Religion in Tribal Societies

Abstract

It is common to draw a dividing line between the ‘world religions’ and ‘primitive religion’ or the religion of ‘primitive’ societies, folk religion, ‘primary’ religion, and so on. It is often a misleading division since included in the world religions one usually finds Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism all of which are confined to particular communities or parts of the world. One might argue that the only truly world religions are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, while Judaism is in an ambiguous position.