Repository pattern vs DAO managing Entities

I am new to concepts like DAO, DAL and Domain Driven Design. In the end I want to decouple the persistence layer (mysql database) from my business objects and logic in a web application. I liked the DAO concept but I got stuck implementing it when I want to create a Business Object from database that has other entities associated with it (represented by foreign key in the db table).

1. How are these references (aggregations) handled using DAO pattern? Every online DAO example is simple and shows creation of value-object-like Business Objects only (without referencing other entities or value objects). Is it done using Dependency Injection and if so, where is the dependency created?


2. By further reading I guess that Repository pattern from DDD gives the possibility to maybe use DAOs behind the scenes and handle object aggregations. As I understand it, it only provides the so called root (Entity with all references loaded or lazy loaded) to the outer world, what seems a good approach to me. Is Repository recommended when using DAO or can DAOs themselves give this functionality by maintaining Persistence Ignorance to the Business Objects.

I am not using an ORM tool and don't want to as I like to explore these basic patterns directly