Chapter 8: Primal Religions Summary and Analysis

Since the beginning of mankind there has been an estimated 100,000 different religions. Most existed in pre-literature times and have since disappeared. There is no written history of these religions. All that is known about them has been revealed by anthropologists.

Beginnings

Many of the myths focused on the mysteries of creation. The Maori in New Zealand maintained that the Supreme Io created the world. The Brotherhood of Beast and Man in Bushongo, Central Africa, held that the world was created from a regurgitation by Bumba. The Pawnee Indians of North America believed that Mother Corn grew the first human beings from the earth. A myth from Haruro, South America, Kuma, the Mother, was the source of all life. The Hopi Indians of North America had hope and faith in nature but believed that the deterioration of the...