In College eventually I was interested in Cultural Anthropology and Religious relativism and Comparative religion

 What I found worldwide is that all religions (basically) teach the same things: Compassion for each other (as long as the other people have the same belief system as you do"sort of like a family or something".)

And all cultures teach how to survive in the environment that they sprang up in.

So, cultural religions and other traditions usually spring from basic survival of the tribe or group of individuals worldwide and all start in some shamanic form initially.

For example, even Jesus and John the Baptist need to be viewed as Religious Shamans before their ideas became codified over time to make full sense historically of what has happened ever since.

Likewise, Gautama Buddha needs to be viewed as a Prince of Lumbini who became a Shaman and engaged in Shamanic practices until he became enlightened under the Bodhi Tree and taught the Middle Path or Mahayana path to his disciples 2500 or more years ago even before Jesus 500 years or so. And so eventually Buddha's teachings were also codified into the many sects of Buddhism now worldwide.

Just like Jesus' teachings have been codified in so many many variations now of Christianity worldwide as well.

But, all religions were originally started by Shamanic Teachers close to the earth in their teachings which helped all civilizations survive until now through the basic essence of their teachings.