For most of human history—roughly 300,000 years of Homo sapiens, with global dispersal beginning around 50,000 years ago—humans lived as hunter-gatherers who were peaceful (no evidence of organized warfare, only occasional in-group violence), egalitarian (no wealth-based hierarchy; men and women were considered equal, though shamans held higher status), and artistic (creating cave paintings, figurines, and monuments to express religious beliefs). This way of life was rooted in a spiritual worldview centered on animism and shamanism, which shaped how early humans understood their place in the universe.
Core Beliefs of Early Human Religion
Animism and Shamanism formed the foundation of early human spirituality:
All life—humans, animals, plants—originates from a single source, often called the Mother Goddess or Woman Shaman, meaning every living being shares the same spiritual essence and possesses a soul.
The soul is permanent; death is not an ending but a transition, as the soul moves to another realm or returns to the physical world.
A spirit world exists behind and beyond the visible world—it is more real, more fundamental, and governs all things.
Humans have a duty to maintain cosmic harmony: when killing animals for food, they must pay tribute before and after, asking permission and offering thanks to avoid spiritual retribution.
The shaman serves as the intermediary between worlds, entering trance states to communicate with spirits, negotiate on behalf of the community, and restore balance when things go wrong.
Evidence from Indigenous Cultures Today
Since we cannot observe prehistoric societies directly, anthropologists study contemporary indigenous groups whose practices mirror those of early humans:
In the Amazon rainforest, the Barahuna people believe in a creation myth where the Woman Shaman destroys a chaotic world and births a new one, establishing moral laws (e.g., prohibitions against incest, cannibalism) that form the basis of social order.
Their rituals involve elaborate ceremonies where shamans transform into animals to negotiate with spirit guardians before hunts—mirroring cave art depictions of hybrid human-animal figures.
In Central Africa, the Pygmies (specifically the Mbuti) center their religion around the molomo, a sacred trumpet that embodies the voice of the forest. Singing and dancing through the night keeps the forest “awake” and happy, ensuring protection and abundance.
Falling asleep during the molomo ritual is considered the gravest crime—not because of laziness, but because it denies the reality of the shared spiritual experience, thereby threatening the entire community’s connection to the divine.
The anthropologist Colin Turnbull repeatedly uses the word “pretending” to describe their rituals—a term that would deeply offend the Pygmies, for whom these acts are more real than physical reality.
How This Worldview Shaped Society
Because all beings share the same origin and spirit, nature is not separate from humanity—people see themselves as part of the forest, not masters over it.
This fosters trust rather than control: the Pygmies fear only what is “outside the forest,” not the leopards or darkness within it.
Religion is not a separate domain—it permeates every aspect of life, making daily existence highly ritualized and meaningful.
Just like school routines (bells, attendance, hand-raising) reflect underlying beliefs about education and authority, indigenous rituals reflect beliefs about cosmic balance.
The religious imagination allows communities to co-create a shared reality so powerful it supersedes empirical experience:
As long as everyone participates and believes, the ritual becomes ontologically real—more true than the material world.
This explains why early humans invested immense effort in art, music, and ceremony: these were not leisure activities but essential acts of cosmic maintenance.
Contrast with Modern Thinking
Modern Western thought is materialistic: only what can be seen, measured, or proven is considered real.
God, soul, and imagination are dismissed as unprovable or imaginary.
Early humans were spiritual: the invisible world was primary, and the physical world was its shadow.
This led to societies that were non-hierarchical, peaceful, and artistically rich, because their values derived from unity with nature and the divine.
What Changed?
The episode sets up a coming shift: around 5,000 years ago, a new group—the Yamnaya—emerged with a radically different religion that celebrated warfare, patriarchy, and wealth accumulation.
This new ideology eventually spread across Europe and Asia, conquering or absorbing earlier cultures and replacing their egalitarian, nature-centered worldview with one based on domination, hierarchy, and material power.
The transition marks the end of humanity’s original spiritual era and the beginning of recorded history as we know it—driven not by evolution, but by religious revolution.
