Ancestor worship is any of a variety of religious beliefs and practices concerned with the spirits of dead persons regarded as relatives, some of whom may be mythical. Although far from universal, ancestor worship exists or formerly existed in societies at every level of cultural development.

Nature and significance

The core of ancestor worship is the belief in the continuing existence of the dead and in a close relation between the living and the dead, who continue to influence the affairs of the living. Beliefs in a surviving element of the human person (e.g., the soul) and in an afterlife have been held in all kinds of societies. Attitudes toward the spirits of the dead vary from love, respect, and trust, mingled with special feelings of reverence, to outright fear; the attitudes are sometimes ambivalent. The spirits of the dead are often thought to help the living, but they often are thought to do harm if they are not propitiated. All societies give ritual attention to death or to the souls of the dead, but not all of these practices may appropriately be called ancestor worship. If death itself, rather than the ancestral relationship, is the focus of attention, the name death cults is more appropriate. The deification of dead heroes is similarly poorly distinguished from ancestor worship. Death cults, the worship of dead heroes who may or may not be regarded as ancestors, and clearly distinguishable rites of ancestor worship may all exist in the same society.

Ancestors venerated by elaborate rites are those persons who in their lifetimes held positions of importance, such as heads of families, lineages, clans, tribes, kingdoms, and other social groups. Depending on the manner in which kin are organized into social groups, ancestral spirits that are worshipped may be limited to one sex, or may include both sexes. Among primitive societies that trace descent only through male lines, for example, males hold the titular positions of prestige, and only male ancestors are significant.

Ancestral spirits that are worshipped also vary in nearness or remoteness in time from the living. In some societies only the spirits of the recently deceased are given attention; in others, all ancestors, near and remote in time, are included. In still other societies, one ancestor, real, honorary, or mythical, may be the focus of attention, and he is often regarded as a hero.

GO TO: Basic patterns and functions

"ancestor worship" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

http://www.eb.com:180/bol/topic?eu=117386&sctn=1

Accessed 27 July 1999.

Copyright © 1994-1999 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.