ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at religion in its early forms in the hope of shedding some light on its origins. It also looks at prehistoric societies to see what religious institutions were present there. Prehistoric societies were, obviously, primitive. There are two classes of primitive societies; those which are prehistoric and those still surviving and open to direct study by contemporary cultural anthropologists. The chapter examines the specific beliefs and practices of primitive religion and refers these beliefs and practices as religious institutions. Primitive man has built up an enormous number of arts and skills and crafts based on everyday observation and rational thinking. Primitive man is neither lacking in sense observation nor in reason, but in philosophical development. He projects a primitive philosophy, which is religion, and he relegates to a separate order, the kingdom of heaven, precisely the element of chance which he cannot control. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
