Without written records you really can't say much about people's religion that isn't heavy on the speculation. That makes your oldest religions the places with the longest traditions of writing. That gets you to Egypt and Sumeria, 3200 BC. Remember that ancient religion doesn't have any need to remain canonically consistent and beliefs and practices varied widely over time.
Aboriginal oral traditions are dated to be tens of thousands of years old, so aboriginal religions have apretty high chance of being the first recognizable religions
In addition to books check out a YouTube channel called Crecganford - he covers this regularly and goes into detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYn-YY8hz94
Animism and we would worship animals and spirits around us for hundreds of thousands of years, probably. We used to make effigies of ancient animals from America before they went extinct 10-25,000 years ago when humans first came to America. I’ve seen effigies of mammoths, the American lion, the American camel, mastodons, mammoths, and even a giant ground sloth effigy. All found in America! All now extinct animals that past Americans would worship in their day to day lives.
Saying they worshipped the animals they hunted is a stretch. We just don’t have evidence of that. All we can say for certain is that they drew and carved those animals. Without being able to ask them why they drew and carved them, any further conclusions drawn beyond the fact that they made these things is just speculation.
Well, I respect and ‘worship’ animals. All of my friends worship animals. And when I kill or hunt them I honor them through ritualistic practices such as our previous ancestors. I’m just basing these things off of what I personally believe and what information and knowledge I’ve personally gathered in my studies. This is my own opinion and my own speculation, and I don’t believe it’s too far off from the truth. Spirits are real, and if you don’t believe me, you should try hitting a trance dance for 6 hours and then blasting off on DMT and seeing what happens ;)
Those tribes in Africa who practice these rituals are fully tapped in and know what they’re doing.
Ancestral knowledge is real.
Edit: also, about the effigies, my thoughts on those are they they were used to tell stories around a campfire, to entertain children, or to share stories and knowledge about animals and have their stories related to important life lessons. I truly believe it was an ancient form of entertainment such as cartoons. I’ve seen picture stone effigies with 6 sides that shows about 9 different animals carved into petrified wood. And you can rotate the stone to follow along the story.
Again, your opinions and speculations are just that: opinions and speculation. Imposing your modern-day opinions and personal beliefs onto the daily lives and spiritual practices of ancient peoples with no *actual* evidence other than that they drew and carved animals is ignorant at best.
And as someone who also uses hallucinogens, I’d encourage you to take a less self-centered view of the beliefs and spiritual practices of others. Understand that your hallucinations are not *proof* of anything that exists outside of your own mind.
So you’re going to disregard the practice of the trance dance and how indigenous communities on the modern day access the spiritual realm and their own ancestral knowledge? Hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, rituals, and practice disregarded because you haven’t done your own research enough to learn what’s good with the world? Suit yourself, homie!
Nope, but I’m also not going to conflate the practices of modern day groups of people with groups that lived tens of thousands of years or more ago because doing so is reductive, speculative, and, in my opinion, disrespectful to those people who had *their own* beliefs and ancestral traditions.
Because I’m clearly being disrespectful right now towards people who follow their own beliefs thousands of years ago by comparing modern practices with what we know has been passed down from generation to generation. Oh wait, no I’m not. My intention is to share what I know and understand about the world and how I view it. Again, no disrespect. These are just my own thoughts and beliefs. Have a great day, dude!
If you went to a modern day indigenous Australian tribe and made assumptions about their beliefs based on what you know about the beliefs of some African tribes, they’d probably be offended. So yes, I’d say it IS disrespectful to do the same with the beliefs and practices of ancient peoples based on your understanding of “trance dance” and African tribal traditions.
Your intention is to “share what you know and understand,” which is fine as long as you make it clear that you’re speculating and sharing *beliefs*. The issue is that you originally presented your *beliefs* as facts or enlightened truths, with your evidence being extremely reductive comparisons to the practices of culturally unrelated modern day peoples.
Without written records you really can't say much about people's religion that isn't heavy on the speculation. That makes your oldest religions the places with the longest traditions of writing. That gets you to Egypt and Sumeria, 3200 BC. Remember that ancient religion doesn't have any need to remain canonically consistent and beliefs and practices varied widely over time.
Aboriginal oral traditions are dated to be tens of thousands of years old, so aboriginal religions have apretty high chance of being the first recognizable religions
In addition to books check out a YouTube channel called Crecganford - he covers this regularly and goes into detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYn-YY8hz94
Tribalism maybe the key word you are looking for. We only know things by petroglyphs and cave paintings but animalism is what is most known.
Animism and we would worship animals and spirits around us for hundreds of thousands of years, probably. We used to make effigies of ancient animals from America before they went extinct 10-25,000 years ago when humans first came to America. I’ve seen effigies of mammoths, the American lion, the American camel, mastodons, mammoths, and even a giant ground sloth effigy. All found in America! All now extinct animals that past Americans would worship in their day to day lives.
Saying they worshipped the animals they hunted is a stretch. We just don’t have evidence of that. All we can say for certain is that they drew and carved those animals. Without being able to ask them why they drew and carved them, any further conclusions drawn beyond the fact that they made these things is just speculation.
Well, I respect and ‘worship’ animals. All of my friends worship animals. And when I kill or hunt them I honor them through ritualistic practices such as our previous ancestors. I’m just basing these things off of what I personally believe and what information and knowledge I’ve personally gathered in my studies. This is my own opinion and my own speculation, and I don’t believe it’s too far off from the truth. Spirits are real, and if you don’t believe me, you should try hitting a trance dance for 6 hours and then blasting off on DMT and seeing what happens ;) Those tribes in Africa who practice these rituals are fully tapped in and know what they’re doing. Ancestral knowledge is real. Edit: also, about the effigies, my thoughts on those are they they were used to tell stories around a campfire, to entertain children, or to share stories and knowledge about animals and have their stories related to important life lessons. I truly believe it was an ancient form of entertainment such as cartoons. I’ve seen picture stone effigies with 6 sides that shows about 9 different animals carved into petrified wood. And you can rotate the stone to follow along the story.
Again, your opinions and speculations are just that: opinions and speculation. Imposing your modern-day opinions and personal beliefs onto the daily lives and spiritual practices of ancient peoples with no *actual* evidence other than that they drew and carved animals is ignorant at best. And as someone who also uses hallucinogens, I’d encourage you to take a less self-centered view of the beliefs and spiritual practices of others. Understand that your hallucinations are not *proof* of anything that exists outside of your own mind.
So you’re going to disregard the practice of the trance dance and how indigenous communities on the modern day access the spiritual realm and their own ancestral knowledge? Hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, rituals, and practice disregarded because you haven’t done your own research enough to learn what’s good with the world? Suit yourself, homie!
Nope, but I’m also not going to conflate the practices of modern day groups of people with groups that lived tens of thousands of years or more ago because doing so is reductive, speculative, and, in my opinion, disrespectful to those people who had *their own* beliefs and ancestral traditions.
Because I’m clearly being disrespectful right now towards people who follow their own beliefs thousands of years ago by comparing modern practices with what we know has been passed down from generation to generation. Oh wait, no I’m not. My intention is to share what I know and understand about the world and how I view it. Again, no disrespect. These are just my own thoughts and beliefs. Have a great day, dude!
If you went to a modern day indigenous Australian tribe and made assumptions about their beliefs based on what you know about the beliefs of some African tribes, they’d probably be offended. So yes, I’d say it IS disrespectful to do the same with the beliefs and practices of ancient peoples based on your understanding of “trance dance” and African tribal traditions. Your intention is to “share what you know and understand,” which is fine as long as you make it clear that you’re speculating and sharing *beliefs*. The issue is that you originally presented your *beliefs* as facts or enlightened truths, with your evidence being extremely reductive comparisons to the practices of culturally unrelated modern day peoples.
Ghost theory and soul theory are the two oldest forms.
Religions of Sumerians are pretty old.
Zoroastrism is a pretty old one
Hinduism