Primal Religions

Question: Choose one of the constitutive features of ‘primal religion’, explain it, analyse it and critique it in terms of its role/place in the construction of an ‘indigenous’ worldview. Draw upon examples from the focus groups to demonstrate your points.

Point 4: they allow humans to enter relationships with spirits.


In answering this question in an objective fashion a major difficulty for me has been to attempt to divorce myself from my own cultural baggage. Although I do not have an identifiable religion and have lived for extended periods of time in countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion I have, nevertheless, been brought up in a Christian society. When one has been, as it were, programmed, from birth in a country where the shops are shut on Sundays, committing suicide is a sin and science has proven to one’s satisfaction that diseases can be caused by viruses and so forth, it follows that one cannot be completely objective in critiquing a primal religion.

It seems to me that Hilton Deakin too, has applied his Catholic, rationalist Christian impregnated background to the subject of primal religions as he finds it necessary to invent categories in which to place what he sees as the different characteristics of primal religions. After reading Deakin’s seven categories it is tempting to think that had Deakin returned to the study of primal religions he would have further dissected the seven into twenty or more. It seems the Western rationalist mind has difficulty coming to terms with the oneness of “primitive/primal” worldviews. However if it is necessary to understand and, ipso facto, study primal religions in a Western empirical fashion some form of dissection must be undertaken. In defining his seven criteria of primal religions Deakin has done a remarkably good job of teasing out his universal categories from a multi hued tapestry in which the colours have no distinct borders but blend, fade and merge like coloured dyes in water. Nevertheless, I think Deakin himself would admit to a little Christian, if not Catholic, colour blindness.

In applying Deakin’s categories to the Cree, Saami, Tiwi and Karen we must be careful to make clear whether we are discussing pre or post contact peoples. For the purposes of this essay I shall be referring mainly to the religions of pre contact people as the cultures of all four groups are dynamic in nature and, although basic religious tenets may be entrenched in tradition, the primality of their religions become inexorably more attenuated with each new generation.


The primal religions, which allow humans to enter into relationships with spirits, are not usually religions that have evolved or come to maturity in literate societies. They are, by and large, the religions of relatively isolated peoples who live close to and who derive their sustenance from their environments. As a result of living so close to nature, so enmeshed in the earth’s natural rhythmic order, their very environment becomes the frame of reference for their religion. So too, do their cosmogonies and hierophanies come from the environments of which they consider themselves to be an intrinsic part. (Fisher1999, 29-31).

Apart from the spirits resident within animate and inanimate objects, the spirits with which man communes and communicates may come from any place which man is capable of imagining – the sky, an underworld, the sun, moon, the very air we breathe or even be encapsulated or contained within a disease. They may be punitively and constantly malevolent or just waiting in the wings to inflict destruction if left unpropitiated. They may be permanent and benign guardians seeking at all times to look after man’s best interests but sometimes being thwarted in these efforts by other spirits more powerful than themselves. In the case of the Plains Cree and the Saami their traditions even incorporate a range of mischief-makers and tricksters who perform functions on behalf of more powerful spirits. These are often little people akin to Irish leprechauns who mean man no harm and might, for example, cast good luck spells or even present him with good luck charms.

In the spirit world of the Plains Cree were dwarfs, “… memekweciwak, who lived in river banks and sand hills. The chipped flint arrowheads which were found in many places were believed to have been made by these dwarfs. While these creatures did not appear to men in visions, they could grant powers and did function as spirit helpers. … “ (http://www.schoolnet.ca/aboriginal/Plains_Cree/part10-e.html) These are not very different from the trolls/trows which appear in Scandinavian folk tales and have infiltrated Saami folklore.[1]

Man’s relationship with the spirits in a primal religion are seen as being essential to his, and the earth’s well being and he must consult with them to ensure his survival along with the survival of all that he sees and imagines around him. This, perforce, over the course of time must develop into some kind of easily remembered, repeatable ritual. According to Mercea Eliade (1963, 31-33) it is the organic nature of their lives that lead the practitioners of primal religions to engage in these physiological acts which they view as necessary sacraments to allow them to communicate with the power/force which represents life itself.

This life force which seeps into and soaks the religious sponge that is everyday life is usually a background mental construct not strictly definable in the language of modern day Western societies where people no longer live organically.[2] It could, perhaps, be described by likening it to the mixture of gases that make up the atmosphere. They are omnipresent but unseen, they consist of the primary essence, which for humans is oxygen, but there is a whole pantheon of gases in the atmosphere all equally important to life on the planet. The trees, for example, generate oxygen but inhale carbon dioxide which, for them, is the breath of life. And so it is with the lesser gases and trace gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen, helium and argon – some of which are deadly poisons. This pantheon of gases works in harmony and in balance resulting in the planet’s ability to live, to breathe, to increase and repair itself.

So too with the spirit world, the system is larger than the combination of individual spirits (as in Gestalt theory) but all are essential to the formation of the life force even though some are “poisonous” and the poisonous spirits, like the poisonous gases in the atmosphere, collectively outweigh the useable (by humans) gases. The atmosphere is subject, from time to time, to major and minor pollutants as in the case of volcanic eruptions or naturally occurring bush fires; and the combined forces that we in Western societies know as “nature” compensate to right the balance. The spirit world of the practitioners of primal religions must also be held in balance by the performance of the correct ceremonies. These are usually seasonal ceremonies in the case of major cyclic events and small propitiatory rituals where minor (personal or family) adjustments are required.

Thus we see a kind of kinship with the world which is instrumental in creating a worldview where everything is, in some way, sacred but in which religion does not exist as a separate institution. Life itself is the permeable institution in which the religion lives. To the practitioner this fact needs no explanation as the concept is both institutionalised and socialised within the society. Holders of such a worldview have no need for a priestly intermediary between themselves and the spirits as they are themselves “woven into the same fabric” as the spirits. The Plains Indians of north America are quite at home with the thought that ordinary people can communicate with their own guardian spirits and whilst they may not view the practice as mundane they certainly see it as an every day happening. (Albanese 1981, 21-22)

The many tribes of the Plains Indians, the Swampy & the Woodland Cree and various other tribes in North America had numerous spirits to guide them and who needed to be appeased. But all had the underlying life force spirit known variously as Wakan or Wakantanka or Orenda just as the Karen have their equivalent life force known to them as the “pgho.” The Melanesians, Polynesians and many other cultures of the Pacific know their remarkably similar all pervading power as “Mana”.[3] Although this force in most primal religions can be taken to mean a collective unity of spirits, in some cultures certain people such as shamans can be imbued with a degree of it. These people act on behalf of the community not as priests but more as religious helpers and interpreters.

Shamans, in one form or another, are to be found in all four of the study groups. However, it is among the Cree and the Saami that they are the most conspicuous and they perform similar functions in both cultures. The shaman communicates directly with spirit powers whilst in a state of ecstasy and his – or in the case of the Saami it could equally be her - power comes directly from a specific spirit or spirits rather than from the all pervading life force. Two forms of shamanistic ecstasy are common to both the Cree and the Saami - wandering and possession ecstasy. In the former the shaman is transported to the spirit world whilst in the latter the spirit possesses him in this world. The shaman is called upon to normalise, regulate and adjust the balance between the community and the spirit world thus ensuring the well being of the community. The shaman is also an ordinary member of the community and his position as shaman is not a profession. Whilst he is performing his shamanistic duties his responsibilities are manifold. He/she has to be concerned with weather forecasting, conveying the dead to the spirit world, detecting when a taboo has been broken, expelling spirits, which are malevolent in intent, attracting game, curing diseases and so forth. (Grolier Encyclopedia 1995)

The spirit world among people who use primal religions, shapes the worldview of those people; the spirits in those worlds having been created or having evolved to explain the people’s ambient environments and the phenomena which occur within them. When analyzed it can be seen that although all of them are esoteric and mysterious on the surface, they all display their own forms of logic and degrees of usefulness. Further, that logic is always applicable to the specific physical environment. When viewed in this environmental context, indigenous worldviews hold few surprises. Nor are they always rigidly fixed either in time or space. A good example of this is the Karen who seem to adopt specific parts of any other religions they come into contact with which might, in some way, fit with, or be used to explain, something in their environment. Marshall (1922, 211-291) describes dozens of such incorporations from Judeo Christian beliefs to Buddhism and Confucianism. All have been incorporated in such a way as to fit in with and explain some part of an already established religion that continues to evolve.

Since Marshall’s time some of the Karen have even incorporated the thirty seven pestilential and punitive Nat spirits of the Burmese into their own voluminous pantheon of spirits which constantly await propitiation of some sort. (Spiro 1978, 40-55). Thus some groups among the Karen spend an inordinate amount of time in appeasing and pacifying spirits which require them to atone for transgressions, make sacrificial offerings and the like on pain of the infliction of some kind of spiritual disharmony which can cause, say, the harvest to fail. This multitudinous collection of gods and spirits gives rise to a fairly unique worldview in which the populace live in constant uneasiness and perturbation.

For the most part, the peoples of the four focus groups do not see a distinction between culture, religion and tradition. In Hilton Deakin’s Christian impregnated background these three things are distinct and in some way measurable. But in societies where primal religions are dominant, religion is tradition is culture. The fact that I have been unable to find a word which corresponds to the English word for “religion” in any of the four focus groups indicates that, even if one should exist, it must surely have a very nebulous meaning.

Religions that allow humans to enter into relationships with spirits have evolved to suit the mores of the people who use their environments to gain sustenance. It is no accident that spirit dances, with their emphasis on the seasonal migration of buffaloes, did not evolve in the Middle East where there are no buffaloes. Or that Christianity’s story of shepherds abiding in fields did not occur in Tiwi religious mythology. It is my opinion that the belief in, and for the people who practice primal religions the reality of, a spirit world should not be seen as a cause for wonderment. Rather, it is a simple logical construct. The minds of men are hungry for some kind of everlasting existence which cannot be obtained in the material world and the only way to acquire this “immortality” is to eventually be absorbed into an everlasting, spiritual oneness. The existence of a spirit world, and human communication with it, allows man to educe order from the unknown and the mysterious. (Wilson 1998, passim 271-296).

Reference List

Albanese, C.L. America Religions and Religion. Wadsworth Publishing Company, California. 1981.

Eliade, M. 1963, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Trans. R. Sheed., The New American Library, Inc, New York.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica Inc. CD 1999. New York.

Fisher. M.P. 1999, “Religious Traditions in the Modern World” in N. Smart (ed) Religion in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge, London.

http://www.schoolnet.ca/aboriginal/Plains_Cree/part10-e.html. 12/09/2000

Marshall, H.I. 1995, The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology. University of Cambridge., Melbourne.

Spiro, M.E. 1978, Burmese Supernaturalism. Prentice-Hall, Philadelphia.

The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Electronic Publishing Incorporated, California. 1995.

Wilson, E.O. 1988, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Little Brown & Company, London.

[1] In the plays of the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, especially Peer Gynt, trolls are used as symbols of destructive instincts but this popular view of trolls does not correspond with the trolls of Saami tradition.

[2] Maybe the closest Western analogy can be found in the Holy Ghost of Christianity. In one God there are three Divine Persons--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and all are considered to be of the one essence.

[3] “A striking similarity with mana may also be noted in the concepts of heil (good omen), saell (fortunate), and hamingja (luck) of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples”. (Britannica CD 1999)