The simple mind of our ancestors

Each man and woman from ancient civilisations had the need to compensate the earth itself somehow for the things they had to do to survive, hunting, fishing, bringing down the trees for wood and all the things they had to do to have valuable resources, and so they gave lots of gifts to the earth, honoring it, loving it and fearing it. There was from both sides, mankind and the earth, a connection and an attitude of reciprocity. This was done so, because of the need people had to live harmoniously with their surroundings, and people illustrated these events by carving or painting these things into the walls of their caves or the places they marked as hunting grounds. This was sacred to them, and they saw in each elemento, each animal, each event in nature, the works of the divine, the demonstration of the powers of the gods in the natural world, and as such, this was the first primitive "dialogue" between men and the gods, the contact with the forces inhabiting an invisible plane, the places inaccessible to human consciousness of today.
 
In primitive times, human activity was based on the respect for the natural world, the planet earth was regarded as a very generous mother but at the same time very fearsome. To that which people called Mother-Earth, it was the source of their protection, the source of life and all the food they needed, but at the same time, its natural powers were something that they couldn't control and it was terrifying. 
As it is said, "a gift calls for a gift" in these times mankind gave their own gifts to the gods and goddesses of each place on earth, to the deities of the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and to the spirits of each tree, stone, land and so on, for they received a lot of gifts from these beings, and humans had a diferente perception of the world, they were much more sensitive to that, for now we all live closed in our own cities, surrounded by silent and invisible nuclear radioactive clouds and radio lines from many devices, which affects our brains, we live under the laws of man and not of those of nature, and we lost this sensibility as we turn our backs from the natural world a bit more each day, we can't possible know the kind of connections people used to have with nature in ancient times, and we often think they were the primitive ones in terms of thinking, but in truth, they were only primitive in the sence of the word, for being very ancient, for they lived in a simple way with respect towards all that surrounded them.
Giving back to nature something, a natural gift or something that you do, might seem awkward, primitive, with no benefits, but these demonstrations of gratitude and the emotions implied in it, its what makes us more humble.
As mother-nature gave protection, nutrition, food and life, it was seen as a real mother and as such there was the need to respect it, worship and honor it, giving to it sacrificial offerings. Mother-nature gives life to the living and takes away the dead back to it's humble "womb", regenerating and giving life again.