Of course, there are many opinions, religious or otherwise, as to what humanity is all about. Ancient peoples worshipped gods and goddesses, performed prescribed rituals, built extravagant places of worship, and tended to their dead in various ways that indicated they believed that life goes on after the death of the body. However, it is impossible to know what our earliest ancestors actually thought about their role in the world.
In fact, hunter gatherer societies evidently believed in some continuation of life after the death of the body. Prehistoric gravesites include red ochre, a common symbol of the life force and renewal, as well as pollen from flowers that had been laid on the corpse and even small belongings, such as a stone knife or a string of shell beads, were sometimes included in the grave of the deceased. Clearly, early humans believed in more than just what they could see. They had a sense of the "special" nature of human beings and their role on Earth.
From the beginnings of honoring the dead, many cultures adopted a degree of ancestor worship, where it was believed that those who had passed on could influence the living. Other groups developed shamanic traditions, where one (or more) member of the tribe, the Shaman, was able to go into trance, sometimes with organic hallucinogens, and describe healing techniques, predict the future and communicate with the gods.
