In societies without theology, everyone talks about God and the world, or one remains silent about the ultimate mysteries. The author connects this contradictory finding of religious ethnology with insights from ancient studies, prehistory, religious research, and folklore to create a comprehensive picture of non-dogmatic human belief. This belief can be divided into elemental basic patterns that provide ritualized answers to the influence of uncontrollable powers. On one hand, the reconstructed archaic cosmopolitanism appears to be dominated by nature or integrated into it, while on the other hand, it unleashes creativity, as if a cosmos that has come undone must constantly be reassembled. In this tension between preserving tradition and experimental vision, tribal societies have developed.