Ancestor worship or ancestor veneration is among the world’s oldest religious practices. Ancestor worship is based on the belief that the deceased continue to have an active interest in the daily affairs of the living and that they may be able to influence what happens to the living. On a regular basis, deceased ancestors are honored with ceremonies so that they will continue to help the living. Briefly described below are just some of the many different forms of ancestor worship in Oceania (this island cultures of the Pacific).
Among the Kwaio in the Solomon Islands, religious activities and daily life are closely intertwined with the ancestors, most importantly with the spirits of the deceased members of their own clan. In his book Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer writes:
“People frequently pray to the dead or give them sacrifices of pigs or simply talk to them. Also, people ‘meet’ the ancestors in dreams.”
Whatever happens in the village—good taro crops, illness, prolific sows, misfortune—is seen as a manifestation of the ancestors’ feelings about the people. Pascal Boyer writes:
“On the whole, there are few situations in Kwaio life that are not construed as involving the ancestors in some way or other.”
Pascal Boyer also writes:
“The Kwaio ancestors are a perfect example of supernatural agents who matter to people.”
Ancestor worship is also found among the people of Ulithi, a Micronesian island. In his ethnography Ulithi: A Mirconesian Design for Living, William Lessa reports:
“At the basis of the system of ancestor worship is a recognition that some spirit beings have an originally human origin rather than the impersonal one of the spirits of nature.”
William Lessa also writes:
“In ancestor worship, the medium plays an important role, for it is through him that the ancestors provide the kind of information sought by the living in the conduct of their lives. The medium is the means by which advice, warnings, and facts are transmitted. While in the state of possession he trembles a good deal and on occasion may go into an epileptic-like fit.”
After the ghost leaves, the medium has no memory of the event.
Evidence of ancestor worship on the island of Rrurutu, one of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia, can be seen in the carved wooden figure known as A’a which is bedecked with little gods carved on the outside of his body. There is a door on his back with a chamber—the deep cavity extends the full length of the body and into the head. The figure is 117 cm tall and has 30 small human figures distributed over its surface. Julie Adams, in her report in British Archaeology writes:
“A’a is said to be the ancestor by whom the island was first peopled, and who after death was deified.”
The wooden figure was probably the reliquary for the skull and longbones of a deceased ancestor. The figure was dated by radiocarbon to 1505-1645 CE.
With regard to ancestor veneration on the Micronesian island of Palau, H.G. Barnett, in his ethnography Being a Palauan, writes:
“The spirits of one’s own dead ancestors could also be harmful, but they could be supplicated and their anger abated. They would yield to pleas and sacrifices by their living descendants, even though it was believed that they were fickle, jealous, and vindictive at times.”
The head of the clan, usually the oldest member of the group, was the person who made all formal contacts with the ancestral spirits. H.G. Barnett reports:
“Spirits were also summoned if the family members wished to converse with them; it was sometimes desirable to get an expression of their wishes with regard to the disposal of some property, or to find out why they had manifested themselves in some way. At other times the head of the household, acting in his capacity as clan head, wanted to get the advice and support of his ancestors in some action that he was contemplating in the family interest.”
Many of the aboriginal peoples in New Guinea (present-day Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya) had ancestor cults which were believed to be essential for success in hunting, gardening, raising pigs, and warfare. Human remains, particularly human skulls and bones, were kept inside special houses. Among the Mountain-Ok groups of central New Guinea, the skulls of women renowned for pig husbandry are also preserved as ancestral relics and provide an example of the veneration of female ancestors.
Religion 101
Religion 101 is a series exploring various topics relating to religion in which the concept of religion is not restricted to traditional Western concepts. More from this series:
Religion 101: The Meaning of Ghosts
Religion 101: Ancestor Worship in Ancient Europe and the Arctic
Religion 101: Ceremonial Human Sacrifice
Religion 201: Reincarnation
Religion 101: God-Given Morality
Religion 101: Theism, Pantheism, Panentheism
Religion 101: Demons
Religion 101: Shamanistic Ceremonies