensual desires, the desire to endow an ordinary thing with supernatural properties were noted by K. Marx. In one of his articles, he wrote: "Fetishism is very far from elevating a person above his sensual desires - on the contrary, it is "religion of sensual desires". Inflamed with lust, fantasy creates the illusion in the fetishist that the "insensible thing" can change its natural properties in order to satisfy his whim. Rough Fetish Lust breaks therefore, his fetish when he ceases to be his most loyal servant "*. This vivid and accurate description of K. Marx allows us to conclude that the social harm that faith in the supernatural carries in itself. After all, at this stage of human development, the supernatural in consciousness has not yet separated from natural objects, but how much effort is already wasted, how dearly man's illusions cost him!

* (K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. 1, p. 98.)

In the last century, a whole "museum" of fetishes was discovered in an African sorcerer. There were more than 20 thousand "exhibits". According to the assurances of the sorcerer, each of these items brought some benefit to him or his ancestors in due time.

What were these items? Among the numerous "exhibits" of this strange "museum" was kept a pot of red clay, in which a cock's feather was stuck; wooden stakes wrapped in wool; parrot feathers, human hair. Were in the "museum" and a tiny chair, next to the same small mattress. In this "museum", collected by the efforts of many generations, the old sorcerer came to "care" for fetishes, he cleaned them, washed them, at the same time begging for various favors from them. The researchers noticed that not all objects of this museum enjoyed the same worship - some were revered almost like real deities, others were given more modest honors.

This is an interesting detail. A fetish, a revered object, is like a deity for a moment. It is useful only for a certain business, only for certain purposes. The fetish is concrete, it does not have an absolute force valid in any conditions.

Honoring initially material objects, primitive man did not divide them into main and non-main. But gradually, from a number of fetishes, the main ones, that is, the most "powerful" ones, begin to stand out.

In those distant times that we are talking about here, a person’s life, his food supply largely depended on a successful or unsuccessful hunt, on whether he would find enough fruits, tubers, roots. This constant dependence on the animal and plant world gave rise to false, fantastic ideas, aroused the imagination of ancient man. Not knowing any other social relations, except for consanguinity, the ancient man also transferred them to nature. He represented various types of animals and plants as peculiar genera and tribes related to the tribes of people; often animals were considered by ancient people as the ancestors of their tribe. In other words, each tribal group believed in some sort of kinship with their ancestor, the totem.

Studies have shown that in the first place among the totems were useful plants and animals. So, in Australia, among the tribes living on the coast, more than 60 percent of all totems were fish or sea animals. The tribes living in the depths of the mainland had less than 8 percent of such "water" totems.

Totems for Australians, as ethnographers show, are not deities, but kindred and close beings. Speaking of them, Australians usually use expressions such as: "This is my father", "This is my older brother", "This is my friend", "This is my flesh". The feeling of kinship with the totem most often manifested itself in the prohibition to kill it and eat it.

The main ceremonies associated with totemistic beliefs among the Australians were the rites of "propagation" of totems. Usually once a year, at a certain time, a totem animal was killed. The head of the community cut off pieces of meat and, giving them to the members of the community, said to everyone: "This year you will eat a lot of meat." Eating the meat of a totemic animal was considered to be an introduction to the body of the ancestor of the progenitor, as if its properties were transferred to its relatives.

Totemic beliefs are quite obviously associated with a certain type of practice, work activity and social relations. The Australians, whose main occupation was hunting and gathering, and the main type of social relations were tribal, were dominated by totemistic beliefs. Among the neighboring Melanesians and Polynesians, who already knew agriculture and had livestock (that is, they dominated animals and plants to a certain extent) and were at various stages of the decomposition of the primitive communal system, totemic beliefs were preserved only as weak remnants. A person does not worship those objects and phenomena of nature that he has known, mastered, "conquered".

For a long time, scientists were confused by the fact that among the ancestral totems there are not only animals and plants, but also inanimate objects, in particular minerals. Apparently, this is a trace of more ancient, fetishistic beliefs.

Thus, we see that in the worship of animals and plants, ancient man's dependence on the blind forces of nature and a certain type of social relations was fantastically reflected. With the further development of mankind, when gathering was replaced by agriculture, and hunting was replaced by the domestication of animals, the strength of the primitive collective increased, it moved further along the path of conquering nature, totemism began to occupy a secondary place in ancient beliefs.

Primitive man did not just passively revere fetishes and totems. He tried to make them serve him, satisfy the needs and desires of people. Due to the extremely low level of material production and human knowledge about the world around him and about himself, his helplessness before the blind, elemental forces of nature pushed him to make up for this real impotence with the imaginary power of witchcraft, magical activity.

The veneration of material objects by ancient people was accompanied by various actions (fetishes were "cared for", they were cleaned, fed, watered, etc.), as well as verbal requests and appeals to these objects. Gradually, on this basis, a whole system of witchcraft actions arises.

A significant part of witchcraft rites was based on the belief of primitive man that a desired phenomenon can be caused by actions that imitate this phenomenon. For example, during a period of drought, wanting to bring rain, the sorcerer climbed onto the roof of his hut and poured water from a vessel on the ground. It was believed that the rain would follow his example and irrigate the fields dying from drought. Some Australian tribes, before going out to hunt for kangaroos, drew his image on the sand and pierced it with spears: they believed that this would ensure good luck during the hunt. Archaeologists found on the walls of the caves in which ancient people lived, images of animals - bears, bison, rhinos, etc., struck by spears and darts. So the ancient people "secured" their luck on the hunt. Belief in the supernatural power of witchcraft caused ancient people to spend a lot of energy and time performing meaningless magical rites.

It is to this feature of magic that the vivid characterization of K. Marx refers: "Weakness has always been saved by faith in miracles; she considered the enemy defeated if she managed to defeat him in her imagination ..." *.

* (K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. 8, p. 123.)

The magical belief in miracles, which originated in ancient times, entered as an important constituent element in all religions. And modern clergy urge believers to hope for a miracle and perform magical rites. So, for example, one of the main rites of Christianity, baptism, is permeated with magic. In the Orthodox Church, during the performance of this rite, four prayers are read, which are called "incantational" prayers, they serve, according to the assurances of Orthodox clergy, "to drive away the baptized devil." Other magical actions are also performed at baptism: the baptized and his godfather and godmother at a certain moment turn to the west (because the west is "the country where darkness appears, and Satan is the prince of darkness"), renounce Satan three times, confirming this renunciation "by blowing and spitting on the evil spirit." The custom of spitting on Satan is a relic of the beliefs of ancient people who attributed witchcraft power to saliva. During the sacrament of baptism, the baby's hair is cut and thrown into the font. There are also traces of the beliefs of an ancient man who believed that by sacrificing his hair to the spirits, he enters into a closer connection with the world of supernatural forces. All these are examples of witchcraft in a "God-given" religion, which verbally vehemently opposes magic as a sign of "lower" "pagan" beliefs compared to Christianity.

Scientists had to make a lot of effort and energy in order to make the bizarre world of ancient man's witchcraft beliefs clear. Apparently, at a certain historical stage, manipulations with revered objects begin to be carried out in a strictly defined, "canonized" order. In this way, there is action magic. Verbal requests and appeals to objects endowed with supernatural properties turn into witchcraft conspiracies, spells - the magic of the word. Researchers of magical beliefs distinguish several varieties of magic: harmful, military, love, healing, protective, commercial, meteorological.

At the early stages of the development of primitive beliefs, as already mentioned, man endowed real objects with supernatural properties. The supernatural was not separated by him from nature. But gradually, a person developed ideas about some second supernatural nature of things, supplementing their real natural nature. It seemed to him that in every object there was some mysterious double of this object, that a mysterious force lived in it. Over time, this double is separated in the imagination of an ancient person from an object or phenomenon and becomes an independent force.

Ideas arise that behind every bush, mountain, stream, any object or phenomenon invisible spirits are hidden, that some spiritual force - the soul - is hidden in man and animals. Apparently, the initial ideas about this double were very vague. This can be illustrated by the responses of the natives of Nicaragua when they were asked questions relating to their beliefs. When asked what happens when people die, the natives replied: “When people die, something that looks like a person comes out of their mouth. This creature goes to the place where men and women are. It looks like a person, but does not die. The body remains in the ground."

Question. Do those who go there keep the same body, the same face, the same limbs as here on earth?

Answer. No, only the heart goes there.

Question. But when a person's heart is cut out at the sacrifice of captives, what then happens?

Answer. It is not the heart itself that leaves, but that which gives life to people in the body, and this leaves the body when a person dies.

Gradually, these ideas about the mysterious double became more and more clear, a belief in spirits and the soul arose. In order to more concretely imagine the process of the formation of animistic beliefs among primitive people, let us look at how some of the peoples that exist today imagine the soul and spirits. According to the great polar explorer F. Nansen, the Eskimos believe that the soul is connected with the breath. Therefore, during the treatment of a person, shamans breathed on the patient, tried to either heal his soul or breathe a new one into him. At the same time, despite the fact that the soul in the ideas of the Eskimos is endowed with the properties of materiality, corporeality, it is thought of as an independent being, independent of the body, therefore it is believed that the soul can be lost as a thing, that sometimes it is stolen by shamans. When a person leaves for a long journey, the Eskimos believe, his soul remains at home, and this explains the homesickness.

Many peoples believe that in a dream the soul of a person leaves, and his body sleeps. Dreams are nocturnal adventures of the soul, a double, but the human body does not participate in these adventures and continues to lie.

Among a number of peoples (Tasmanians, Algonquins, Zulus, Basuts), the word "soul" simultaneously denotes a shadow. This suggests that at the early stages of its formation, the concept of "soul" among these peoples coincided with the concept of "shadow". Other peoples (Roots, Papuans, Arabs, ancient Jews) had a different concrete idea of ​​the soul, it was associated with blood. In the languages ​​of these peoples, the concepts of "soul" and "blood" were denoted by one word.

Perhaps the Greenland Eskimos had a particularly vivid idea of ​​the soul. They believed that fat people have fat souls, and skinny people have thin souls. Thus, we see that through the ideas of many peoples about the soul, the most ancient understanding of it shines through as some completely material carrier of the vital forces of animals and plants, which was associated with blood, heart, breath, shadow, etc. Gradually, bodily, material properties in ideas about the soul disappeared and the soul became more and more subtle, ethereal, spiritual, and finally turned into a completely ethereal spiritual being, independent and independent of the real, bodily world.

However, with the advent of ideas about a disembodied soul, independent of the real world, separating from the flesh, the ancient man faced the question: if the soul can separate from the flesh, can leave it, leave the body, then where does it go when a person dies, when his body becomes a corpse?

With the emergence of beliefs in the soul, ideas about the afterlife began to form, which was usually drawn in the image of the earthly one.

Primitive people, who did not know class stratification, property inequality, exploitation and exploiters, imagined the other world as one for all. Initially, the idea of ​​rewarding sinners for sins, and the righteous for virtues, was not associated with the afterlife. In the afterlife of ancient people there was no hell and heaven.

Later, as animistic ideas developed, every significant natural phenomenon in the mind of primitive man received its own spirit. In order to appease the spirits and win them over to their side, people began to make sacrifices to them, often human ones. So, in ancient Peru, several boys and girls of ten years of age were sacrificed annually to the spirits of nature.

We examined the main forms of beliefs of people who lived in the era of the primitive communal system. Contrary to the theological theories about the primordial belief in a single almighty God, contrary to the concept of primitive monotheism, it turns out that initially people revered gross material objects, animals, and plants. The fantasy of an ancient man, inflamed with fear of everything unknown, endowed natural objects and phenomena with supernatural properties. Then came an equally blind faith in the soul, which can leave the body, ideas about spirits that are hidden behind any object, behind every natural phenomenon.

However, we still do not see faith in gods at this stage, and the supernatural world itself in the mind of ancient man has not yet separated from the real world. The natural and supernatural in these beliefs are very closely intertwined, the supernatural world is not presented as something independent, standing above nature and society. F. Engels gave a very accurate description of the content of the beliefs of the ancient man of this period: "It was a cult of nature and the elements, which was on the path of development to polytheism" *.

* (K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, vol. 21, p. 93.)

What place did these beliefs occupy in the life of primitive man? In cases where a person could confidently rely on himself, on his own strength and knowledge, he did not turn to supernatural forces for help. But as soon as people in their life practice encountered something incomprehensible, on which their well-being and even life largely depended, they began to resort to witchcraft, spells, trying to enlist the support of supernatural forces.

Therefore, it would be completely wrong to assert that primitive man could not even take a step without witchcraft, magic, shamans, etc. Quite the opposite, if ancient people relied on supernatural forces in everything, they would not have taken a step along the path of social progress. Labor and the mind developing in labor led man forward, helping him to cognize nature and himself. Belief in the supernatural only got in the way.

For hundreds of thousands of years of life of primitive people on Earth, they learned a lot and learned a lot.

People forced to serve themselves a mighty force of nature - fire. They learned to sail in boats on rivers, lakes and even seas. People grew plants and domesticated animals. With bows, spears and axes, they hunted the largest animals.

Yet primitive people were weak and helpless before the forces of nature.

Sparkling lightning struck with a deafening roar in the dwellings of people. Primitive man had no defense against it.

Ancient people were powerless to fight the raging forest fire. If they failed to escape, they perished in the flames.

A sudden oncoming wind turned their boats over like shells, and people drowned in the water.

Primitive people did not know how to be treated, and one person after another died from diseases.

The most ancient people tried only to somehow escape or hide from the dangers that threatened them. This went on for hundreds of thousands of years.

As people developed their minds, they tried to explain to themselves what forces govern nature. But primitive people did not know much of what we now know about nature. Therefore, they explained the phenomena of nature incorrectly, erroneously.

How did faith in the "soul" appear?

Primitive man did not understand what sleep is. In a dream, he saw people who were far from where he lived. He also saw those people who had not been alive for a long time. People explained dreams by the fact that a "soul" - "spirit" lives in the body of each person. During sleep, she seems to leave the body, flies on the ground, meets the "souls" of other people. With her return, the sleeping one wakes up.

Death seemed to primitive man like a dream. She came as if because the "soul" left the body. But people thought that the "soul" of the deceased remained close to the places where he lived before.

People believed that the “soul” of the deceased elder continues to take care of the family, as he himself took care of during his lifetime, and asked her for protection and help.

How humans created gods

Primitive people thought that "soul" - "spirit" is in animals, in plants, in the sky, in the earth. "Spirits" can be evil and good. They help or hinder hunting, cause diseases in people and animals. The main "spirits" - the gods control the forces of nature: they cause a thunderstorm and wind, it depends on them whether the sun will rise and whether spring will come.

Primitive man imagined the gods in the form of people or in the form of animals. As a hunter throws a spear, so the sky god throws a fiery lightning spear. But a spear thrown by a man flies several tens of steps, and lightning crosses the entire sky. The god of the wind blows like a man, but with such force that it breaks centuries-old trees, raises a storm and sinks boats. Therefore, it seemed to people that although the gods are similar to man, they are much stronger and more powerful than him.

Belief in gods and "spirits" is called religion. It originated several tens of thousands of years ago.

Prayers and sacrifices

Hunters asked the gods to send good luck on the hunt, fishermen asked for calm weather and a plentiful catch. Farmers asked God to grow a good harvest.

Ancient people carved a crude image of a person or animal from wood or stone and believed that God inhabited it. Such images of the gods are called idols.

In order to earn the mercy of the gods, people prayed to idols, humbly bowed to them to the ground and brought gifts - sacrifices. In front of the idol they slaughtered domestic animals, and sometimes a person. The lips of the idol were smeared with blood as a sign that the god accepted the sacrifice.

Religion brought great harm to primitive people. Everything that happened in people's lives and in nature, she explained by the will of the gods and spirits. By this, she prevented people from looking for the correct explanation of natural phenomena. In addition, people killed many animals and even people, sacrificing them to the gods.