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[quote=Anonymous]To add on to my Australia Aborigine response on first page:

I don’t think that we can know for sure (or that it really matters) what is the oldest religion. I would presume there are at least some aspects of the religious culture of the San peoples’ (nomadic Hunter gatherers in Southern Africa who lived there as long as 150 k year ago) that found its way into traditional African religions.

Indigenous religions seem to have a few things in common: 
- spiritual beliefs intertwined with respect for natural environment 
- concern for community well being trumps individual concerns
- ancestors are ever present and guiding descendants who act with respect

[b]Aboriginal Australians are Earth's oldest civilization: DNA study[/b]
By Emiko Jozuka, CNN 
Updated 5:37 AM EDT, Thu September 22, 2016

CNN) A new genomic study has revealed that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilization on Earth, with ancestries stretching back roughly 75,000 years.
In a study published in the journal Nature Wednesday, a group of international researchers -- including nine Aboriginal leaders -- collected genomic data on 83 Aboriginal Australians and 25 Highland Papuans from Papua New Guinea.
The findings indicated their ancestors had diverged from Eurasians 57,000 years ago, following a single exodus from Africa around 75,000 years ago.

[b]Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology [/b]is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime (the Dreaming), songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_religion_and_mythology

[b]Views on death[/b]
The response to death in Aboriginal religion may seem similar in some respects to that to be found in European traditions - notably in regard to the holding of a ceremony to mark the death of an individual and the observance of a period of mourning for that individual. Any such similarity, however, is, at best, only superficial (with ceremony and mourning of some kind being common to most, if not all, human cultures). In death - as in life - Aboriginal spirituality gives pre-eminence to the land and sees the deceased as linked indissolubly, by a web of subtle connections, to that greater whole: "For Aboriginal people when a person dies some form of the persons spirit and also their bones go back to the country they were born in".[32] "Aborigine people [sic] believe that they share their being with their country and all that is within it". "So when a person dies their country suffers, trees die and become scarred because it is believed that they came into being because of the deceased person".[32]
When an Aboriginal person dies the families have death ceremonies called the "Sorry Business". During this time the person is mourned for days by the family and whole community, crying together and sharing their grief. Often the deceased person's family stay in one room and mourn together.[33]
Naming a person after their death is often taboo, as it is thought that it could disturb their spirit. Photos of the deceased are often not allowed, for the same reason. A smoking ceremony may be conducted, using smoke on the belongings and in the home of the deceased, which is believed to aid in releasing the spirit. The cause of death, often of a spiritual nature, may be determined by Aboriginal elders.[33]
Ceremonies and mourning periods can last days, weeks and even sometimes months depending upon the social status of the deceased person. It is culturally inappropriate for a non-Aboriginal person to contact and inform the next of kin of a person's passing. When someone passes away, the family of the deceased move out of their house and another family then moves in. Some families will move to "sorry camps", which are usually further away. Mourning includes the recital of symbolic chants, the singing of songs, dance, body paint, and cuts on the bodies of the mourners. In some Aboriginal cultures, the body is placed on a raised platform for several months, covered in native plants, or in a cave or tree. When only the bones remain, family and friends scatter them in various ways, or place them in a special place.

Many Aboriginal people believe in a place called the "Land of the Dead". This place was also commonly known as the "sky-world", which is really just the sky. As long as certain rituals were carried out during their life and at the time of their death, the deceased is allowed to enter The Land of the Dead in the "Sky World". The spirit of the dead is also a part of different lands and sites and then those areas become sacred sites. This explains why the Aboriginal people are very protective of sites they call sacred.

The rituals that are performed enable an Aboriginal person to return to the womb of all time, which is "Dreamtime". It allows the spirit to be connected once more to all nature, to all their ancestors, and to their own personal meaning and place within the scheme of things. "The Dreamtime is a return to the real existence for the aborigine". "Life in time is simply a passing phase – a gap in eternity". It has a beginning and it has an end. "The experience of Dreamtime, whether through ritual or from dreams, flowed through into the life in time in practical ways". "The individual who enters the Dreamtime feels no separation between themselves and their ancestors". "The strengths and resources of the timeless enter into what is needed in the life of the present". "The future is less uncertain because the individual feels their life as a continuum linking past and future in unbroken connection". Through Dreamtime the limitations of time and space are overcome. For the Aboriginal people, dead relatives are very much a part of continuing life. It is believed that in dreams dead relatives communicate their presence." At times they may bring healing if the dreamer is in pain". "Death is seen as part of a cycle of life in which one emerges from Dreamtime through birth, and eventually returns to the timeless, only to emerge again. It is also a common belief that a person leaves their body during sleep, and temporarily enters the Dreamtime"

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