The Abrahamic religions assert that God, G-d, or Allah transcends a reality divided into a spiritual world and a material world. Basic or primal religions generally assert that the world is both spiritual and material. List and define those practices, rites, and rituals of Native American religions and African religions that demonstrate the unity of the spiritual and material world in a 250-500 word APA style paper. Basic, Primal, or Primary Religions · Understand the characteristics of basic or primal religions · Describe the diversity of Native American and African religions · Explain the major philosophical differences between basic or primal religions and the other major religions Introduction Hopfe (2005) prefers the term basic religions to primitive religions because the latter connotes backwardness, simplicity, and childlikeness. Other terms that have been suggested are primal religions and primary religions. Basic religions generally have no single founder and are based on an oral tradition of sacred stories rather than on sacred texts. They do not separate reality into spiritual and material (physical) worlds. They are indigenous in scope and experientially and ritualistically based. As generally conceived, basic religions are henotheistic; gods are specific, local, or territorial, and the existence of other gods is generally recognized and respected. Any supreme god or high god conceived is generally considered unapproachable or beyond comprehension. Basic, Primal, or Primary Religions: A Framework of Comparison What Does It Mean To Be Human? The world is biocentric; all living flora and fauna are considered to be part of a unified spiritual family in which all life, including humans, are to live harmoniously. Humans are not the focus (anthropocentrism) of creation and are not superior to or appointed as custodians or managers of the rest of creation. Many beings other than humans are generally considered to be ensouled or enspirited. What Is the Basic Human Problem? The primal world is not divided into physical and spiritual realms. All life is spiritual, and humanity exists in a spiritually saturated, animated, and unified spiritual/physical world. Young (2005) asserts that “the basic human problem is failure to respect the intended spiritual equilibrium of all life, human and nonhuman, and to live within it” (p. 29). The experience and propagation of the spiritual harmony or disharmony is both individual and corporate. Individual disharmony generates collective disharmony beyond the individual’s immediate family, and collective disharmony engenders individual disharmony. What Is the Cause of the Problem? Disharmony is produced when an individual, family, clan, tribe, nation, or society allows spirits or desires to lead them to diverge from the spiritual family that is the primal world and pursue a more individualistic existence. This divergence from unity (harmony) to fragmentation (disharmony) rooted in individualism produces a self-centered spiritual amnesia concerning the interrelatedness of all life. What Is the End or Goal of Transformation? The end or goal of the transformation is the restoration and maintenance of the natural spiritual equilibrium of the primal world.