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JAAR 45/2 (1977) 147-160

Two Notes on Modern Rituals

Bruce Lincoln

ABSTRACT
The fundamental issue raised in this paper is whether ritual is a necessary part of all societies. Some authors have questioned this, arguing that ritual does not really exist in modern Western society. In response to this, two examples are offered here that show ritual behavior in unexpected areas of modern life. The first example, "The Gifts of Initiation," shows how different cultures define themselves, their values and their accomplishments, in the gifts they present to their children who have just come of age. Evidence from India, Iran, and East Africa is offered to establish the pattern, and then the three most common gifts given on initiatory occasions in modern America-pen and pencil set, wristwatch, and automobile-are shown to have the same function, symbolically expressing the technological conquest of space, time, and ignorance. The second example, "Invokingthe Ancestors, or the Sacred Footnote," calls attention to the rites found among peoples who exhibit particularreverencefor their recent ancestors, such as the Mende of West Africa and the Ngaing of New Guinea. Among such peoples, the memory of the dead is preserved for only a few generations, but during that time the ancestors are often appealed to as protectors, are treated with extreme courtesy, and are regularlyinvited by name to come and share feasts. A comparison is made between these practices and the highly developed etiquette that attends footnoting-the scholar's invocation of his ancestors. In both instances proper use of names is extremely important, for by using a forebear's name, one demonstrates that death has not triumphed over the solidarity of one's lineage. Based on these two examples, it is then argued that ritual is present even in the most secularized society, although it is not necessarily found in the places one would readily expect it. Given this, the author is inclined to accept the universality of ritual behavior.

Bruce Lincoln (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Assistant Professor of Humanities, Religious Studies, and South Asian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He has published in History of Religions, Novum Testamentum, Paideuma, Journal of Indo-European Studies, and elsewhere. Most recently, he has co-edited a special issue of History of Religions entitled The Mythic Imagination: Studies in Honor of Mircea Eliade (HR, May 1977).

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ISTORIANS of religions have not always been noted for their modesty or and temerity, among the more audacious claims that they are prone to make is the oft-voiced proprietary statement that their proper field of study is the entire religious experience of man from the paleolithic era to the presentday. In principle there is some justification for this bold annexation of territory, however, for the consequences of taking a smaller field would amount to overemphasizing the importance of certain data and ignoring others. Thus, the origins of the field known in Germany as Religionswissenschaft (Wach) are to be found in the reaction against a study of religion that focused on the study of Christian theology and which accepted the truth claims of Christianity as normative. Such a perspective was properly recognized as suffering from a serious bias, and the necessary corrective was and has been the attempt to study all religious phenomena with equal objectivity. The process is quite similar to certain events in the history of anthropology, whereby Western civilization was taken as normative and all else regardedas quaint customs of savage peoples. It is because she overthrew this mind set and established as a basic rule that all data must be given equal weight that Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture remains a classic for the anthropological field (3-10). No anthropologist would dare claim to be studying culture if he studied only the Roman republic, Renaissance Italy and modern Europe, any more than a linguist would claim to be studying language with no more than Latin, Chinese, and English as his base. Researchers in these fields have rightly recognized that they are each dealing with an important area in which the human mind has exercised itself in multiple ways, and that, if their studies are to have merit, they must explore mankind in all its diversity and not limit themselves to a few favored examples. Historians of religions voice a similar conclusion in their audacious claims. If those claims can be seen to bejustified in principle, however, in practice they are extremely difficult to apply. The sheer mass of data is so enormous that we are forced to pick and choose and to understand fully that any religious system in all of its complexity can require a lifetime of study. Historians of religions therefore tend to accept one or two or perhaps even three different cultures or traditions as their area of specialization, and then attempt to acquire as much knowledge as is possible about the rest, resigned to the fact that we always fall short of doing it full justice. Such a practice is, of course, regrettable, and falls woefully short of the "paleolithic man to the present day" ideal, but one does the best one can, and the hope becomes that if no individual can span this entire area, at least the field as a whole can do so. Yet again we run into difficulty, for it seems that certain favorite areas for study inevitably emerge. A few good books or a few talented teachers can create a stampede, and being small in numbers as well as grandiose in aspirations, the field can ill afford too much duplication. Yet those who study African religions do tend to gravitate to the Dogon, Nuer or Ashanti; those who study South American religions to the Bororo, Desana or Tupi Guarani; those who study Australia to the Aranda or Kamilaroi, despite the hundreds

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of other peoples for whom information is available. Still other areas continue to monopolize a disproportionate share of talent and energy: the religions of ancient Greece, India and China are perennial favorites, as are those of the ancient Near East and the Hellenistic era. But the religious life of the FinnoUgrians or the Turco-Mongols goes largely unstudied. One of the most interesting lacunae is the near end of the spectrum defined in the formula "from Paleolithic man to the present day." Certainly Mircea Eliade has contributed some highly suggestive remarks with regard to the religious element involved in modern political movements, literature, or even the ritual strucutreof the simple act of attending a film / 1/, but beyond this there is not much to be found in the literature. Having mentioned ritual, we are brought to another neglected area for study, for most scholars have tended to give far more attention to myth than to ritual. Certainly works on myth have been enormously valuable, and have opened up a way to understand man's religious imagination more fully than was ever possible before, but what of his religious activity, the ways in which imagination has been translatedinto deed? Several valuable studies of specific rituals have appeared recently, such as Joseph Jorgensen'sanalysis of the Sun Dance in North America, or Stephan Beyer'sstudy of Tibetan rites, but there still exists a grievous imbalance in favor of myth, and studies on such topics as cosmology and soteriology also outnumber those on ritual. It is for these reasons that a book such as The Roots of Ritual, edited by James Shaughnessy, is much to be welcomed. Here, on the topic of ritual, essays by nine different authors from widely different perspectives are brought together, and at one point or another most come to deal with the problem of ritual and the modern world. The essays, in general, are lively and provocative, and much could be learned from going over the various articles in depth. That, however, is not what I have in mind. Rather, I am struck by the fact that there seems to be general agreement among those authors who discuss the issue of modern ritual on three basic points. These are: (1) that ritual is a necessary part of life, (2) that ritual has largely disappeared in the modern world, and (3) that attempts to create new rituals or reinvigorate old ones face serious difficulties /2/. Of course this is something of an oversimplification, and I certainly have not done justice to the richness of any of the authors' thoughts, but I do think that this three-point outline captures the prevalent line of thought represented in this volume. There is, however, something which I take to be a serious inconsistency here. For if ritual is truly necessary, then its disappearance is impossible. Either it is neccessary, in which case it hasn't disappeared, or it has disappeared, in which case it wasn't really necessary. Point (1) and point (2) cannot both be valid, although point (3) no doubt holds water in any event. For my part, given what I know of cultures other than our own, I am inclined to accept that ritual is necessary, although one need not be conscious of what is ritual behavior and what is not. Thus an informant is likely to report that a certain piece of behavior is only habitual or customary, whereas careful study reveals it to be ritual.

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For instance, among the Tiv, scars are cut on the abdomen of women at the time of puberty. The Tiv say this is done "to make them beautiful," and they stoutly deny the scars have any ritual significance. Yet, when one decodes the carefully repeated patterns, one finds an elegent depiction of a woman's place in time and in society, a pattern which is also placed on the most sacred of Tiv ritual instruments and which in effect transforms the woman into a sacred object (Lincoln). Further examples could be added easily, and as a result, I am led to hypothesize that if ritual is necessary, it will be found in our culture just as in any other. Horace Miner, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, demonstrated something of this sort in his essay on "Body Ritual among the Nacirema," and the work of such sociologists as Erving Goffman (1959, 1963, 1967) serve to reinforce the conclusion. The following examples of modern ritualhave occurred to me of late; I offer them for whatever interest they may have. I. The Gifts of Initiation At a general theoretical level, rites of intitiation have been studied from a number of perspectives, most notably as rituals of separation and reincorporation (van Gennep: 65-115) and of death and rebirth (Eliade, 1958:30-37). And, in addition to these broad interpretations much has been said about specific details often found within initiation, such as the role of bodily mutilation or marking (cf. Jensen, 1933; Betelheim, 1954), and the bestowing of a new name upon the initiand (cf. van Gennep; Eliade, 1958). But one feature which has not been much discussed is the moment in the ceremonies when gifts are given to the novice upon his completion of the ritual. Perhaps this is because these gifts can be viewed as not really forming a part of the rite, but ratherstanding posterior to it. Such a definition is a matter of opinion, however, and these gifts are not without importance, as I hope to show. In general, such gifts have several functions. Thus, they not only mark the new status of the initiand, but they also convey to him or her a sense of what is expected by the society into which he or she has just been initiated. These two aspects of the gift stem from the way in which initiation serves to redefine an individual, but there is still more depth to the matter. For when a group admits a new member, it must also redefine itself in terms of its past and future, and traditional gifts are one way of a group's reaffirmingits ideals and aspirations for all to see. To the outside observer, then, they offer a particularly valuable insight into just what it is that a society wishes to emphasize within itself. Thus, for instance, among the Nuer-a cattle-herding people of the Nilotic Sudan-upon initiation a young man is presented with a spear and an ox, an extremely powerful symbolic cluster. The spear is the tool of the warrior, and it will now accompany the man in all his important undertakings: in war, in herding, and in dances. As a boy, one cannot carry a spear, and it is only initiation which confers this tool and emblem of manly status. The spear is also "an extension of the right hand," to use Evans-Pritchard'sterm, and thus carries associations of strength, vitality, and virtue. Moreover, the spear

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solidifies the individual with his entire lineage, for it carries a name that is traditional within the lineage and which evokes the spears of all one's ancestors /3/. The ox is equally important, for cattle form the basis of the Nuer economy, and all social institutions revolve around caring for cattle. As a young boy, one can only help in milking the animals, but upon completion of the initiatory rite, one acquires his first head of cattle. For the first time, he will take responsibility for the full care of an animal, and this ox will focus his attention on all the Nuer herds in a new and more mature way. So deep is a man's affection for this animal that he now takes his name from some characteristicof the ox-its color, or the shape of its horns, for example. What is more, cattle also serve as the basis for all dealings between man and the sacred, as they are the chief sacrificial animal. After initiation, one gains the right to sacrifice,because he now is a man, and because he possesses cattle /4/. Another example of the significance attached to gifts of initiation can be taken from the period of the Achaemenid empire, when members of the Persian imperial army were given a special belt or girdle to wear after initiation, and were known as bandaka, "the bound ones," as a result of this. The term was also understood to mean "serf, slave," and this was the status that each soldier occupied in relation to the king. When his belt was bound around him, he became bound to the king, and the belt remained as a constant sign of that relation (Widengren). Yet again, those initiated into religious groups in India and Tibet, particularly in Tantric circles, must go through elaborate initiatory rites (Sanskrit diksa or abhiseka; Tibetan angkur) involving such complex themes as dissolution of one's body, homologization to the deity, return to nothingness, and so forth /5/. Upon the completion of these ordeals, the novice is then given his mantra by the guru, a mystic formula imbued with sacred and creative power. That mantra will form the basis of his worship henceforth, and will make possible his ultimate liberation. To put it somewhat differently, the initiation gives the novice the right to perform worship (pu7ja or some other form), but it is the possession of the mantra which gives him the ability to do so /6/. Now in each of these instances, the nature of the gift bestowed upon initiation is an important symbolic statement of the culture's accomplishments and goals. As such, they are very much rooted in a specific culture, and only take on meaning when seen in this context. The ox and the spear have significance only for a cattle-herding people, the belt of bondage only for a culture with kingship and feudal institutions, the mantra only for a culture with a highly developed ideology of mystic sounds and a powerful soteriological inclination. We, as outsiders, can appreciate the meaning of these symbols only insofar as we understand the culture in which they originate. Within our own culture certain gifts are customarily bestowed at the time of initiation, and no great significance is attached to them. Yet might it not be that we fail to see their significance only because they are so familiar that we take them for granted? Perhaps the situation is made more difficult by the fact

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that we have no one specific rite of initiation, but I would maintain that several different ceremonies all fulfill this role. These are, within the secular sphere, commencement from high school or college, and within the religious sphere, first communion, confirmation, and bar or bat mitzvah. On these occasions, a number of gifts are commonly given, and three strike me as most important, although many others might also be discussed. My selection is purely intuitive, but I hope the readerwill not have too much difficulty in accepting them. The three which I point to are a pen and pencil set, a wristwatch, and an automobile. The three differ greatly in terms of expense, and only a relative who is very affluent and very close to the initiand will generally give an automobile, while those who are most distant and least wealthy will tend to give a pen and pencil set, but all three are often given, as most people who have lived in America for the last fifty years will recognize. Now, it is interestingto note that these three items have certain features in common. First, they are all manufactured goods-the products of an advanced technology. Second, they are all made of metal and fashioned by heavy machinery. Third, they are all precision instruments of one sort or another. But perhaps most important of all is the fact that each one is the means whereby our culture achieves some of its greatest accomplishments. Taking them individually, we must note that the pen and pencil set makes writing possible, and is thus responsible for the transmission of knowledge. The watch facilitates the organization and utilization of time, and the coordination of activity. The automobile permits rapid transportation and freedom of motion from place to place. Now these are all familiar to us, so familiar that we take them for granted as a rule, but nonetheless they are spectacular achievements made possible by the technology which characterizesour world. I do not think that it is stretching the point to speak of these gifts having a symbolic significance, even if that significance is not generally present at the conscious level. But we, no less than the Nuer, Iranians,Tibetans, or Indians, define our ideals and aspirations when we give initiatory gifts. Given the nature of our culture, the gift of an ox or a mantra would make little sense, but these mechanical gifts make great sense indeed. In effect we are telling our children who have just come of age: "Look, technology has made possible the transcendence ("conquest" is the term usually used) of space, of time, of ignorance. You may now take part in these achievements."Our characteristic gifts of initiation are the way in which this statement is made. II. Invoking the Ancestors, or the Sacred Footnote Scholars have often called attention to myths which tell of the ancestors who lived in the time of the creation, discussing them as "culture heroes," whose deeds served to establish this world and the proper modes of action within it / 7/. Yet beside these primordial ancestors, there stands another class of ancestors: the historic ancestors, those who have died more recently and who are known by name and who are felt to be close and intimately concerned

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with the affairs of the living. Often, such ancestors play a role of great importance in the religious life of a given people, and much can be learned from the consideration of a few selected examples. For instance, the Mende of Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa differentiate between two types of ancestor-the Kekeni, "Fathers," whose memories are fresh, and the Ndeblaa, "Forebears," who are virtually forgotten. Living people are much more concerned with the "Fathers,"and most cultic activity is directed toward them (Sawyerr: 27; Jedrej:39f.). On the average, ancestors are remembered and treated as "Fathers"for a period of time equivalent to about two generations before losing their individual identity and fading into the group of "Forebears"(Little: 219). This, of course, will vary according to an individual's prestige gained in life, but for the most part the state of affairs is as it was described by one student of the Mende: the influence of an ancestor varies inversely with the time elapsed since his death (Sawyerr: 26). The relation of ancestors to the living is also expressed in spatial terms, for the "Fathers"are thought to be located directly within the village and the territory of his kin-that is to say, in the realm of society and civilization, the known and the comforting. In contrast, the "Forebears"are located on the border between village and bush, the thin strip which divides order from chaos, and the more frightening non-ancestral spirits are located entirely in the forest /8/. The "Fathers"are intimately involved with the most important aspects of human life. They protect the land, aid in the growth of the crops, and also punish breaches of etiquette, particularly those which injure the solidarity of the kinship group. They are regarded as the most senior members of the lineage, and as such they can expect to receive the respect and affection normally extended to all older living members of the clan (cf. Little: 219; Sawyerr: 27; Hofstra: 189, 192). Offerings are not made to them on any regularschedule, but do take place with relative frequency (Hofstra: 194). For the most important festivals, the eldest living member of the lineage-who holds a special status as henmi,"prayingman"-will go to the spot where the spirits are located on the night before the ceremony. There, he calls them by name and invites them to come take part in the ritual. On the following day, the spirits are thought to arrive in the village, where they are joined by all the living members of the family, and together they share a meal (Sawyerr: 31; Hofstra: 188). In this way the solidarity of the lineage is affirmed, a solidarity which is in no way broken by the event of death. The dead and the living continue to be in contact, as the living offer food, respect and remembrance, while the dead provide protection and support when pleased. On the whole, this pattern is found in the religious life of many African tribes, and has been ably discussed by a number of scholars /9/. Less attention has been paid to the importance of ancestors in Oceanic religions, although certain groups in that area preserve beliefs very similar to those of the Mende / 10/. For example, the Ngaing, a tribe located on the Rai Coast of Northeastern New Guinea, show many resemblances. While the Ngaing do not distinguish between near and distant ancestors semantically,

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cult is directed exclusively to the former, and the names of the deceased are usually forgotten after three generations (Lawrence: 206f.). The recent ancestors, however, must be honored, and when satisfied they serve the living in many ways: warding off illness, bringing messages about the future, and ensuring success in warfare, hunting and agriculture (Lawrence: 210). At two major festivals each year attention is focused upon the ancestors. At these times, men within a given kinship group will go to the sacred pools of their clan, where the ancestral spirits are to be found. There, they perform rites to invite the ancestors to their settlement, invoking them and asking them to follow them home. The spirits are then led to the cult house within the settlement, and as they enter their personal call-signs-signs which they bore in life and which have been preserved in memory-are beaten on the slit-gong to announce their presence. Once in the cult house, they are fed and entertained with music, then led back to the pools where they normally reside (Lawrence: 210-12). Like those of the Mende, the ancestral rituals of the Ngaing affirm the solidarity of the kinship group, a solidarity that transcends the barrierof death, and they also serve to reestablish a relation of reciprocity between living and dead. It is particularlyworthy of note that in both these instances the names of the departed form an important part of the ritual, for these are the means whereby the ancestors are contacted, invited, announced, and shown honor. Moreover, they are the positive sign that the memory of the dead has been preserved by the living. The memory and its token, the name, become the means whereby communication between living and dead is possible, for once an ancestor ceases to be remembered and invoked he becomes inactive, unconcerned with the affairs of the living / 11/. The invocation is thus a form of anamnesis-a conquest of forgetfulness, and thus of time /12/. All of this may seem quite exaggerated in light of the fact that the Mende preserve memory of their ancestors for only two generations and the Ngaing for three, but such is not the case. The ancestors themselves continue to remembertheir ancestors, and if the living will only do their part an unbroken line is thus preserved"to the very end of primal time" / 13/. A memory of only two or three generations is sufficient to bridge the most critical gap in the nature of being: death. If men are able to do this, they then put themselves in touch with all of the ancestors in an extended chain, stretching back to the time of beginnings when the power of the sacred was most fresh / 14/. Finally, the invocation of the ancestors also extends assurance to the living that death does not pose an end to his existence. After death he will be remembered by the living, and he will join the ancestors who have preceded him. This knowledge assures him that he partakes of something broader than finite, historic life, for he will continue to exist and he will be remembered. In large measure we moderns have lost the habit of invoking our ancestors, and have forgotten much of the ideology that attends this practice. Yet in certain corners of our society the practice is preserved, albeit in a somewhat unconscious fashion. I would like to suggest that it is thus with the lowly footnote.

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In order to recognize this, we must first observe that footnoting is an art that is governed by an elaborate set of rules which is rigid, formal, and traditional in the extreme. Of all the aspects of scholarly writing, none is more elaborate in its etiquette, and it is interesting to note that by far the longest and most detailed sections of the twelfth edition of the Manual of Style (Chicago, 1969) are devoted to "Names and Terms" and "Notes and Footnotes." Now, given this large set of rules, footnoting is not something which just anyone in the cultureat largewill intuitively know how to do, and accordingly the secrets of the practice-the details of form, style, etiquette and sensitivity to proper occasion-are transmitted within the course of higher education. In fact, the higher the educational level one attains, the greater are the demands for footnoting and for proper footnoting procedures. Perhaps it is not stretching the point to speak of this as stages of knowledge appropriate to different levels of initiation. Similarly, one may speak of the whole scholarly fraternity as something of a secret society given, among other things, to preservation and use of proper ritual formulae in footnotes. These morphological similarities, however interesting they may be, are superficial, of course, and there are stronger reasons for seeing the footnote as a ritual act. Most important, I think, is the fact that the footnote is in effect a way of demonstrating anamnesis, the conquest of forgetfulness, for in the footnote we preserve the memory of our forebears and pay honor to their achievements. When we footnote, we do not simply "reviewthe literature,"or demonstrate that we have read a certain work, although these pragmatic functions are also fulfilled. But we also place ourself in a lineage of past scholars, and we make public statement that our ancestors are not forgotten. In most cases, of course, our memories are all too short, and no more than a few scholars continue to be cited for more than a generation or two. Yet the fact that they continue to be noted, to be honored after death for any time at all does hold forth a form of salvation and immortality to many. Ultimately, the citers themselves are cited, and researchin some sense consists of working back through the footnotes, probing back to ever more distant generations of scholars. A chain is thus built up that links the living and the dead in a theoretically infinite series, much as the Mende, Ngaing and others are linked to their ancestors through their invocations. As I stated at the outset, these are simply a few examples and many more could be added. But I hope that these two analyses have been sufficient to make a broader point. Ritual is not always where you expect to find it, yet in any culture it is there to be found, and perhaps our much-heralded "secular society" is not so secular as some would have us believe. In the last analysis, I am inclined to agree that ritual is necessary, but my reasons are empirical rather than theoretical. In every culture I have studied, ritual plays an important part, and it appears that modern society is no exception to this rule. Of course, members of any given culture may deny vehemently that ritual is present, but we are not bound to accept their opinion, even if they be theologians, sociologists or other such experts. In fact, a cross-cultural study of attitudes toward ritual would probably show wide variation in how people

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regard the rituals within their own culture, and in this respect the modern world might prove different from other societies. But without stronger evidence to the contrary, I'm inclined to take the existence of ritual as a cultural universal.

NOTES

/1/ See, for instance, 1959:201-13, "Sacred and Profane in the Modern World"; 1960:23-38, 'The Myths of the Modern World"; 1969:112-26, "Initiation and the Modern World." /2/ See, for instance, the following sections in Shaughnessy: Brian Wicker (16-23), "Ritual and Culture: Some Dimensions of the Problem Today"; Margaret Mead (96101), "Ritual and Social Crisis"; Aidan Kavanagh (145-47), "The Role of Ritual in Personal Development"; Edward Fischer (162-65), "Ritual as Communication"; and Robert N. Bellah (217-34), "Liturgy and Experience." See Evans-Pritchard, chap. IX. (Also published as "Nuer Spear Symbolism," /3/ in Anthropological Quarterly, 26 [1953], 1-19.) /4/ Evans-Pritchard,chap. X. (Also published as "The Sacrificial Role of Cattle among the Nuer," Africa, 23 [1953], 181-98.) /5/ See, for instance, the Abhiseka described in chap. 41 of the Laksmi Tantra, (Gupta: 269-77). There, the initiand is led into a mandala specially constructed for the occasion, at the center of which is set a pitcher of water representingthe deity. Thus he is led into a new, sacralizedspace. Here, a three-strandedthread is arrangedwith knots, and is set as a representation of the novice (a pun figures here, as Sanskrit guna can mean either "personal qualities" or "thread").The guru then visualizes the novice as consisting only of one element, and he then effects the dissolution of that element by touching him with his hands-hands that have earlierbeen homologized to those of the deity. This is done for each of the five elements in turn, and as it is done, knots on the three threads are torn off, mixed in butter, and poured into the fire. By this action, all the elements and qualities which bind the novice to the material world (prakrti) are completely destroyed, and only the pristine self (purusa) remains. For a discussion of similar rites, see Hoens. Cf. Hoens: 76f.; Gupta: 275; Avalon: 42, 258; Evans-Wentz: 222-24; Gonda, /6/ 1970:65. For various views on the nature and importance of the mantras, see Gonda, 1964; Woodroffe; Pratyagatmananda. Cf. Eliade, 1969:72-87, "Cosmogonic Myth and 'Sacred History"'; van der /7/ Leeuw; Pettazzoni.

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/8/ Jedrej:41-43. Actually, his analysis is even more complex and subtle than this, and draws on a number of other categories. /9/ Cf. especially Ankermann; Driberg; Fortes; Kopytoff; and Thomas: 109-21.

The most complete study to date, although relatively unimaginative, has been /10/ done by Aufenanger. Most scholarship has been focused on the mythology surrounding the land of the dead, as in Korner and Moss. Cf. Lawrence: 207. Lawrence's informants thus admitted the possibility that / 11/ distant ancestors could interfere in human affairs if they wanted to, but this was deemed so improbable as not to be worth serious consideration. /12/ On anamnesis as a crucial category for the study of religions, see Eliade, 1963.

Cf. Jensen, 1963:287-92. But note that Jensen is so struck by the importance of /13/ the Dema, the primordial ancestors, that the main point of his discussion is to prove that other forms of ancestor cult (i.e., those directed to recent ancestors) are only a secondary phenomenon. Cf. Sawyerr: 27; Little: 217f. Note that among the Mende, the distant /14/ ancestors after they have been forgotten go to reside with the/aewO, the High God. They have now become closer to the creator and his primordial age, but they, like he, are otiose as regards the current affairs of men.

WORKS CONSULTED

Ankermann, Bernard "Totenkultund Seelenglaube bei afrikanischen Volker," Zeitschriftfur 1918 Ethnologie, 50, 89-153. Aufenanger, Heinrich Die Stellung der Ahnen im Glauben und Brach der Eingeborenen des 1955 Territoriumsvon Neu-Guinea. Unpublished dissertation, Universitat Wien. Avalon, Arthur Tantra of the Great Liberation. New York: Dover. 1972 Benedict, Ruth Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1934 Bettelheim, Bruno 1954 Symbolic Wounds. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press. Beyer, Stephan The Cult of Tara. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1973

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Driberg, J. H. "The Secular Aspect of Ancestor Worship in Africa," Journal of the 1936 Royal African Society, 35, Supplement, 1-21. Eliade, Mircea Rites and Svmbols of Initiation. New York: Harper and Row. 1958 1959 1960 1963 1969 The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Myths, Dreams and Mysteries. New York: Harper and Row. "Mythologies of Memory and Forgetting," History of Religions, 2, 329-44. The Quest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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van Gennep, Arnold The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1960 Wach, Joachim 1924 Religionswissenschaft. Prolegomena zu ihrer Grundlegung.Leipzig:J. C. Hinrichs. Widengren, Geo "Le symbolisme de la ceinture," Iranica Antiqua, 8, 133-55. 1968 Woodroffe, (Sir) John The Garlandof Letters:Studies in the Mantra Sgstra. Madras:Ganesh 1955 and Co.